The red Bulletin_1210_UK

www.redbulletin.com

an almost independent monthly magazine / december 2010

Danny MacAskill

Experience

Print 2.0

On location with the YouTube superstar

In association with

Way Down South

Underwater pictures from the coldest seas on earth

Felabration

A magical journey into the heart of Afrobeat

CHAMPIONS!

The remarkable story of how the Red Bull Racing dream team took on Formula One’s finest – and won!

superdrystore. westfield london, now open.

superdry.com

BullHorn

Doing the double

www.redbulleTin.com

Cover Illustration: Lee Laughton. Cover Photography: Getty Images. Photography: Thomas Butler, Sutton Images

an almost independent monthly magazine / march 2010

On two consecutive Sundays in November, Red Bull Racing set the sporting world on fire.

First, November 7: the team wins the Formula One constructors’ title.

Second: seven days later, Sebastian Vettel wins the Formula One drivers’ title and, aged 23 and 135 days, also becomes the youngest man ever to achieve this most hallowed of sporting prizes. Their achievement in sweeping the F1 ‘double’ is remarkable in itself: very few of the dozens of Formula One teams to have competed in the championship since 1950 have won even a single title; taking both in a single, epic year is scaling F1’s Everest. But maybe even more impressive than the titles themselves has been the manner in which Red Bull Racing and its star personnel – Vettel, Mark Webber, team boss Christian Horner and lead design brain Adrian Newey – have gone about their business. From the off in Bahrain last March, the team went on the attack, taking pole position and leading the first race, hurling down a gauntlet to their rivals: catch us if you can, was the message. A total of 19 races on, 15 pole positions and nine wins later, no one managed to, and on a dizzy Abu Dhabi Sunday, a little bit of Formula One history was made.

Forgive us, if you will, the focus on Formula One here – it’s not every day, after all, you can call a colleague “F1 world champion” – for there is much else to enjoy in this month’s magazine.

We journey to the remote Isle of Skye for an exclusive insight into the next movie project of Mr YouTube: the stunt-cycling supremo Danny MacAskill. Then to Africa, to join the ‘Felabration’ of the work of soul beat maestro Fela Kuti. And then to the far south, to some of the coldest, most treacherous waters on earth, to bring back a photo-reportage that required of photographer Karl Drevlak not only skill with a lens, but a rare gift for putting up with a frozen body.

Turn the page, then, and enjoy!

Exclusively with The Independent on the first Tuesday of every month

Print 2.0

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 This magazine puts you in the hot seat. See inside for details

Chocks away!

How the Red Bull Air Race world champ got his wings

Banzai FMX

Full throttle with Japan’s moto pioneer

Board stupid?

Wife, nine kids and a camper van: one man’s surf odyssey

Chariot for a Champion EXCLUSIVE 1! inside F1’s most-Fancied car – by the man who made it EXCLUSIVE 2! bernie eccLestone: “i’d pick vetteL over schUmacher”

We hate to say ”we told you so”, but we did! Back in our March edition we declared, we hope not vaingloriously, that the Red Bull Racing RB6 would prove itself a ‘Chariot for a Champion’ and lo, Sebastian Vettel went and made it so. You read it here first!

Your editorial team

Adrian Newey, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Christian Horner (l-r) relive their magic moments from a truly unforgettable season on page 42

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Contents

welcome to the world of Red Bull Inside your world-beating Red Bulletin this month

Bullevard

16 now and next Updates from the worlds of culture and sport

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19 me and my body Kiteboarding queen Bruna Kajiya has had shattered bones and been stranded mid-city in her wetsuit in pursuit of champion status 20 GRAEME McDOWELL The Northern Irish golfer proves he’s got, er, balls with two spectacular victories 22 KIT BAG Times have changed in tennis: ash trees and animal guts no longer get a look-in 24 Pop Princess Aura Dione’s many opulent outfits are a daily reality for the Danish musician 25 hard & fast Here’s just a few of today’s champions…

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26 winning formula When it comes to body-rocking bass, there’s speaker science behind the good vibrations

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28 MARC MÁRQUEZ The speedy Spaniard may only be 17, but he’s the 125cc MotoGP World Champion 30 lucky numbers Fifty years after The Beatles started getting paid to perform, we see how it all adds up

Action

32 antarctica Two men discover a world of beauty and danger beneath the icy ocean 42 RED BULL RACING The double Formula One champions have triumphed against the odds

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54 DANNY MACASKILL Thanks to talent and YouTube, the Scot and his street bike are wowing the world 60 felabration Music producer James Pants in Nigeria for a festival in honour of Fela Kuti 66 rally dakar If the VW Motorsport team can survive the preparation, the race should be a doddle 72 SINGLESPEED WORLD Champs Muppets, clowns and giant birds step into the saddle to do battle 06

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contents

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Photography: Liam Lynch, Gold & Goose/REd Bull Photofiles, Helge Kirchberger/Hangar-7, Kraeling Bildagentur, Getty images/Red Bull photofiles, Graeme Murray, Paul Calver, Karl Drevlak

