The Oldest Racer | Prime & Fire Selects

This is the third installment in a series of three short films by James Callum and Alex Knowles, in partnership with Prime & Fire Selects, Talenthouse and BFI Future Film.

60% of older people in the UK feel that age discrimination exists in their daily lives. Only 7% of 75+ adults do say that they meet the minimum level of physical activity required to achieve health benefits. The Over Achieving Pensioners are a series of short films that want to prove that it’s never too late to buck the trend and also inspire all of us to pick up a sport disregarding our age and respective abilities.

In this documentary we feature 75 year old cyclist Mick Ives. He explains what cycling means to him and how great of an impact the sport has had on his life. He hasn’t stopped cycling since the Autumn of 1956 and has won more national titles than anyone else in the country in multiple disciplines. Mick has been the UCI World Masters Cycling Champion five times, British national cycling champion 62 times (with 5 championships won in 2007). He was at one time, the manager of the Great Britain cycling team, and the National Coach, and is the winner of over 1000 races.

He looks back at the years on the circuit and notices that he can’t remember a former team mate or competitor that’s kept on cycling for as long as he has. Whether they temporarily quit cycling due to their families, jobs, or other responsibilities he admits that his selfishness is what’s kept him going for so long.

Prime & Fire Selects, in association with Factory Media, is an annual film competition giving up-and-coming filmmakers the funds and support to create short human-interest documentaries within the realms of action sports.