The 2019 Photo Annual Gallery

Bike has always trusted in the power of photographs, and the Photo Annual is the culmination of our annual quest to bring you the most beautiful, moving images of the year.

Author:
Satchel Cronk
Dec 11, 2019

Below is the full gallery from the 2019 Photo Annual. The images are striking on any platform, but we highly suggest viewing them in their originally intended medium: print. Subscribe here, and we'll send you this year's Photo Annual just because.

Beyond scars and stinky chamois, it could be said that photographs are the only tangible things we take from our time on the trail. Long after wounds have healed and bibs have been bleached, the images we snap along the way are often the last connection with the moments and memories that give our lives richness as mountain bikers. Yet, photographs also serve as much more than simple memorials of instants saved, briefly pausing the relentless passage of time.

Photographs connect us. They connect us with people, faraway places, and experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. The digital revolution has changed our world in ways we could’ve never imagined, but it is still photos that most often hold the power to transcend language and borders, and bring us to places we’d never expected.

Like all other -graphy that came before it, photography not only describes but also immortalizes—the occasions, people and efforts that help define our sport. From Bruno Long capturing prolific builder Nico Vink’s worn hands, to Ian Collins’ and Toby Cowley’s jaw-dropping images of Brandon Semenuk as he continually creates new realities on two wheels, photographs illustrate the moments that literally and figuratively shape mountain biking as we know it.

And most of all, photographs inspire—they inspire us to chase feelings, ride new trails and try new moves, to follow adventure and sometimes to slow down and embrace the magic of our own backyards. They might inspire us to pick up tools and join a multi-community effort to restore forgotten wilderness byways (that inspiration can be found on here, in our recent “Weekenders”, by Anthony Smith), or even pick up a camera ourselves and emulate our idols.

Bike has always trusted in the power of photographs, and this issue is the culmination of our annual quest to bring you the most beautiful, moving and exciting images from a year of winding trail. We hope the pages within provoke you to slow down and savor the remarkable images, find something that moves you, and then get out and enjoy the ride.