Just a little over one year ago, Adventure Cycling Association teamed up with Blanche van der Meer and her WorldCycle Videos group on Vimeo and launched their first-ever Bicycle Travel Video Contest. The premise of the competition was simple: “to celebrate the booming trend in bike touring and travel documentaries.” The result, thanks to some fantastic volunteer judges, is several fantastic videos that capture the essence of cycling.

The above video won for the category of Best Overnight Bike Video. Here’s why, according to Adventure Cycling Association:

“Inspired by the work of one of our judges, Alastair Humphries, Sam ventures by bike into the Catskill Mountains for the first time, and on a cold winter weekend to boot. This video nicely illustrates that even the shortest of bike tours can be long on adventure.”

Stay tuned for the third of these winning films, which we’ll publish next week!

Active Lifestyle, Adventure, Pedaling Change, Video adventure, Bicycle Travel Video Contest, bike, bike tour, Catskill Mountains, cycle

A race, in its most basic form, breeds heroes. These heroes usually take the form of the champions, the athletes that rise above to conquer his or her field, besting all contenders.

The demanding format of the BC Bike Race allows for new heroes to emerge. These are the folks that may not be the fastest of the day (heck, some of the heroes end up being some of the slowest riders out there). But these unsung heroes are the ones grinding and toiling out on the course, leaving behind their day jobs and lives back home to focus on one thing and one thing only: getting across that finish line each day of the race.

There are people like Dave, who spent the whole first night in Cumberland overcome with a vicious flu. The night was passed curled up in a dirty bathroom, alternating between bouts of vomiting and fitful sleep. He crawled to the start line in the morning, and fought through the day. The next day his flu subsided and he kept going strong on course.

Speaking of overcoming challenges, there was the couple from Austin that was looking forward to a week of racing without their kids in tow. Their nanny fell through at the last minute, and undeterred they changed their race entry to tag-team, brought their kids, alternated days of racing and had a great BC Bike Race family vacation. Not Disneyland, but the kids didn’t seem to mind.

Read more…

Adventure, Osprey Athletes adventure, bcbr, bike race, british columbia, Canada, coast, joe schwartz, mountain bike, mtb, singletrack, stage race, trail, vancouver

Since it’s National Bike Month, we’re celebrating all month long with our Where’s Your Adventure? Photo Contest. Boating with a bike is pretty adventurous if you ask us, so congrats to this week’s winner, Dean McCollom, who submitted this shot from a trip on the Blackfoot River in Montana. He not only scores a yearlong membership to Adventure Cycling Association, but also a brand spaning new Raptor 6 hydration pack!

Want to enter the contest too? Give us your most adventurous cycling photo; it can be from a gnarly section of single track or bombing down an urban hill on your single speed. Just upload your photo to our Flickr pooland tag it with “adventurecycling.” Every week during the month of May we’ll be picking our favorite to win an ACA membership and a Raptor 6. At the end of the month we’ll leave picking the winner up to you, getting our fans to vote and choose our People’s Choice Winner.

Note: Osprey will retain the right to images for future use in blog posts. And please note that we can ship to U.S. addresses only.

Adventure, Contest adventure, Montana, Where's Your Adventure

What constitutes a great day?

Is it the people you spend it with, or the activities that conspire on that “ultimate day?” Or is perfection attained through carefully laid plans or fortuitous timing and good ol’ luck? The best day ever is the holy grail that we all search for; that little thing that gets you out of bed, wondering if the sun is rising on your best day ever.

But I don’t claim best days. There are too many things I enjoy in life to fit them all into one day. I would rather spread them out over a series of days, weeks, years. Best life ever, maybe.

Read more…

Adventure, Osprey Athletes adventure, bc, freeriding, joe schwartz, jumping, mountain bike, mountain biking

It’s the month to celebrate cycling! May is National Bike Month and to get you excited about getting out and riding, we’re partnering up with one of our favorite causes, the Adventure Cycling Association.

Where’s Your Adventure? That’s what we want to know.

Give us your most adventurous cycling photo; it can be from a gnarly section of single track or bombing down an urban hill on your single speed. Just upload your photo to our Flickr pool and tag it with “adventurecycling.” Every week during the month of May we’ll be picking our favorite to win an ACA membership and a Raptor 6. At the end of the month we’ll leave picking the winner up to you, getting our fans to vote and choose our People’s Choice Winner.

Note: Osprey will retain the right to images for future use in blog posts. And please note that we can ship to U.S. addresses only.

Image: notfrancois

Adventure, Advocacy adventure, Adventure Cycling Association, contest, photo contest, Raptor