Our Storytelling Agency’s Top Cycling Productions
VeloNews’ authoritative ‘Ultimate Ride Guide’
Cycling, like adventure and human connection, is in our agency’s DNA. In fact, WhereNext began on a bike. But this wasn’t your average ride. Our visual storytelling agency was born in a barn during a lightning storm in Tierra del Fuego as founder Gregg Bleakney neared the end of a two-year, 18,000-mile cycling odyssey. While waiting out the storm, Gregg captured a vision on the back of a napkin. That lodestar sketch launched Gregg’s journey as a cycling content creator, which soon led to the establishment of our hybrid creative agency, production studio, and marketing/PR firm.
Early assignments, such as writing VeloNews’ authoritative, ‘Ultimate Ride Guide,’ led to professional and creative friendships with some of the world’s top cycling manufacturers, publications, and athletes. One two-wheeled escapade after another paved the way to our visual storytelling agency’s deep and enduring cycling love affair.
Read on to learn more about WhereNext’s top cycling productions, from the wild Andes of Colombia and Patagonia to idyllic mountain villages in Tuscany and the Pyrenees.
Esteban Chaves: Behind the Smile
WhereNext produced this documentary in collaboration with SCOTT Sports. The film tells the redemption story of Colombian cyclist, Esteban Chaves, one of the top young Grand Tour riders in the world. Esteban came into this shoot vulnerable and uncertain: having suffered a series of significant injuries and illnesses, he was questioning his cycling future.
“Behind the Smile” follows Esteban and his family on a joyous and emotional journey through his homeland, as he heals and recaptures his love for the sport that made him a star.
Documentary: Thereabouts 3
When WhereNext founder Gregg Bleakney teamed up with the superstar cyclists Gus and Lachlan Morton to direct, produce, and edit ‘Thereabouts 3’ in Colombia, they handed our agency complete creative control in both the film’s story and planning an off-the-beaten-track route through the country. The brothers wanted a non-ordinary challenge. They wanted to see the real Colombia, the beauty, warts, and all. They got all that, and a lot more, including a traverse of the world’s longest and most grueling mountain pass.
Our team filmed the Mortons as they rode hundreds of kilometers each day through unforgiving, cold and wet, high-mountain Andean terrain, scorching plains, and forgotten, coal-dust-blanketed regions that were inaccessible just ten years earlier. At the same time, the film explores the brothers’ personal experience of racing together professionally and charts Lachlan Morton’s return to Grand Tour cycling. ‘Thereabouts 3’ was our first feature-length cycling documentary, filmed in isolated regions of Colombia: a physical and logistical challenge, but one that our visual storytelling agency team was more than up to.
Read Director Gregg Bleakney's "The story behind the story: The untold tale of Thereabouts 3" on CyclingTips.com
Creating Colombia’s Global Tourism Cycling Campaign
WhereNext produced and filmed Colombia’s 2021 - 2022 international tourism campaign: “Colombia: The Top Cycling Destination.” With this multimedia campaign—featuring videos, images, and a written cycling guide—our mission was to shine a worldwide light on the magic of cycling in Colombia and inspire travelers to ride their bikes in Colombia, whether for a multi-stage tour or day trips in the mountains.
Our team delivered a suite of multimedia resources, including graphic design, video, photography, and a multi-media cycling guide. The videos included a one 5-minute hero video to promote cycling tourism in Colombia and three 3-minute regional videos focusing on the Coffee Region, the Altiplano region near Bogota, and the Eternal Spring region near Medellin. We also produced a 40-page cycling tourism guide consisting of five chapters designed to be distributed at global tourism events.
H&I Adventures: Guided Mountain Bike Campaigns
Our creative relationship with H&I Adventures has hatched three videos featuring their global cycling tours in Spain, Slovenia, and Chile.
Andalucia
Andalucia was one of the most taxing cycling shoots that our team has ever produced. H&I class this tour as “Advanced,” and our videographers had to ride the same Tour de France-grade routes as the clients while filming at the same time. Our years of cycling experience, our team members’ superior fitness and relentless enthusiasm paid off. The resulting video – “Andalucia: A Sensory Adventure” – is a glorious hymn to the joys of extreme cycling and the culture of southern Spain.
Slovenia
Our Slovenia production for H&I showcases their “Alps to Adriatic” Intermediate+ adventure. This week-long tour takes participants from the jagged passes and rocky roads of the Julian Alps down to the sparkling blue waters and cobblestoned streets of the Adriatic coast. The route itself is a lesson in the contrasts that make Slovenia such an exciting country for cycling, and the video needed to reflect that.
