We’ve got videos from many different mountain bike disciplines for you here. Watch them all, or pick the ones that match your interests. Then get out and ride!
Who Stops You – Loic Bruni
Loic Bruni may have had a dream result, but it wasn’t a plain sailing season. Injury and Covid knocked his fitness and confidence – hear him explain how he nearly gave up on this season. He’s glad he didn’t!
Starling Cycles Presents: Fleur TK
Unless we’ve totally misunderstood this video, Fleur is quite new to riding. Erm…maybe the rest of us need to try a bit harder? Flip. Also: contains fruity language. Might not be one to watch with your kids.
Starling rider Fleur is a true one of a kind. By day, Fleur is an ambulance driver and student paramedic. If you’ve not seen her racing round Bristol with the blues-and-twos wailing, she might well have patched you up at Dyfi Bike Park. Before training to save lives, she spent over a decade risking her own, racing yachts around the world and getting into more than a few sticky situations on the high seas. And, of course, she absolute shreds on that pink Swoop of hers. Loose as a goose, not afraid to hit the big jumps and totally in love with scaring the shit out of herself on the high-speed and technical stuff. Perfect for the Starling Cycles crew! We spent the day with Fleur, on the river and on the trails, to get to know her a bit better.
INBOUND – Brendan Howey x Rupert Walker
Seriously rapid riding in this video of two parts. We’re going to go out on a film critic limb here and say that the first section, where the wild riding is set against the fairly understated soundtrack, is the superior half. Do you agree?
INBOUND showcases Brendan Howey’s impeccable riding style and Rupert Walker’s intricate cuts and attention to detail.
“I’m always excited to work with Brendan Howey. Besides him being a great friend, I think he’s got some of the best bike control and natural style of any rider. This project is called ‘Inbound’, for no real reason besides it feels like he’s actively moving to an end destination. The inspiration for this is more involved with the music. The first song, by Nina Simone, is a timeless classic with a piano melody that is instantly recognizable, the video transitions into the second song by Talib Kweli, which samples the original piano melody from the first song used in the video. It’s rare to get the opportunity to use music like this and I appreciate that COMMENCAL gave us the freedom to creatively go our own direction.”
– Rupert Walker
“Filming with Rupert, my only role is to trust his vision and ride. He has a plan for each sequence and it’s motivating to hike for each shot. I’m very excited on how this project turned out and excited for everyone to see it.”
– Brendan Howey
The BC Bike Race – 2021 Edition
Fancy a challenge next year? Maybe this is your sort of bucket list event. XC/Marathon Stage racing in BC.
Scotty’s Scotland Showcase
Warning: this series is going to have you wanting to head to Scotland and ride all the trails. The midges are probably gone by now, aren’t they?
Perthshire is episode 1 of Scotty’s Scotland Showcase, it’s my go to riding destination within Scotland as it’s centrally located. I think it has the best hand built MTB trails in Scotland. In this episode I visit Dunkeld, Comrie Croft and Aberfeldy to ride my favourite trails – there really is something on offer for everyone, from hand cut natural to year round riding on purpose built trails. My sustainability focus is on supporting locally owned independent businesses, the 3 locations we’re riding in have many. We visit Comrie Croft who grow their own produce on site and in Aberfeldy is the home of Glen Lyon, one of my favourite coffee roasters. It’s important that we as MTB’ers support these businesses and are seen as valued customers. This will help and allow us to continue to develop and grow the emerging trail network in these locations. This entire series is being created carbon neutral. All the emissions will be offset and the advertising revenue generated from you watching this series will be split across planting more trees in Scotland and the local trail associations. All these rides are recorded on komoot so you can go and do them for yourself. Collection link: https://www.komoot.com/collection/136…
