Best Video | Singletrack Reader Awards 2020

A new category for this year, it’s Best Video. Did it make you laugh, teach you something, wow your eyes, or touch your soul? To qualify, it must have been published on YouTube during 2020, be free to view, and it needed to be about bikes. Here are your finalists, all of which show that some serious effort is being put into catching and keeping our attention.

Commencal and Shimano with Kilian Bron – Our Tour de France

With imagery that’s as much an advert for France as it is for any bike or components, this video wowed us with endless beautiful sequences of the French countryside and even a few urban settings too. The drone footage was pretty incredible too – fast flying and smooth swooping, chasing after the rider through the landscapes. All of which almost served to distract us from the riding itself, but that too is fast and smooth, with a few technical tricks thrown in.

Unlike the other finalists in our list, there’s no real story here – just a visual feast, with a few ’spot the logo’ moments to make you hit replay. If only there was a location guide too, so we could hit the ‘book my flight button’ too. If what you’re looking for is a video to make you want to travel with your bike, then this is surely it.

Santa Cruz – Get Creative With Your Surroundings

How do you launch a bike when many of your customers are only able to leave their homes for a short period each day and even then they’re playing it safe and trying not to get injured? Waving a shredit under their noses might not go down too well. For its latest 5010 model Santa Cruz came up with an ingenious answer – channelling the playful attitude of a Danny Macaskill video, but with a finger powered mini bike.

At a time when many of us barely ventured out of our back gardens, the ‘Get Creative With Your Surroundings’ showed all the things we missed about riding in a mini playground in a back garden. Dirt jumps, trail signs, wooden features and even a couple of crashes – it was the injection of fun we were looking for. Somehow, despite being just a model of a bike and some fancy finger work (we say just – it’s probably pretty tricky to do) the video managed to make us imagine ourselves out there on the trails.

Specialized – Stumpjumper EVO

Another take on the bike launch video, this combined whacky story telling with traditional shredit style riding. It even has a script – one which is both a little self mocking and funny, while still telling you about the bike’s features. Special effects transport us to a future time, when this new Stumpjumper EVO is a retrobike and today’s riders are old and grey. It’s almost as much a mini-movie as a bike launch video, and its release prompted as many comments as the new bike itself.

It’s entertaining, informative, story-driven and makes us all want to go and find a corner we can ride sideways. Will it get your vote?

How to vote & enter our Muc Off prize draw

Once you have considered the finalists just click the circle next to your preferred winner below and then hit the submit button. Once your vote has been counted you will be redirected to our 2020 Awards page with the other categories so you can vote again in another category.

You can only vote once in each category and once your vote is submitted you cannot change your mind.

Each successful vote will earn you one ticket in our Muc-Off prize draw. Vote in each of the twelve categories and you will maximise your chances of winning. The winners will be chosen at random from the pool of voters on the 30th November 2020 and all winners will be contacted directly via their registered accounts shortly after that date.

Although the draw is open to anyone with a registered account, unfortunately we cannot deliver prizes to addresses outside of the United Kingdom. Overseas winners will need to specify a UK delivery address for any prizes if they win.

[stw_votes id=”11″ redirect_to=”/tag/STRAW2020/” opens=”27/10/20″ closes=”25/11/20″]

---