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More Body & Mind

82 SNOWBOARD FUNPARKS Sick of the slopes? We bring you the best places in the world to play 84 flight of fancy David Coulthard lets his inner spaceman loose 85 Chefs’ Secrets From ingredients to gadgets 86 GET THE GEAR All you need to survive the icy waters of the Antarctic 88 Hot Spots The hottest sporting action whether it’s on snow, waves, track or pitch. Find it here in our global guide 90 Night Spots When the sun goes down it’s time to party. Here’s our pick of the best club nights, comedy, bands and festivals – the world over 92 nightlife London electro duo in Iceland, alt rockers in Stockholm, a DJ masterclass with A-Trak and where to burn the midnight oil in Sydney

Every Issue 8 Kainrath’s calendar 10 pictures of the month 98 mind’s eye

the red Bulletin Print 2.0 Movies, sounds and animation wherever you see this sign in your Red Bulletin 1

2

3

72 en.redbulletin.com/ print2.0 In your browser window you’ll see the magazine cover. Just click at ‘Start Bull’s Eye’

Switch on your webcam If a webcam activation window opens, just click ‘activate’

Hold your Red Bulletin up to the webcam You’ll see all the multimedia content in this month’s mag – movies, sound and animation

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illustration: dietmar kainrath

K a i n r at h

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sprints into action. and keeps on going. fits i n s

port you s sh r orts

When you’re working out, it’s good to have extra gas in your tank. Which is where a Red Bull Energy Shot comes in. Its compact size and 60ml volume means you can easily tuck it into a shorts pocket or training jacket.

And with no carbonation and no need to chill you

can carry, and use it, just about anywhere. Red Bull Energy Shots aren’t designed for re-hydration, but they deliver energy in just a few sips, helping you all the way to your warm down. It’s concentrated energy from Red Bull.

the only shot that gives you wings.

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photography: Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Photofiles

Print 2.0

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Watch the Red Bull X-Fighters as they indulge in some horseplay

PHOTO of the month

Çannakale, Turkey

Horsing Around Q: What is it that spans 3,000 years to link the Trojan horse to freestyle motocross stunts?

A: To get the job done, it’s what’s inside that counts. It takes bags of courage and control to leap a motorcycle, never mind doing so in front of the best part of 40,000 people and live TV cameras. There is a reason New Zealander Nick Franklin is leaping over a replica of history’s most famous wooden horse: this Red Bull X-Fighters Jams event took place not far from the site of the ancient city of Troy. The Greeks fought for a decade before Odysseus led a band of spies and soldiers through the city’s gates in the belly of the beast. One would suspect Mr Franklin would take rather less time to overcome the city walls.

More videos of spectacular stunts at www.redbullxfighters.com

PHOTO of the month

V i e n n a , Au st r i a

Street Kings In the past five years, street dance, and in particular B-Boying, the competitive form of what used to be called breakdancing, has arrived in the mainstream, after three decades in back alleys and backyards – and it’s gone global. At Red Bull Checkmate, B-Boy crews from Russia, Sweden, Finland, Italy and the UK battled with three home-nation crews in a cross-European tournament, with a twist. (World-leading B-Boys also come from France, South Korea, Brazil and Japan, as well as the USA.) Inspired by the chessboard competition area, the crews could nominate a King and Queen able to retrieve teammates excluded in earlier battles. Given their nation’s chess heritage, it should have been obvious that the Russian crew, Top 9, would come out on top.

Watch more of this at www.redbullbcone.com

More photos from the competition: en.redbulletin.com/checkmate 12

Print 2.0

photography: Philipp Schuster/Red Bull Photofiles

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Check out Red Bull Checkmate

PHOTO of the month

V e r ac ruz , M e x i co

Top Banana The thing is, if you’re going to keep the nickname ‘Hollywood’, then you really do have to pull off some box-office moves now and then.

Mexican kayaker Rafa Ortiz earned his billing when he became the first man in a boat to descend the Big Banana falls on the Alseseca river in the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains. Ortiz is one of a select group of kayakers, numbering in single figures, to have made descents of 30m or more; a fall down these falls measures around 42m. As well as lifetime bragging rights to a remarkable stunt, the 23-year-old, who’s a world-class freestyle kayaker (the one where you trick on the spot, not where you race downstream on a course) earned an eye injury that required three stitches for his efforts.

Plunge into Rafa’s world at en.redbulletin.com/ortiz

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photography: LUCAS GILMAN

Bullevard Sporting endeavour and cultural ingenuity from around the globe

Breaking New Ground In Dubai, a pioneering street dance competition crowned the Middle East’s best B-Boy

It’s a Date Earlier this year, the Red Bull Illume photography contest uncovered 2010’s best shots of action and endeavour on land, at sea and in the air, including Predrag Vuckovic’s remarkable snap of wingsuit flyer Valery Rozov, above.

The pic is just one of a dozen winning Illume images you’ll find in the 2011 Wings For Life calendar, an A2, poster-sized year-planner.

