“From the Ground Up” Returns for Season 6

The sixth season of From the Ground Up has been posted on YouTube, this time as a single hour-long film rather than an episodic series. It’s still a great watch.

For the uninitiated, FTGU is a reality-show-style documentary project where novice riders take on the grueling Leadville 100. Over the course of each season, we see the riders as they progress through bike fittings, training camps, and inevitable crashes before reaching the Leadville starting line at 10,152 feet above sea level. There’s plenty of stellar bike content, but it’s the participants’ personal journeys that end up being even more memorable.

I preferred the old format — waiting for each episode to be posted really helped build the story’s narrative tension — but the film retains much of what makes the series so compelling.

For more on FTGU co-founder and gravel pro Alexey Vermeulen, here’s a gift link to a recent profile. (Escape Collective is well worth your support.)