Story

Roads Less Cycled Documentary

This documentary will follow the journey of passionate, young female athletes embarking on a challenge of a lifetime. They are united by a shared dream and determination to tackle one of the world’s most grueling bike races: the Transcontinental Race (TCR).

The Question

Despite efforts to promote inclusion and diversity, access to sport remains limited for many. “Roads Less Cycled” aims to explore why athletes from some countries are seldom seen in the international sporting arena. By documenting the journey of a group of athletes, it aims to explore the challenges they face whilst showcasing their talent and enthusiasm. Are talent, grit and will sufficient to realise sporting dreams no matter who you are?
The girls are recipients of the Mike Hall Bursary, designed to level the playing field by providing a bursary to support riders entering the Race. But is the playing field level enough for them to get to the startline, before they can make use of such bursaries?
This documentary aims to achieve two main goals: inspire more women to follow in the athletes’ footsteps and raise awareness of unrecognised barriers in sports.

What is the TCR?

The TCR is a 4,000km non-stop cycling race across Europe. This epic challenge begins in the Western corner of Europe and weaves its way through the remote corners of Europe ending in Istanbul: crossing borders, cultures and breathtaking landscapes. Riders are unsupported, plotting their own route, carrying what they need, relying on their resilience and perseverance. It is a true test of mind and body.

Who is racing?

Aiperi Bakirova

Aiperi is from Kyrgyzstan, an incredibly brave and capable athlete. She is an anaesthesiologist, married with two children aged 7 and 10. She discovered cycling seven years ago, and sometimes cycles to work at her trauma unit some 170km away. She believes that no matter where we live or who we are, the key to a healthy body, lifestyle and planet is sport. She has never left her country and dreams of cycling around the world.

Mersedeh Chegini

Mersedeh is a remarkable athlete with a background in psychology and a passion for cycling and running. She held Iran’s record for the fastest marathon time by a female runner from 2015-2018. Mersedeh is dedicated to promoting the health benefits of cycling, leveraging her experience in endurance sport and knowledge in psychology to support mental resilience. Her journey aims to break barriers and inspire others to reap the mental benefits of sport.

What will you be funding?

And why does it matter?

“Roads Less Cycled” aims to achieve two main goals:
Inspire more women to reap the benefits of sport and follow in the athletes’ footsteps
Raise awareness of all the unrecognised and unknown barriers in sports.

The budget represents the bare minimum required to shoot this documentary. We are hiring a minimal crew at significantly reduced rates, with many offering pro-bono hours. This project involves following two athletes across a continent for three weeks, which comes with substantial costs.

Your donations will enable us to create this documentary. Additional funds beyond our current target will

• cover the athletes’ travel costs and the cost of a new bike
• increase our ability to capture crucial moments and hire more equipment
• ensure the crew is fairly compensated, hire more professionals and increase our editing ability.

The training and preparation for the TCR is taxing and all consuming, especially in the communities in which these women live. The women cannot necessarily sustain this level of training and dedication for another year, which is why were are committed to see these inspiring athletes at the startline this year. We cannot control the end result, but we are committed to making a a documentary about the obstacles these women have faced, regardless.

How else can you support?

Spread the word
Share our campaign with your social networks, bloggers, journalists and businesses that share the same vision of sharing sport and creating an inclusive sporting arena. It takes a whole village (globe) to make this happen.

Help with Visas
This is a very long shot, but it takes just one person, at the right time, in the right place to help the athletes with their visas. All the girls have been refused visas based on the embassies’ assessment that they will over stay their welcome.

What happens if the visa is not granted?

We remain very much committed to documenting their journey, showcasing their talent, passion and enthusiasm whilst highlighting the barriers and challenges that they and many of their peers face, preventing them from pursuing sport.

By enabling us to reach our crowdfunding goals, you enable us to make this important documentary.

The challenges so far

The team behind this project lives in the UK. We ourselves are learning about challenges and hurdles we didn’t know existed before following the journey of these athletes.
These include:

• Incredibly complex and prohibiting visa requirements with a high possibility of rejection.
  All athletes have already been rejected visas.
  We are in the process of reapplying. 
• The basic unavailability of equipment for them to purchase in their own home countries for training and racing combined with poor purchasing power makes it very hard to acquire equipment without assistance.
• The shipment of any bursary supplied equipment such as bikes, helmets and bags into some countries is either completely blocked or incurs huge shipping and taxation costs.
  In the end, Shirin had to hand deliver bikes, helmets, clothes, bike packing bags and other equipment in Turkey, when other options failed.

We hope to share with you our lessons learnt, the questions we have no answers to, and the overall journey that these athletes are going through.

 Who is behind the project?

Shirin Gerami draws from her privileged position navigating the world as both Iranian and British. She is all too familiar with the challenges of racing in international sport as an Iranian and similarly familiar with how borderless and inclusive the world can be as a British athlete. For the past decade she has worked to promote access to the physical, mental and societal benefits of sport. Through her experience, there is no shortage of passionate and hardworking athletes wanting to take part in international races. If event organisers, sponsors and sporting bodies are currently working hard to promote inclusion, diversity and equality in sport, then why is there still so little diversity?

Arturo Bandinelli is a London-based Italian filmmaker and independent psychosocial researcher with a distinguished career in cinema. He holds a BA in Film and TV from London College of Communication (UAL) and an MA in Psychosocial Studies from Birkbeck University. His previous works have garnered over 20 awards at international film festivals. Notably, “Walls of Limerick” (2019) screened at 40 festivals worldwide, earning six awards, including Best European Experimental Film at The European Independent Film Festival in 2020. His film “Viscera: Anatomy of a (Non)human Body” received six awards, including Best Editing in 2022 at The European Independent Film Festival. His latest project “SOMA” continues to gain acclaim, having been selected in over 40 film festivals and receiving 9 awards as of April 2024, including Best European Experimental Film at The European Independent Film Festival.

Louise Radinger Field is a filmmaker and writer guiding the team with her extensive knowledge.

Final thoughts… 

Sport is a powerful tool uniting people from all walks of life through respect and understanding. Through her racing, Shiz has encountered extraordinary athletes from all over the world; from Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, Iran, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Congo and beyond. They all share the same dream of spreading their wings and pursuing their sporting dreams. 

Yet they also share the same despondence that these opportunities are inaccessible to people like them.

The passion and potential that Shiz has witnessed is boundless. Yet current resources and capabilities are so often limited. One example is Aishola. She is featured in our proof of concept above, but sadly she will not be competing. After losing her father to cancer, the mounting cost of the TCR, topped with the inability to obtaining a visa has resulted in Aishola opting out of the race.

Aiperi and Mercedeh are ready to hit the start line on July 21st. We hope to share their journey with you. 

With the invaluable support of Arturo Bandinelli and Louise Radinger Field, we will be following them with a camera team and documenting their journey, hoping for a successful outcome but prepared to reveal the reality of their struggle if barriers prove insurmountable. 

Join us in creating a groundbreaking documentary, one which will expand our understanding of what it is these athletes love about what they do, and the deep challenges they face in order to to keep going. Empowering everyone – regardless of who they are or where they are from – to experience the freedom of movement and unity through sport and to taste the freedom and growth such experiences bring.