The Wings For Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation, as the name suggests, promotes worldwide investigation into serious spinal injury. Proceeds from sales of the calendar, available online, will go to this organisation’s noble cause. Open your wallet and open up your wallspace.

Buy one: www.redbullshop.com

In yet another example of the increasing global reach of the B-Boy movement (see also page 12), a Saudi dancer beat breakdancers from across the Middle East to win the Red Bull BreaKing contest in Dubai at the end of October.

B-Boy Lazy, real name Abdul Rahman al Hammoud, topped a field of 16 competitors to become the region’s unofficial champion B-Boy. A triumph in itself, but especially so in a kingdom where many kinds of music and dancing are banned.

“There are few activities for young men to participate in, and breakdancing was a great way to stay healthy and keep busy,” Lazy told the Khaleej Times newspaper in Dubai.

Lazy earned himself a trip to see the Red Bull BC-One in Tokyo, the world’s leading B-Boy competition, of which there’ll be a full report in the next issue of The Red Bulletin.

Videos and breaking news at www.redbullbcone.com

Big break: B-Boy Lazy (centre) takes Red Bull BreaKing crown

PICTURES OF THE MONTH

every shot on target Email your pictures with a Red Bull flavour to letters@redbulletin.com. Every one we print wins a pair of adidas Sennheiser PMX 680 Sports headphones. With a Kevlar-reinforced, two-part cable (it can be short when running with a music player on your arm, or extended with a built-in volume control), reflective yellow headband stripe and fully sweat- and water-resistant parts, they’re perfect for sports. Visit: www.sennheiser.co.uk Email: letters@redbulletin.com

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Islamabad Belgian biker Kenny ‘The Magician’ Belaey rails hard during the Trial Bike Tour of Pakistan Yasir NIsar

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Hero Blogs Twitter ye and become immortal

Andy Irons 1978 – 2010

Words: Paul Wilson. Photography: PRedrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Photofiles, Naim Chidiac/Red Bull Photofiles, Getty ImageS/Kirstin Scholtz, Ari Michelson/Red Bull Photofiles, Justin L’Heureux/Red Bull Photofiles, Alfredo Escobar/Red Bull Photofiles, Garth Milan/Red Bull Photofiles, Manuel Ferrigato

Surf’s Fallen King It says much about the standing of Andy Irons, the three-time world surfing champion who died suddenly on November 2, that his greatest rival, Kelly Slater, emerged from the water after clinching the 2010 title a few days later and, dripping with water, said: “I’d give this title away in a second if Andy could come back.”

Slater, winning his 10th world crown, spoke for everyone in surfing.

For even though he could be as brash out of the water as he was on it, Irons was one of the world’s great competitive surfers, and his death, at the age of 32, lessens the sport he loved.

Irons won his world titles in 2002, 2003 and 2004. This year he returned to the ASP Tour after a 12-month break, and secured his 20th event win at the Billabong Pro at Tahiti in August. At the last stop of the 2010 tour, in Puerto Rico, the competition was postponed for two days out of respect for Irons and his family, and around 200 surfers paddled out to sea together in remembrance.

“It was good having the paddle-out, getting everyone together,” said Mick Fanning, two-time Tour champion.

“I haven’t just lost a friend, I’ve lost my brother here. It’s hard to take.”

Slater added: “Although Andy and I butted heads a lot a few years ago, I have so many good memories of him.” www.aspworldtour.com/andyirons

Kiev Fried, poached or lowered, unbroken, for 15m? The eggs-ellent Red Bull Gravity Challenge Sergey Illin

Grete Eliassen Freestyle skier My house looks pretty dizzy right now too.

Almost like a tornado aka me has been running through it every week

New Year Revelation American daredevil Levi LaVallee will see in 2011 with a shot at a new world’s best distance jump on a snowmobile.

The 28-year-old’s record attempt is the fourth annual Red Bull New Year No Limits event, following world-record stunts by Robbie Maddison (bike), Rhys Millen (truck) and Travis Pastrana (rally car).

LaVallee will break 100mph on his run-up to jump 300ft of water at San Diego Bay, during a total jump of about 330ft.

Print 2.0

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 See Levi leap into action

www.redbullnewyearnolimits.com

Tight Finish, Slackline Shaun White Snow-and-skater Backstage at letterman with Michael J Fox!! He was super cool. We talked about canada, the olympics and how in the past I was teen wolf for Halloween!

Sally Fitzgibbons Surfer I think my boards love getting lost... so they can get a ride home in a limo... they rocked up in style again this morning... wish it was me!!

The first-ever slackline world champion is Maurice ‘Momo’ Wiese, a 15-yearold from Frankfurt. His skills on the slackline – a rope, strung up a couple of feet off the ground, pulled just tight enough to be slightly bouncy – meant his was the first name on world sport’s newest trophy. Wiese landed a backflip during his round of balancing tricks and jumps, as did his closest title rival, American Andy Lewis. However, the judges at the IMS Bouldering Festival at Brixen, Italy, chose the young German. www.slackline.com

Rio de Janeiro Keepie-upping the good work at the all-female Red Bull Roda de Bola beach soccer contest Fabio Piva

Balancing act: Slackline champ ‘Momo’ Wiese

Payerne Swiss freestyle motocross genius Mat Rebaud doles out advice to his hometown’s boys Christophe Margot 17

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Open water swimming in winter is pure sensation.

