Alex lives for his bike. This film follows him and a friend on their attempt to reach 3,000 metres altitude on gravel bikes — every climb, every doubt, every metre of it real.
This wasn't a one-person shoot. Alex — an amateur gravel cyclist with a genuine obsession for climbing — led the ride himself, on his own bike, over terrain he scouted and chose himself, joined by a riding partner who made the full climb to 3,000 metres alongside him every step of the way. The steeper, more technical downhill sections were handled separately by a dedicated stunt rider, since that stretch called for a specific skillset rather than pushing Alex or his partner into unnecessary risk. Capturing all of it took 5 full shoot days spread across multiple locations, backed by a full production built around them: a dedicated FPV drone pilot flying alongside on the climbs for the immersive POV shots that carry much of the film's energy, a full studio day in a warehouse space with multiple bikes staged under controlled lighting for the more polished product-style shots, and a proper sit-down interview segment shot on a full camera and lighting rig to give the piece its narrative backbone. All in, the production budget came to €27,362.
Frame grabs from the film — add yours here.
What it looked like off-camera.
Coordinating this many locations — and this many people in front of the camera, from Alex and his riding partner to the stunt rider handling the downhill sections — was its own logistical puzzle, with scheduling that had to work around everyone's availability at once. Scouting alone took real time: hunting for stretches of road and forest that actually matched the story visually, then figuring out how to actually get camera gear, an FPV rig, and a crew safely to some fairly remote stretches of it. Shooting in late autumn didn't make any of that easier. Daylight was short and kept shifting earlier through the shoot, temperatures dropped further than expected on the higher sections of the climb, and the weather itself changed from one location to the next — meaning what worked for one setup sometimes had to be completely rethought an hour later at the next. It kept the whole production on its toes right up to the last shoot day.
Short-form pieces from the same shoot.
He was more than surprised by how well the film captured his story.
Managing Director, Fahrrad XXL
