The Quickrelease.tv bicycle short video had a whopping 134 entries by the close of play on August 30th. These 134 have been whittled down to nine. The finalists will be judged at Interbike by Tour de France TV commentators Phil Liggett and Bob Roll.

The other judges are Kozo Shimano, Interbike’s Rich Kelly, and the illustrious members of The-Spokesmen podcast, including David Bernstein of the Fredcast, Tim Jackson, of Kryptonite and Tim Grahl of the Crooked Cog Network.

The competition videos had to be short and had to be “TV adverts extoling the virtues of bicycling to a mainstream audience. So, go light on the Lycra. No techie stuff. No Critical Mass protest vids. No art installations. Just great images of cycling that could make Joe and Joanna Public get out there and ride…for the sheer fun of cycling.”

A number of the entries were spoof videos and because these were so good they have been rolled into a category of their own.

THE SHORTLIST, part 1 (in no particular order)

Bike it, you’ll like it:

Ride:

Transport for London ad:

Amsterdam: The Bicycling Capitol of Europe:

WeJustWorkHere2 (SantA Cruz Bicycles):


NFTA1 (Bike to work, Netherlands):

THE SHORTLIST, part 2 (spoof vids, again in no particular order)

Cycling - Jolly good fun:

10% percent less:

Cyclists live longer:

AND THE WINNERS GET…

The competition winners get Shimano schwag, including top-end components. The competition is also sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Co. of the US, maker of Fat Tire Amber Ale. A video of a New Belgium TV ad featuring cycling was used in the Shimano/YouTube competition video:

Well done to those on the shortlist, commiserations to those video-makers who didn’t make it through. An announcement about the winning entries will be made from the first day of Interbike, September 26th.