David O’Donnell, 66, has been a member of the Bournemouth Spartans Winter Sea Swimming Club since 1962. Here he explains how to brave the icy depths.

DON’T GO IN COLD “The best way is to swim through summer and carry on. Do anything regularly and your body will get used to it.”

EMBRACE THE BRACING “Just pop on a pair of trunks and get in. We swim in winter because the cold is exhilarating. You feel better and fitter, it livens you up. Some years it’s so cold that there are icicles on the railings, but you needn’t stay in long to get the benefit, just five or 10 minutes.”

SEA THE FUNNY SIDE “On Christmas Day we wear fancy dress and take wine for afterwards. Some of us are going strong in our 90s.” www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com

Queen of the Hill In the small hours of a cold Saturday in January, some of the world’s best bikers will gather at the foot of a steep hill in the centre of Bristol, ready to settle a long-standing debate: what bike is best going uphill?

Red Bull Hill Chasers pits 16 top cyclists from BMX, mountain bike, road cycling and fixed gear, against 16 amateur enthusiasts in a series of calf-shredding, head-to-head rounds up an unforgiving incline. An open qualifying session will determine which lucky locals, who can enter via a website, race against the pros; a knock-out format will halve the field of 32 until two riders remain for an ultimate showdown (showup?). The invite list boasts the likes of world downhill MTB champ Rachel Atherton (above) and Austin Horse, the world’s best bike messenger. Battle commences on January 29.

To register, visit www.redbull.co.uk/hillchasers

London

Model behaviour: vocalist Roses Gabor

in tune with fashion A new photography exhibition fuses cutting-edge music and high-end style, with some eye-popping results As Lady Gaga’s meat dress showed so memorably this year, music is nothing without style. Music Class Of 2010, a new photo exhibition, celebrates this creative union.

“I work with music and fashion on a daily basis,” says Sarah Young, the 21-year-old DJ and stylist behind the project. “Together they’re the perfect fusion.”

The photographs are of producers, MCs and vocalists occupying the more interesting outposts of the UK music scene.

“I’m not concerned with the mainstream,” says Young. “I took artists doing things their own way and multiplied their style by 10.”

The portraits, by Satoshi Minakawa, reflect their subjects’ skill and attitude, but being dressed in outfits from designers such as Vivienne Westwood

and Matthew Williamson took some of music-makers out of their comfort zone. “I put my trust in Sarah,” says 23-year-old London music producer Cameron Palmer, aka Swindle. “I wore clothes I thought I’d never put on. Then you see yourself looking great.

She knows what she’s doing.”

Vocalist Roses Gabor (above), currently touring with Gorillaz, wore a white jumpsuit created by the designer Ara-Jo, who numbers Gaga among her fans, with shoes that incorporate stuffed doves.

“Roses has the attitude to pull the outfit off,” says Young.

“The shoes are a bit controversial, but I don’t mind that.”

The exhibition is at Red Bull Studio London, 155-171 Tooley Street, until December 10.

See and hear more: www.redbullstudio.com

The moves are too fast for the cameras Kuta Hundreds of Indonesian surfers entered Red Bull Heli Lierop In a spray of Dutch mud, Marvin Musquin is two at the UK B-Boy Championship finals in Brixton Surf paddle battle.The prize? Being flown to a ‘secret’ break laps away from retaining his World Championship crown Matthew Abiola-Bridgeman Erlynico Deborah JP O’Connell

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Words: ruth morgan. Photography: Getty Images, Thomas Butler, Satoshi Minakawa. Styling: Sarah Young. Shoes, Tengiz Chketiani; Jumpsuit, Sarah Young and Ara Jo

Frozen Assets

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Me And My Body

Bruna Kajiya

How do you use what God gave you to defend a world championship? The reigning queen of kiteboarding feels the need to pull her finger out, ignore her knees and say no to dough

Knee-Jerk Reaction

“Landing on the water feels like hitting concrete because we travel at such high speeds. It’s because of this impact that most riders get problems such as ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] injuries. I’ve had problems in both knees, with ligaments but also the menisci too, the cartilage. Both my menisci are chipped right now. I’ve had operations where they suck out the little bits of shattered bone, but I’m not having that done again yet. It’s very painful to leave it, but taking the time out now would cost me the world title.”

Words: Ruth morgan. photography: Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull Photofiles

Digital Determination “Last year I broke my finger the week before the final contest, and I was in contention for the title. My leash got wrapped around my right ring finger and pulled it out. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. My trainer said, ‘If you see the doctor, he’ll immobilise it, then you can’t compete, so just deal with it.’

The day before the contest, I still couldn’t do anything in the water it hurt so much, but on the day, something stronger came from within me. I wanted it so badly that I took painkillers and just got out there. Every time I did a trick I would be yelling as it hurt so much. But I still won.”

