Make Your Move

The world's best cyclists, the world's fastest bikes, and the world's biggest cycling event

Our gambit

Long-time partner, Cervélo, came to us with a problem. Ahead of the 2023 Tour de France, how could they execute a campaign to celebrate their partnership with the all-conquering Team Jumbo-Visma (now Team Visma Lease-a-Bike)?

It’d have to demonstrate that Cervélo creates the fastest bike for every niche and discipline in cycling.

From smashing KOMs to winning bunch sprints and cyclocross to time trials, Cervélo has every piece to make the winning move.

Similarly, Jumbo-Visma’s roster is the best in the world. It includes the iconic, multi-talented Wout van Aert, the 2022 Tour Champion Jonas Vinegaard, and the Greatest Of All Time, Marianne Vos.

With athlete availability so tight, to make this a reality, we had to bring the right idea and perfect execution. How would we make the most of every minute?

The answer: detailed pre-production, planning and testing before we’d even set foot in Team Jumbo-Visma's Sierra Nevada training camp.

A game of strategy

The chess/road cycling analogy is something that has been thrown around for years.

To those in the know, a grand tour cycling event is not an individual event; it’s the ultimate game of strategy. Specialist riders, bikes, and teams work together over three weeks to take home the greatest prize: the yellow jersey.

While the rider plays the game, Cervélo provides the tools to win.

Centred on 2022’s Green Jersey winner Wout van Aert, the film played into exploring the parallel between cycling and chess whilst playing with the idea that the pieces on the board were bikes.

Starting out with a conceptual idea, we wanted to visualise any creative early for the client. Step forward, the test edit.

Featuring our senior post-production star Gav, we developed creative that culminated in an almost perfect shot-by-shot reflection of the planned film. This essentially gave the Cervélo team an opportunity to provide a first-draft level of feedback before we’d even left Glasgow.

On the clock

The campaign was being realised in the build-up to the Tour de France, and while that brings lots of excitement, it can also be a stressful time for everyone.

The athletes are (quite rightly) deep into training and entirely focused on winning the world’s biggest cycling race, not making films.

Our experience in this space is crucial. To make this shoot work, we’d have to plan every detail and get the athletes to buy into the project. That second step is so important. Not only does it make it an enjoyable hour, but it also helps them deliver a performance away from their comfort zone on the bike.

While pre-production time with Wout was limited, on set, every effort was made to explain the concept to him (including showing the test edit), and quickly, you could tell he was enjoying himself.

The result? A natural performance in front of the camera from the Belgian—and his world-class teammates—delivered just in time for the Tour de France.