2013 Bicycle Travel Video Contest

September 7, 2012

I've been corresponding with Blanche van der Meer for the past 6 months on launching an online video contest to celebrate the booming trend in bike touring and travel documentaries. Blanche moderates the very successful WorldCycle Videos group on Vimeo, which has attracted more than 1,600 submissions! She has seen first-hand the growing enthusiasm for bicycle-travel videos.

In collaboration with WorldCycle Videos, Adventure Cycling's first Bicycle Travel Video Contest will accept submissions through February 28, 2013. Now is the time to check out the submission categories and begin production, whether you plan an autumn bike overnight video shoot, tackle your footage from a past adventure, or set up an interview with a bicycle traveler who inspires you to document their passion and story in a portrait piece.

Video submissions will be accepted in the following categories:

• Best Long Distance Tour Video: Submit your best narrative or experimental video about a long-distance bike tour. Submissions must not exceed 7 minutes in length.
• Best Bike Overnight Video: Submit your best narrative or experimental video about a 1-2 night bike tour. Submissions must capture the experience of a 1-2 night tour, not 1-2 nights of a longer tour, and must not exceed 3 minutes in length.
• Best Portrait of a Traveling Cyclist: Submit your best narrative or experimental video portrait of a touring cyclist. Self-portraits are acceptable. Submissions must not exceed 5 minutes.

All videos will be considered for the Bike Travel Spirit Award, which will be awarded by the judges to the video that best captures the spirit of bike travel and touring.

All videos will also be eligible for the People's Choice Award, which will be awarded to the video with the most "likes" on Vimeo.

Over the next few months, we will share guest posts from our star-studded line up of judges with tips on telling bike-touring tales through video, along with some of their favorite pieces. These volunteer judges are all avid cycle-tourists and/or videographers and look forward to your submissions, they include:

• Blanche van der Meer, moderator of WorldCycle Videos on Vimeo and co-coordinator of the contest. You can submit videos to the WorldCycle Videos group on Vimeo anytime by the way. It's an amazing group featuring more than 1,500 touring videos shot at locations around the world. Check it out, you will definitely get inspired!
• Alastair Humphreys, one of National Geographic's Adventurers of the Year for 2012
• Friedel Grant of TravellingTwo.com
• Ryan McAffee and Michelle Cassell of America ByCycle
• Mac McCoy, editor of Adventure Cycling's BikeOvernights.org site and route researcher of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route
• Russ Roca and Laura Crawford of PathLessPedaled.com
• Tom Allen

We can't wait to see the amazing places, experiences, and people that you've captured by video!

To get the full details on the contest, visit adventurecycling.org/videocontest.

Photo courtesy of Blanche van der Meer and WorldCycle Videos

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