Stories From the Road

By Franz Jörg Richter

I'm 62 years old, from Würzburg, Germany. The Covid pandemic and now the war in Ukraine have highlighted a singular fact: Life is short. And it can be even shorter for kids with rare diseases, who often endure years of agonizing medical tests and doctor visits just to figure out what disease they have.

These kids are just like every other boy or girl in their neighborhood or in their classroom. They laugh. They like playing with toys and video games. The difference is that they have a health challenge that doctors have incredible difficulty diagnosing and treating. Unfortunately, those health issues can affect their quality of life and can even be terminal. It’s unacceptable.

By Dave Turnbull

Having recently been surgically relieved of my bladder after a year's failed chemotherapy, I knew the best way to recover my sense of wellbeing was to take to the road on my trusty 24year old TREK 520.

As an Australian interested in history, I decided to fly to Geneva and cycle to Roma via the excellent bike paths through Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, taking in some Alpine passes like the Stelvio and Trei Croci near Cortina DÁmpezzo. I'd have to stay in hotels as my amputation requires an overnight drainage bag which will only operate properly with a raised bed. This was not such a bad thing considering I'd just turned 62, and everyone in Canberra thought I was a bit folle, as the French might say.

What do you do when you are a 71-year-old retired grandmother concerned about climate change, and you want to make a difference? You hop on your pink bike and ride 2500 km from your hometown to the COP26 Summit in Scotland!

Meet Dorothee Hildebrandt. She is so passionate about stopping climate change that she spent six weeks cycling alone from her home in Katrineholm, Sweeden, to the COP26 Summit (UN Climate Change Conference) in Glasgow, Scotland. Her trip started on September 1st, 2021, and culminated when she pedaled into Glasgow for the start of the summit in November.

Storytelling, adventure, love of cycling, human to human connection . . . that’s what bike touring is all about. And that’s precisely what you’ll see in the “world’s best bike movies” presented at the Filmed by Bike Annual Film Festival.

Filmed by Bike is celebrating 20 incredible years of bringing bicycle stories from all over the world to the silver screen. Festival Creator and Director Ayleen Crotty shares how Filmed by Bike started with a group of people who understood the desire to ride bikes simply for fun. What began as a small fundraiser 20 years ago has grown into a movement.