Our visual storytelling agency chops brought the experience of riding in Slovenia to life: the video begins with a pulsating soundtrack as three cyclists race down forested mountain passes in the Alps, before gradually fading out to be replaced with the sensual tones of the accordion as they ride through narrow, cobbled alleyways right through the front door of a hidden bar. There they toast their adventure. It’s the perfect visual summary of an H&I Adventures experience: a marriage of hardcore cycling and local traditions.
Chile
The moment we heard about the H&I’s Chile and Northern Patagonia tour, we knew it was another perfect project for us. “Mountain bike around a ring of snow-capped volcanoes, film the first glimpse of Torres del Paine at sunset.” Those were the first words out of H&I Adventures owner Euan Wilson’s mouth when he told us about the trip he was developing. Our response: “Hell yeah!”
We cycled across the lava fields of active volcanoes. We were thrilled by steep, hair-raising descents on loose volcanic ash, and we weathered relentless southern gales sweeping an otherworldly landscape.
Experience Plus – Bicycling Costa Brava
“There are people who have come to realize that the best way to see the world is on a bicycle” – Stephen Reese, Experience Plus client.
Experience Plus is a family-run cycling company that has been offering award-winning bike tours in Europe and South America since 1972. We have worked on several cycling productions with the company. The first was in Italy, where Experience Plus’ founders offered their early tours. We filmed a journey from Venice to Pisa and also shot short segments with the company’s founders, where they explained their vision for the company.
The second WhereNext/Experience Plus production took place on the Catalan coast of Spain. This bike tour of the Costa Brava incorporates some genuinely challenging cycling routes with cultural experiences and gastronomy. This is the hallmark of an Experience Plus tour, and it chimes perfectly with the WhereNext philosophy. We love exploring our physical limits, but we also want to get to know a country and get under its skin.
Pure Colombia
Pure Colombia is an agency that offers an immersive and authentic experience of Colombia while exploring this mountainous country by bike. We filmed throughout the country, from the urban roads of Bogota during the weekly ciclovia urban bike ride to the world’s longest climb, Alto de Letras.
Colombia has the potential to become one of the top global destinations for cycling tourism, and our experience working on this project for Pure Colombia gave us the invaluable experience of working on cycling productions in distinct regions of Colombia.
Ciclismo Classico – Pyrenees and Italy
Ciclismo Classico has one goal in mind for their tours: “to offer the dreamiest, most educational, and amazing bicycle rides on the planet.” You will undoubtedly pedal hard on a Ciclismo Classico tour, but you will also sample the world’s best wine, discover some of the dreamiest little villages in Europe, and feel like you have become part of the local culture. A client we interviewed for our video of their Tuscany tour said it best: “I signed up for this trip to go bike riding, and instead, I lived in Italy for a week.”
WhereNext has worked on two productions for Ciclismo Classico: one was filmed in Italy and the other in the Pyrenees, skirting the border of France and Spain.
Cyclomundo – France
Cyclomundo offers cycling travel experiences with a unique twist: they offer self-guided tours in addition to custom-created guided tours. For the self-guided tours, Cyclomundo’s team provides the top-quality bikes, the GPS systems and routes, the knowledge, and connections, and then their clients are free to get out and explore the roads in their way, through their own eyes. One more great service they offer: your bags are transported to your hotel for you each day, freeing you up to enjoy the experience of cycling.
Their tours explore the most popular cycling routes in France. WhereNext produced behind-the-scenes videos of their French cycling tours, interviewing the clients and guides, to visually showcase their exceptional service, dedication, and passion for cycling.
ExOfficio – “Two Years, Two Pairs of Underwear”
‘Two Pairs of Underwear’ is the original cycling video that is the foundation of the WhereNext story. Our founder, Gregg Bleakney, produced this short video for ExOfficio after cycling the length of the Americas for two years, while using just two pairs of their Give-N-Go underwear. It was during this epic journey that Gregg dreamt up the concept of WhereNext while sheltering from a rainstorm in a barn in Patagonia.
Work with Us
WhereNext was born from cycling. Bicycles are as much vehicles for our morning commute as they are vehicles for our dreams. Each production is an opportunity for us to exercise our two-wheeled yearnings and produce magic for our clients. We invite you to join us somewhere down the road.