Cypriot mountain biker Savvina Koulle slid across ice with little control during the Mountain of Hell race, but the fall only strengthened her resolve. When she finally stopped she realised she was unhurt and went back to retrieve her bike. “Giving up never crossed my mind. My only thought was to get back up, get on my bike and finish the race,” Koulle says. Koulle did more than finish. She took first place in the women’s E-Bike category at Mountain of Hell, one of the world’s most demanding mass-start mountain bike races. She repeated that result a year later. In 2025 Koulle became the first woman from Cyprus or Greece to compete in the event, winning the women’s E-Bike category that year and again in 2026.
For Koulle the moment on the ice represents something larger than a race result. That fall and the instinct to get back up lies at the heart of Everybody Falls: The Road to the Summit, a documentary following her journey. The film carries a message she has increasingly sought to take beyond mountain biking. “Everybody falls. What defines us is who gets back up.” The documentary will premiere on 11 November at Premier Cinemas at Nicosia Mall, with all net proceeds going to the Karaiskakio Foundation.
Koulle’s journey began long before the race. Nature and adrenaline first drew her towards mountain biking. She enjoyed enduro and downhill and wanted to challenge herself more. Fear was part of the process from the beginning. Rather than seeing it as something that had to disappear, Koulle gradually learned to understand it through training. She still feels fear but has learned to recognise when she needs more practice before trying something. “My main goal was to get there, give my best and cross the finish line,” she says.
Representing Cyprus gave the experience additional meaning. Koulle hoped her participation would encourage other women to consider a sport in which female riders remain a small minority. “There are very few women doing downhill in Cyprus, so I didn’t see many women around me in the sport,” she says. That can make it harder to feel that you belong, especially when you are just starting. She created Eat Her Dust to share her own experience and encourage more women to try mountain biking. She also organises mountain biking days and events for women. Recently she left her nine-to-five job and moved from the city centre to Platres to give mountain biking and content creation a larger place in her everyday life.