‘Call of a Life Time’ docuseries to go behind the scenes of the Life Time Grand Prix

When the inaugural Life Time Grand Prix presented by Mazda was announced in November of 2021, Life Time’s president of events Kimo Seymour said he hoped the series would help accomplish two things.

One, an opportunity for professional cyclists to achieve their potential domestically and, two, “for fans of cycling to be able to engage with those athletes.”

Later this month, Life Time will release a docuseries that intends to bring fans into even closer proximity to the athletes who competed in the first-year event.

“Call of a Life Time,” a six-episode series that goes behind the scenes at each race of the 2022 Grand Prix will be be released on January 27 at 6:00 P.M CST with all six episodes available for streaming on Life Time’s YouTube channel.

The series was produced by Cold Collaborative, a production house focused on telling stories of adventure and conservation.

Cold Collaborative’s founder Shannon Vandivier directed the series, which he said ventures far beyond the competitive aspect of the race series.

“The idea was to focus more on the characters and to glorify the races a bit less,” he said. “We discovered that so many of the athletes are out there because they want to be ambassadors, to inspire others to get outside, and use the bike as a vector for getting more people outdoors. That’s really the mark of one of these athletes. They’re getting paid to go race but, equally as much, they are there to represent their sponsors and be an ambassador. We wanted to uncover why they do this kind of thing, and what it takes emotionally and physically.”

Vandivier said that filming the six-race Grand Prix was incredibly labor intensive. “Call of a Life Time” includes footage from Sea Otter, Unbound Gravel, Crusher in the Tushar, the Leadville Trail 100, Chequamegon, and Big Sugar Gravel.

“On average, we had seven people at each race over the course of the past year, pouring massive amounts of time, effort, and creativity into this project,” Vandivier said.

Episodes one and six of “Call of a Life Time” will highlight both the women’s and men’s races at Sea Otter and Big Sugar, while the other episodes will take a closer look at one or the other.

“We truly are grateful to the many athletes who dedicated hours of their time throughout the 2022 season to help bring this beautiful storytelling piece to life and we couldn’t be more excited to share it with the world,” said Michelle Duffy, director of brand and content for events at Life Time, and co-executive producer of the “Call of a Life Time” series.

● Episode 1: Marathon mountain bike race at the Life Time Sea Otter Classic presented by Continental in Monterey, Calif.
● Episode 2: 200-mile Garmin UNBOUND Gravel presented by Craft in Emporia, Kan.
● Episode 3: 70-mile Life Time Crusher in the Tushar presented by The Creamery in Beaver, Utah
● Episode 4: Stages Cycling Leadville Trail 100 MTB in Leadville, Colo.
● Episode 5: 40-mile Life Time Chequamegon MTB presented by Trek in Cable, Wis.
● Episode 6: 100-mile Life Time Big Sugar Gravel presented by Mazda in Bentonville, Ark.