“Combing images from the ride and my random thoughts that came across during the ride.”

This beautiful slideshow of images overlaid with thoughts from the saddle won Toshiki the Rapha Festive 500 Best Film award. It’s so violently peaceful and blissfully dramatic, and it makes me want to ride my bike even though there’s not a single shot of a bicycle.

“Riding 500 kilometres over the festive holidays affords time to reflect. Toshiki Sato from Tokyo took us into his mindset this Festive 500 with “River”, winner of our Best Film prize. The Rapha Cycling Club member’s beautiful moving slideshow is captioned with observations he made while riding. Whether he was feeling philosophical (‘freedom is a state of mind’) or romantic (‘love flows like a river’), complaining about the weather (‘I wish it was summer during Festive 500’) or stating universal cycling truths (‘I would rather go against the wind at the beginning’), his words and matching imagery make this our worthy winner.”