On the Edge: Kilian Bron’s Extreme Cycling Adventures

Kilian Bron is a legend in the mountain biking world. In a chat with Fabienne Lang, he reveals the roots of his passion for cycling, filmmaking and traveling.

French mountain biking sensation Kilian Bron regularly tempts fate as he navigates hair-raising ridges and performs acrophobia-inducing stunts. A professional enduro and freeride mountain biker for Commencal, Kilian is also a filmmaker who creates and stars in visual biking spectacles.

Kilian spends his seasons focusing on media projects and races. He remains an enduro-downhill racer at heart, competing in races like ‘Mégavalanche’ and ‘Mountain of Hell’, the latter of which he has won four times. Whatever your mind is conjuring from those names, it is correct. Think: A thousand daredevils plunging on a downhill cycling marathon from a 3,300-meter-high glacier into the valley at speeds of up to 77.6 mph / 125 km/h on their bikes. “There are a thousand people around you and you don’t know their strategies or how much risk they’re willing to take, none of which you can anticipate no matter how good a rider you are,” Kilian explains.

“I like to challenge myself and push my limits all while staying in control. It’s a difficult thing to do because you are always driven by this adrenaline but you have to control it,” he says. “I learn a lot about myself when I take risks, but even more so when I’m able to control them. It’s part of my character, to live outside of my comfort zone. I like to say ‘Life starts to be interesting when it starts to be difficult’. That’s a good definition of how I like to live my life.”

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Kilian certainly lives life by his own definition, putting his wheels down where no one has yet dared to ride. Besides cycling downhill at hair-raising speeds, wheel to wheel with fellow racers, Kilian cycles along rocky ridgelines that would give most people vertigo just to hike, sharing his daring feats in his videos. In them, he performs acrobatic stunts and flies off rocks from Via Ferratas at a speed and agility that would make even a mountain goat pause for reflection.

Just watch his spectacular Dolomites | Mission episode to feel your stomach drop and your palms start to sweat. Kilian's razor-sharp accuracy is immaculately showcased as he takes on impossibly tight turns, vertigo-inducing exposure and the massive consequences of even the slightest misstep. All of this unfolds against the backdrop of some of the world's most stunning natural landscapes.

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It's no surprise his videos are so visually appealing. “The most important aspect of traveling for me is the visual aspect of the destination,” Kilian shares. His mountain biking stunts and lines are as much a work of art as his films are about his biking adventures. These videos are odes to backcountry riding, characterized by a style that does not require words or commentary yet remains unmistakable.

In his 2023 film called ‘Cross Countries’, Kilian transports us to dense Canadian forests, lush Hawaiian ridgelines and the steep chutes of Sedona as we watch him seamlessly ride across spectacular North American trails. It’s his eye for these lines and his precise riding that draw us into his stories, highlighting his flexibility as a professional mountain biker. What makes Kilian’s cycling style so fascinating is that it allows for no mistakes.

A lot of detailed research goes into his mountain biking precisely because mistakes are not an option. “I like to anticipate everything,” Kilian explains. “I like to know every rock, every turn, everything on a trail before I ride fast on it. Then, once I know it all, I go into this tunnel vision and try and just focus on what I have to do. The 100- or 200-meter drop of the cliff to my side does not matter because I am so focused on the trail. It’s human and normal to be scared of such sharp falls, but you have to find a way of dealing with it.”

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You would be forgiven to assume Kilian was born riding a bicycle. However, the Frenchman only took up the sport at 13 to get to know his surroundings and to make friends in his new hometown, Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Since then, he hasn’t been able to put his mountain bike down, sparking a deep desire to explore the world around him, one line at a time. “For years now, it’s been my job to travel, to ride bikes and to produce content,” he shares happily. “These are the three things I am most passionate about and that shape my everyday life.”

"The bike opened up the world for me. Without the mountain bike, I would never have been able to travel so much and meet so many people,” he continues. “The beauty of the landscape is crucial but, ultimately, it’s always linked to the human aspect for me. I travel with friends and I always meet incredible people on my travels, using my bike as a tool. It’s a great way to meet people. For instance, if I’m lost in the mountains of Peru or Bolivia, I can easily go up to locals and say ‘Hi’ and ask for directions and they love looking at and playing with my bike. Ultimately, the travels I go on for my biking films enable me to create memories, and I get to know the country, the people, the culture, the traditions and the landscapes.”

“My real motivation is to share what I’m doing,” he reflects. “I’m lucky to live what I’m living and I want to share that.” Kilian is currently working on a new project in South America. At the time of this writing, he is in Peru and will be heading to Argentina later this year, in December. We can’t wait to see what he and his team create next.