Head On The Sand

“At one of my first pro events, in Tarifa, Spain, when I was 18, a strong onshore wind pulled me onto the beach and I landed on my head. So painful. I was really dizzy, didn’t know which way was up. When I left the hospital I was on my own, wearing a neckbrace and a wetsuit full of sand, in the middle of the city, thinking, what do I do now? But I learned from it: I’m 23 now and I’ve never tried a jump that close to the beach again.”

On e Of Th e Guys

“When I’m not in the wat er, I do cardio training now as in the last few years women’s kiteboarding has changed.

We’re getting much higher in the air and faster, closer to the men’s level. Now we have to handle 10 intense heats in quick succession, and have the strength and power necessary for 15 tec hnically tough tricks per heat. I find it very hard to build muscle. If I don’t train for a month I pretty much lose all the work I’ve done, so I train almost 365 day s a year.”

On The Ball

“I do a lot with the exercise ball, on unstable ground to aid my balance skills: I’m now at the stage where .

I can stand on it on one leg and jump s work it use beca our, park do I also almost all the muscles in your body, and helps you to be light and agile in the air. I do front flips, backflips, anything you do on the streets, but we do it inside. It’s great because no day is the same. Also, I do short bursts of running and skipping, but on a foam-covered gym floor, to reduce the impact on my knees.”

Doughs and Don’ts “In training I have to eat a lot, but if I don’t have the calories I need I’ll start to burn muscle. Basically, whenever I’m not exercising or kiteboarding, I’m eating. I eat a lot of wholewheat pasta, rice, bread and olive oil, no butter or sugar. But that’s only before important competitions – you need to have a balance. After the competition I’ll relax and eat Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream. When I’m training that’s the thing I really miss. In fact, I’d love some right now.”

Get on board with Bruna at www.brunakajiya.com

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Man of Irons and Steel

Graeme McDowell

Winning a first major golf championship this year was just a warm-up for the sport’s fastest rising star, and his performance nailed the Ryder Cup. Here’s how it went down

Born July 30, 1979, Portrush, Northern Ireland Nickname GMac Red Head Like many Irishmen, he’s a fervent Manchester United supporter. Once compared holing a long iron to “knocking one in at the Stretford End” Trophy tweet His good friend Ian Poulter spotted GMac “still holding the US Open trophy” two weeks after his win – so photographed him, and chided him goodnaturedly on Twitter.

(McDowell may have a major, but Poulter has a million more followers on the social networking site) Web www.graememcdowell. com

Back in the swing: McDowell on the 18th during the final day of this year’s US Open

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The final round of the US Open, one of golf’s four major championships, has done funny things to the greatest players. In 1939, one of the game’s early stars, Sam Snead, would have won the trophy had he taken an easy five down the last. Suffering a rush of blood to the head, Snead needlessly boomed a wild drive into deep rough and took eight. Snead would never win a US Open, the only major the venerable hero would fail to land.

In 1966, Arnold Palmer, the game’s first global superstar, held a seven-shot lead going into the last nine holes. It was an unassailable advantage for the greatest player the sport had seen to that date. Or so everyone thought. Palmer went into full DEFCON 1 meltdown, giving up five shots over the last four holes to hand the prize to Billy Casper.

And 2006 saw a double meltdown from two modern greats. A par down the last would have been enough for either Phil Mickelson, America’s golden boy, or Colin Montgomerie, the best player

Ryding high: McDowell won the Volvo Masters tournament in Sotogrande, Spain, before his Ryder Cup success

yet to win a major. Both inexplicably took double bogeys, Monty stiffing an easy approach into greenside rough and making a hash of the recovery, Mickelson sending his drive into the tented village, the title landing in Geoff Ogilvy’s lap. Monty never realised his major dream.

Yes, you need a certain iron in the soul to land the US Open. On the final day in 2010 at Pebble Beach, over 18 picturesque but fiendishly difficult Californian holes, one man proved that iron ran ice-cold through his veins.

It wasn’t Dustin Johnson, who held a three-stroke lead. No man had ever given up more than a onestroke lead going into the final day at Pebble Beach.

By the time Johnson stood on the fourth tee, he’d taken a triple bogey on one hole and lost his ball on another. Then he flayed a drive off the top of the cliffs into the sea, with the ball went his hopes. Johnson, a broken man, would shoot an 11-over-par 82.

But standing alongside him, quietly watching this dismal disaster unfold, was the 29-year-old Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell. Born in Portrush – home of Royal Portrush, the venue of the 1951 Open, the only time the British championship has been held in Ireland – McDowell went to the States as a youngster to learn his trade. He was tutored at the University of Alabama, and decided to give it a go in America as well as on the European Tour. He registered two early victories in Europe, but with too much on his plate, his form soon crumbled. Inconsistent, having failed to make the breakthrough on the US Tour, and looking like

Words: Scott Murray. photography: AP, Corbis

Name Graeme McDowell

Words: Ruth Morgan, Paul Wilson. Photography: graememurray.com/Red Bull Photofiles, Rich Gilligan

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a journeyman pro at best, in 2006 he retreated to Europe to regroup. McDowell took a deep breath and eased off the throttle. He went back home to his parents in Portrush, a place McDowell admits “keeps me grounded. My mum and dad didn’t have much money when they were growing up. This isn’t a particularly wealthy part of the world, but I’ve always liked it. Money is not the driving factor.”

