There are two names that spring to mind when you think of downhill race movies, Alex Rankin and Clay Porter. Both follow the World Cup series every year producing movies that highlight the raw skills and speed of the best bike handlers on the planet.

Clay’s 2007 feature Between the Tape stepped up his work to another level. It took the form of a narrated documentary of the 2006 World Cup season. It was more than just footage showing riders destroying it down the hill. It portrayed the feelings and emotions that are part of being a pro downhiller. You went into the life of a professional downhill rider and saw what it was like to spend six months of the year striving to be the fastest rider in the world.

F1RST is his latest work, bringing us the 2007 World Cup Downhill series in the same format as Between the Tape. Along with races such as Schladming, Champery and Maribor there’s individual sections with Hill, Minnaar, Peat and the Athertons just to name a few. The documentary is then brought to life with narration by Clay and carefully constructed interviews with riders and various team managers.

Straight away you can see that F1RST has progressed from Between the Tape. The footage is just that bit better, the interviews are more carefully constructed and on the whole it is edited together with more precision. By far the best thing about this movie is the riding footage. Every race shot is always showing absolutely killer riding. Your eyes are glued to the screen for every race, constantly amazed at what some of these riders are capable of.

However the film is not perfect and there are a few aspects that let the movie down. The biggest of these is the narration. Unlike Clay’s last film, this time he decided to voice the narration himself. Clay's voice comes across bland and dreary which detracts from the happy, exciting and feel good nature of the film.

Then there’s the final section with Peaty and Minnaar in South Africa. Yes it helps you to walk away from the film with a big grin on your face. But when the previous section is the climax of the World Cup Finals it does seem like it was just tagged on the end at the last minute.

You can expect to hear music from Rise Against, Freestylers and U.N.K.L.E. It’s not the usual music you would expect for a downhill movie but at the same time it is not annoying. It just sits there in the background and adds to the emotion and mood of the film in a non-intrusive way.

When it comes down to it I do love F1RST. I like the footage, I like how the music adds to the mood of the film and I like that the whole time I’ve spent trying to write this review I’ve had to continually pull myself away from watching it. F1RST is a worthy addition to any mountain biker’s movie collection.

If you want to see Clay's latest work then check out the Yeti Cycles website. He's been putting together short videos from each World Cup this year. They're well worth checking out.