As the laid back French lady tells us over the opening credits of this debut MTB film from production company genepiFILM, “If you want to make a good bike movie, you need to start with a super nice time lapse. Then you need to talk about pollution, global warming, and all the blah blah.” Sounds like they’ve got the general format about right, but what’s the alternative like?

Well, if this is the alternative, it’s a bit like a fashion promo film but with trails instead of catwalks. Mathieu Echeverri and Laurent Solliet directed A Bike Movie in the early days of genepiFILMS and distributed it as a free download, apparently with the intention of showcasing their film-making abilities, so the emphasis is very much style over content. Not that there isn’t plenty of impressive riding going on, it’s just a little bit difficult to focus on it very much with all the intriguing camera angles and clever diversions (aerobics anyone?).

Riders Laurent Solliet, Benjamin Fouquet, Jerome Giordano William Luneau among many others put in some formidable performances, and you get a real sense of the incredible range of terrains to be found in the south of France. The film includes sections shot in the Alpes-Maritimes and Hautes-Alpes, so there’s plenty of wooded and mountainous terrain, plus a BMX sequence thrown in for god measure.

All in all, this may not be the usual mountain bike movie fare, but it’s well worth a watch, especially if you’re considering a trip to the south of France and want to know what you can expect. If this film is anything to go by, you’ll have a blast.