The newly calm McDowell regained his rhythm.

By 2008, solid and dependable, he had succeeded in bagging two more titles, including the Scottish Open. He showed well in the majors in 2009, so when a fifth European title came in July this year, landing the Welsh Open with two final rounds of 64 and 63, he felt ready to make the final step up.

Three weeks later, after Johnson’s improbable implosion, he was suddenly tied for the lead going down the final straight in the US Open. It was time to seize the moment.

McDowell carved out a staunch, drama-free 74, two-putting nervelessly from 25ft on the last to claim his first major. He had beaten the best: three of the other top five places were held by the three best golfers of the Noughties: Mickelson, Ernie Els and Tiger Woods.

Appropriately for a victory claimed on Father’s Day, McDowell – the first European US Open winner since Tony Jacklin in 1970 – celebrated on the green with his dad Ken. “He may not be as technical as some,” grinned his proud old man, “but he has serious balls, serious bottle, he believes big time.”

If anyone in America failed to hear those words, “It’s bananas. as the McDowells headed back to Portrush with the This is what biggest prize in US golf in I’ve dreamed their suitcase, they would about all my realise their import three life. I can’t months later at the Ryder Cup. Because, incredibly, compare this McDowell’s crowning to Pebble Beach, achievement of 2010 this is another was yet to come. stratosphere” On the final day of the competition, McDowell found himself in the anchor position of the singles.

After a tournament of intense drama, the destiny of the Ryder Cup would come down to the result of his match. He had to beat Hunter Mahan, or the USA would retain the trophy they had won in 2008. Under unprecedented pressure, the match was won on the 16th green, McDowell trundling in a perfect 15-footer for birdie – “the best putt I’ve hit in my life” – in front of millions watching worldwide to seal the deal for Europe.

“The US Open felt like a back nine with my dad back at Portrush compared to that,” he said later, smiling. “It’s bananas. It’s what I’ve dreamed about all my life. I can’t compare this to Pebble Beach, this is another stratosphere.” And yet you can’t help but think the level-headed McDowell will be travelling a bit further upwards yet, serenely on his way.

To read more about Graeme McDowell and see where he ranks at the end of his remarkable year, visit www.owgr.com

Short Circuit Racing round the tiniest cycling track ever made. Think of the lap times!

The world’s smallest velodrome is being created for a fixed-gear first in London, as riders are invited to race in the unique Red Bull Mini Drome.

At just 25m around, the purpose-built wooden track is one-10th of the size of a fullscale velodrome, but is still big enough to allow racing at speeds of up to 50mph. VeloTrack, a company that designed and made velodromes for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and, earlier this year, the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, is building the track at its facility in Germany.

“Every track we build is unique,” says Walter von Lütcken,

carpenter and VeloTrack founder, “but this idea from Red Bull, to hold a race on a track this small, that’s special.”

All fixed-gear riders, pro or not, can apply online for the event, at which a series of early-morning qualifiers will determine the line-up for the finals later in the day.

“Nobody in the world has seen this before,” says von Lütcken. “I think it’s the start of a new type of contest for the fixed-gear scene. That’s exciting.”

The biking begins on January 15, 2011, at York Hall, Bethnal Green, from 3pm. www.redbull.co.uk/minidrome

Ireland’s Finest Keith Walsh finished a creditable third in the Street contest at the UK Skateboarding Association National Championships at the end of October. The 19-year-old from Dublin was praised for his innovation and trick technique at the championships, now the richest purse-prize tournament in the UK, which this year took place at the Adrenaline Alley skate park near Corby, Northamptonshire. Just eclipsing Walsh on the day were Londoner Ross McGouran, who finished first and defended his 2009 title, and second-placed Harry Lintell from Ashford, Kent. Only a handful of points separated the three skaters after a lenghty round of decision-making by the judges.

More than 80 skaters entered this year’s Street contest, the skate discipline which uses urban environment-style obstacles such as rails, ledges and kerbs, as opposed to Vert skating, which takes place on the half- and quarter-pipe ramps.

