Director: R.J. Daniel Hanna
Four teenagers serving time at a youth correctional facility get an unlikely shot at redemption: a thousand-mile bicycle ride led by a caseworker who refuses to give up on them.
What is Hard Miles about?
Hard Miles follows social worker Greg Townsend as he pushes past skepticism from colleagues and the inmates themselves to build a cycling program inside a juvenile detention center. When funding and patience run thin, he doubles down, taking four young riders on a grueling cross-country trip from Colorado to California. Along the road, old rivalries resurface, injuries test resolve, and each rider is forced to confront the choices that landed him behind bars in the first place. The film draws on the real Ridgeview Academy Cycling Team, turning an unconventional rehabilitation experiment into a road movie about endurance, trust, and second chances.
Cast & crew
Matthew Modine anchors the film as Townsend, playing him with the weary persistence of someone who has watched the program nearly collapse before. Sean Astin and Cynthia Kaye McWilliams round out the adult cast, while Jahking Guillory, Jackson Kelly, Damien Diaz, and Zachary T. Robbins play the four teenagers whose clashing personalities gradually align over the course of the ride. Leslie David Baker appears in a supporting role.
Context & significance
Hard Miles is based on the true story of Greg Townsend, a social worker whose cycling program at Colorado's Ridgeview Academy became a documented model for juvenile rehabilitation. Director R.J. Daniel Hanna keeps the focus on the physical grind of the ride rather than courtroom or institutional drama, letting the mileage itself become the film's structure. It arrived in 2024 as part of a wider run of sports-adjacent dramas built around real-world youth programs.
Where & how to watch
Hard Miles is available to watch on K-Time with a free account login, dubbed and subtitled in Persian for viewers who prefer either format. The site's Farsi interface makes it easy for Persian-speaking households to browse and queue titles like this one alongside the rest of the catalog.