Maxime Ciriego for Owlaps at Mountain of Hell, 2019
I know I said this is going to be mostly unstressful, peaceful videos on this newsletter-- here's one that some of you may find stressful, as it's a thousand-person downhill bicycle race that starts on a glacier. But there's a peace to it at the same time, the calm of the flow state, where someone who is very good at what they're doing is doing something suffiently challenging. A few people crash but they're all really good at crashing and no one really gets twisted. The vid is 40 minutes long and its a little hypnotic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pltY5vS-aOY
As with any huge marathon-type race, some of the people here have the goal of winning, and then a lot of the people have the goal of simply finishing. Due to a mechanical failure in the qualifying round, our cameraman and genial avatar Maxime, a potential winner, placed last. This put him way in the back during the main event, behind even the potential finishers. He does not win this race, but this error worked out great for him in a way because it gave him a great narrative hook, which is right there in the title of the video: "HE OVERTAKES 961 RIDERS! 😱 THE GREATEST CATCH UP IN HISTORY! 🚀". This little mutation of the storyline allowed the video to bubble up through the YouTube recommendation engine to thousands more people than would have seen it otherwise, eclipsing all other videos from this race and inspiring a few other GoPro racers who start from the back now, just for the algorithm.
Anyway there's a lot to love here. The race is psycho but our pilot is true, and the result is a little like watching a screensaver while stoned-- things rush by you and all you have to do is sit there, but it kind of feels like if you get out of your chair, you'll crash. The race starts on a glacier high up in the French Alps and then moves downhill out of the winter and into the spring, through different types of forests and different types of field, into the edge of town, through the town, and back out into the mountain again. The sounds are really nice-- mostly heavy breathing and other types of wind, plus a huge chorus of squealing brakes and light muttering in French (click "cc" to turn on English subtitles). There's one incredible bit of sound design at the beginning where a copyrighted song plays over loudspeakers (I think it's AC/DC "Highway to Hell"), and the audio is switched out with something akin to "how it feels right now"-- a high-pitched tone plus a heavy heartbeat. Really inspired choice. And finally I have to mention how much Maxime says "excusez-moi". This threw me for a loop at first but I guess with a long race like that, if someone's faster than you they're going to pass you, so you might as well let them.
Of course, those are the little things, which are easy to explain. The bigger things are like, wow this is great, whoa hang on buddy, ay yi yi, etc.. I do find this relaxing, even though any given 5 seconds of this would be the most intense moment of my life. I love to ride my bike but I'm going like, to the donut store, on the bike path. In fact if you're reading this on Tuesday morning (July 30, 2024) I might be there at this very minute, or on my way, or coming home.
Like I said there's a bunch more videos like this. There’s a lot of mass-start downhill races in general, and then there’s a couple where the racer starts from way at the end on purpose. If the vid above isn't enough for you I also really like the ones from the villainously-named Kilian Bron, who seems like a nice guy though at the same time an absolute terminator. Here's one from a mass-start race in the Peruvian Andes where he starts waaaaaaaaaaaay at the back and the whole time he’s passing dudes like they're fragrant mountain blossoms, just a whiff and that's all: [youtube].
If you're thinking about riding your bike more I strongly recommend it, I love it. My experience is that it isn't like any of these videos in any way, other than treating other riders respectfully and sometimes you see your buddy and you say hi.
Peace everone :)