Walsh, a leading light on the burgeoning Irish skate scene, is no stranger to competition success, having won the 2009 DC King Of Dublin contest. www.redbull.ie

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Kit evolution

Strings Theory

Few sports have been changed so drastically by advances in equipment as tennis. You still need court and racquet, but the speeds today are a whole new ball game

In the late 1830s, Michael Thonet, a German furniture maker, developed a revolutionary technique for bending wood using hot steam. He made elegant chairs, and if you’ve had coffee in an old European café, chances are you sat on one of Thonet’s No. 14 chairs: he sold 50 million of them 22

between 1859 and 1930. By this time, the business had passed onto his sons, and was making tennis racquets. The Mentor was first produced in 1925, when French favourites René Lacoste, Jean Borotra and Suzanne Lenglen were masters and mistress of all they surveyed. Made of

ash and walnut, bent then glued and bolted together, a Mentor offered only modest comfort to the players. The only grip on the handle came from fine grooves cut into the wood. The thick strings were fashioned from the outer layer of bovine serosa, more commonly known as cow gut.

photography: Kurt Keinrath

Wood That It Were Thonet Mentor, c 1925

It’s The Fed’s! Wilson Six.One Tour BLX, 2010 The year 1983 was one of farewells in racquet technology: Frenchman Yannick Noah was the last man to win a Grand Slam (the French Open) with a wooden racquet and American Jimmy Connors the last man to win one (the US Open) with a metal racquet. Then came the carbon fibre, or ‘graphite’ racquets, and

tennis got faster and harder, and players had to do the same to compete. Roger Federer’s racquet of choice is the Wilson Six.One Tour BLX. Relatively heavy by today’s standards at 339g (some racquets weigh as little as 250g), it’s made from an alloy called (K)arophite Black, Wilson’s own blend of

graphite, carbon fibre, silicon and basalt.

Strings made of animals’ innards? Don’t have a cow, man: like all modern racquets, this one has synthetic strings, the tension of which can be finely adjusted to suit weather and court conditions. www.wilson.com

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The Hangar-7 Interview

Aura Dione In the history of Scandinavian pop, Denmark has lagged behind its neighbours. This young lady might very well change all that

Born January 21, 1985, Copenhagen, Denmark Musical heritage She’s the daughter of a Faroese/French music teacher and a Danish/Spanish artist.

Her parents met at the Roskilde Festival Achievements Her debut album, Columbine, made number three in Denmark and her debut single ‘I Will Love You Monday’ topped the charts and went platinum in Germany. Her second single, ‘Song For Sophie’ spent 22 weeks in the German charts Influences Folk, soul, pop, electronica Web www.auradione.com

See more pictures of Aura Dione in concert at Hangar-7, Salzburg, at www.hangar-7.com

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Aura, is that a plate on your head?

Yeah, I just nicked it from the kitchen here at Hangar-7. Isn’t it great?

It is, and it chimes nicely with your reputation as a fashion-conscious artiste.

I change my costume several times a day, as that’s how I express my mood.

Plus it’s important to give your fans a visual experience too.

It’s ever so slightly Lady Gaga.

Maybe. But let me remind you I was around before she was. If you look at my press kits from three years ago, you’ll see pictures of me in equally quirky, opulent outfits.

We’ll take your word for it. What’s even more impressive is you were writing your first songs when you were only eight years old.

I did. The oldest song on the album is called ‘Little Louie’. I wrote that when I was 10. It’s about a safe place for when your parents are arguing or war is raging. And people who don’t go out because they’re afraid of what other people think of them.

That’s really quite insightful for a 10-year-old, isn’t it?

You should never underestimate children. They’re just like adults. Or we’re just older children. A bit of both.

So, tell us about your childhood...

I travelled a lot. My parents set off on a huge trip around the world with me when I was three weeks old. I learnt to walk on a sailing ship, wearing a lifejacket. The lifejacket had a lead and my parents would take me out for a walk on deck like a little dog.

Your parents were hippies and musicians. Was it difficult to rebel with such cool parents?

Well, when I was 17, I ran off to Australia, with my guitar, my cowboy boots and €100 in my pocket. I quit school, which my parents were not at all happy about.

But it was the right thing to do.

Obviously. Otherwise you wouldn’t be making number one records.

Can you remember the moment you first heard you’d topped the charts?

Yes. I’d just done a concert in Copenhagen, and then suddenly out of the corner of my eye I noticed this little fat guy in the crowd with a huge bottle of champagne. He calls me over, then the bottle slips out of his hands and just misses my head. He shouted, “You’re number one in Germany.” I looked down in shock and realised it was my manager.

Is he still your manager?

Yes, and apart from on that occasion, he’s made a pretty good job of it.

In the video for ‘I Will Love You Monday’, you lead several pairs of your shoes around town, like the Pied Piper. Why is that?

In life, we’re always going after things.

The perfect job, the perfect love affair, the perfect pair of shoes. I thought it would be funny to have something going after me for once. And not just one pair of shoes: dozens.

Your parents met at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark: your mother was a singer; your father was in the audience. What’s been your experience of groupies?

Not that good, I have to say, but the crowd’s energy levels seem really high here tonight, so we’ll see what happens.

“My parents set off on a huge trip around the world with me when I was three weeks old.

I learnt to walk on a sailing ship”

It’s a gas: Aura Dione’s balloon-ified album, Columbine

Watch the video for new single ‘Something From Nothing’ at myspace. com/auradione

Words: Florian Obkircher. photography: Helene Waldner (1), Helge Kirchberger / Red Bull Hangar-7 (1)

Name Aura Dione

Words: Ulrich Corazza. Photography: Noosa Triathlon, Yasuyuki Takeo, A. Rossignol/KTM Images, Getty Images. Illustration: Dietmar Kainrath

B u l l e va r d

hard & fast Top performers and winning ways from around the globe

Finishing second at the season-clincher in Japan gave Spanish rider Viki Gom ez the BMX flatland (no-obstacle tricks) world title, which he last held in 2007 .

