Videos

The Legend of Tommy G.

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Every kingdom needs its legends and who better to answer this call for the Bike Kingdom Lenzerheide than Belgian ripper Thomas Genon. Spending lots of time in Switzerland during the year, he welcomed this role with open arms, building upon his own legend with the support of no one less than Anthill Films. To see how Thomas rules his new kingdom, check out “The Legend of Tommy G”: https://youtu.be/_DzstL5RCHk

What do you get when the superb bike filmmakers from Anthill Films link up with a rider like Thomas Genon, a.k.a. Tommy G in a stunning location like Lenzerheide, Switzerland? Magic that would even make Merlin jealous. In a versatile and breathtaking location, it’s easy for Tommy G, the 25-year-old Belgian, to showcase his riding skills; getting technical and going big at the same time. In the 6-minute Anthill Films production, Lenzerheide is truly the king’s playground. He breaks through the sound barrier, bikes on water. “That’s why they call him Tommy G-esus,” says Jackson Goldstone, who joins a long list of cameos by the who’s who of the bike world. Riding on the moon, the Swiss high Alps and gaining some serious speed on the World Cup track with the comment of Rob Warner. Blowing up all of Lenzerheide’s carefully shaped berms, there is nothing Tommy G can’t do. He gains so much airtime hitting a big kicker that the crew had to lengthen the landing while he was in the air or it would have ended badly – leaving Cam and Tyler McCaul speechless.

It’s hard to hide this legendary action from the bike community. Matching the clips first class soundtrack of CCR’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” it’s no wonder that Mountain Bike heavyweights like Brett Rheeder, Tomas Lemoine, Casey Brown, Brook MacDonald, Thomas Vanderham or Emil Johansson make up their own wild theories about where Tommy G is and what he’s doing. There’s really only one answer to that: he’s working on his own legend – “The Legend of Tommy G” – in Bike Kingdom Lenzerheide.

Production for the new video took place last fall in Lenzerheide. Despite a fairly tight production schedule of only two weeks, everyone involved is extremely stoked with the result: “Filming in Lenzerheide is a dream! It’s a beautiful place with an incredible number of trails that go all over the place. Honestly, it was hard to pick where we wanted to shoot what, just because of the endless options available. It was quite the challenge to limit ourselves to what we really wanted in the video,” says Anthill Films’ Darcy Wittenburgh. He’s not the only one that’s stoked about what was produced in Lenzerheide. Pascal Krieger, Project Manager Bike for Lenzerheide, thinks back to the production with a smile. “Working together with Anthill Films was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Anthill Films have already achieved somewhat of a cult status within the community, and Thomas Genon is one of the most stylish Slopestyle riders in the world. To see a rider of his caliber shred our home trails and jumps was incredibly inspiring and breathtaking at the same time. His creativity and love for biking is second to none, and I could feel it every single moment we were there.”

Thomas Genon himself is perhaps the proudest of the whole crew. “It feels a bit crazy to be in this movie, and to see all of these legends in there. I’ve got nothing but the utmost respect for all of them. Their cameos make this movie extremely special. I enjoyed the shoot in Bike Kingdom a lot – there are so many spots to discover. Just in one day you can shred bike park, send huge jumps, feel like a World Cup racer on the STRAIGHTLine and explore the mountains to take in the amazing scenery. It truly is something special.”

With the launch of Bike Kingdom for the 2020 bike season, the Lenzerheide holiday region has given a name to what it has always been. Through the repositioning of Bike Kingdom and the unique shoot with Thomas Genon, Mountain Biking has finally taken front and center in Lenzerheide, something the region has been working on for the past few years. Bike Kingdom is more than just a name though; alongside the renaming, a new app will be launched, a big bike festival will take place at the end of the season, there are new trails to be explored and much more. Bike Kingdom presents exactly what the name promises.