Mind Over Mountains (Film)

Words, photos, and film by Huw Oliver (@topofests)

Mind Over Mountains is a short film about the mindset behind riding far and fast. Challenging the idea that speed and suffering go hand in hand, it follows Annie Lloyd Evans, me, our and friends as we ride Scotland’s stunning Cairngorms Loop ITT on a perfect August day. Moving fast, light and in the moment, we hope to show that love for a landscape and joy for the simplicity of movement are what fuel unforgettable rides.

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The Cairngorms Loop is a 300-kilometer Independent Time Trial route in Scotland circumnavigating the mountain range that gives the trail its name. It circles the Cairngorms twice, following long and lonely glens on heather-fringed singletrack, traversing beneath sub-arctic plateaus and their fickle weather, and crossing wild watersheds by trails that are far older than the bicycles that ride them now.

Only rarely has the trail been ridden in a single push, but in August three new course records were set in a single day, as Annie rode home in 26 hours and 57 minutes as the fastest woman to have completed the route, Liam Glen lowered the singlespeed record to 18 hours and 55 minutes, and Ewan Thorburn and I pushed each other to finish in 17 hours and 53 minutes – the route’s fastest completions to date.

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In those hazy areas between night and day, elation and fatigue, possibilities and unknowns, is where we find the state of flow that takes us outside of what we know and towards what we could be. This is a film about using mountains to overcome the hurdles we put up in our own minds.

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