Triathlete Courtney Atkinson tops the list of 2010 Olympic gold faves after winning the Noosa triathlon, on home turf in Queensland, Australia, for the third year running.

After six months away from the sport with his new baby, French rally biker Cyril Despres immediately returned to winning ways at the punishing Morocco Rally. Next stop: Dakar.

San Francisco Giants pitchers Brian Wilson, Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain address fans at their team’s hometown victory parade following their fairytale victory in baseball’s World Series.

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winning formula

Good Vibration

The thump of the bass in your chest is both the heart of the music and a scientific sensation: here’s the score

From the lab “Your chest vibrates if you’re near the speakers on the dancefloor: that’s air molecules hitting your body and creating vibrations,” says Thomas Schrefl, Professor of Functional Materials at the University of Sheffield.

“In contrast to electromagnetic waves, sound waves need a medium to support their propagation.

“The molecules of the air oscillate about an equilibrium position. The oscillating membrane of the speaker compresses and expands the air in waves.

The distance between the peaks of pressure in the compressed and expanded air is the wavelength, l.

Each compression travels with a velocity, c, of 340m/s: the speed of sound. Sound velocity is the wavelength times the frequency, f, which is measured in hertz and gives the number of oscillations per second.

“Owing to the alternating compression and expansion, the air molecules move with a timevarying velocity, v. When they hit your body, the moving particles cause an oscillating force on the skin. Pressure is calculated for a given force over a given surface area. The sound pressure is given by p = ρ cv, where ρ is the density of air.

“Every object has a certain resonant frequency, and when it’s exposed to sound waves with a frequency close to its resonant frequency, the object will vibrate. At high sound levels – for a sound pressure greater than 0.2N/m² – you feel the compressive vibration of the ribcage. The resonant frequency of the chest is between 30Hz and 80Hz, depending on stature and gender. The ribcage vibrates with the resonant frequency.

The acceleration of your body parts caused by the resonance effect is 0.05 times the acceleration due to gravity (g) at a sound pressure of 4.5N/m².”

Get some bass in your place at www.nobodybeatsthedrum.com Listen to a new breed of DJs battle at www.redbullthre3style.com

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Words: Professor Thomas schrefl, Ruth Morgan. Photography: Lucas Gilman/Red Bull Photofiles. Illustration: Mandy Fischer

From the stage “Music is a huge part of my life and bass is a huge part of that music,” says Jori Collignon, keyboard player and one third of Dutch electronica outfit Nobody Beats the Drum. “I’m around big speakers a lot of the time, so I know about the emotion low frequencies create.

“When you have this huge build-up, up into the high notes, then you get the big release of a heavy bass, you feel it through your feet right up into your stomach. So it’s more than listening, it’s feeling.

“You feel your whole body moving, vibrating, and for me it can be almost overwhelming.”

Credit

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The crowd is feeling it at the US finals of Red Bull Thre3Style, which requires its tune-spinners to link three genres of music in a 15-minute set. The world final of Red Bull Thre3Style is in Paris on December 9

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He’s the Two-wheel Deal

Marc Marquez

He looks as innocent as the Milky Bar Kid. But on track? Phew, he’s a killer!

Born February 17, 1993, Cervera, Spain Fast learner At three, he rode a mini-crosser, a tiny motorcycle – his father added stabilisers Rossi gonna do next?

Márquez is tipped to succeed at Valentino Rossi’s level (nine world titles so far). But there’s one record the Italian will keep: he won 11 of 15 125cc races to become world champ in 1997; Márquez ‘only’ won 10 of 17 for his 2010 title Web www.marcmarquez93.es

Heads up: (above) at the Australian GP at Phillip Island; (below) MotoGP testing in Jerez, Spain

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Penultimate race of the 2010 125cc Moto Grand Prix World Championship, in Portugal. Marc Márquez – 17, stupendous talent, future interplanetary superstar – crashes on the wet track during the pre-race sighting lap. In the pits, his shocked mechanics thought that the World Championship title was at risk. One of them even began to cry.

After hasty repairs, he restarted from the back of the grid. By the first bend he had already catapulted himself into fifth place and was third by the end of lap one.

On the final lap, ignoring instructions from his manager, who had tried to curb his protégé’s risk-taking with a “P2 OK” from the pits, he went on to record a famous victory, his 10th of the season.

A week later he took the 125 title in Valencia. The Spanish fans cheered their new hero long into the night. By braking ever later, tilting ever further and accelerating ever earlier than his rivals, Márquez’s normal mode of attack is all-out, yet he’s reserved off-track. “It’s a privilege that I’m able to race at this level,” he says. “Good results are the trade-off.”

At the age of three, Márquez began to lose interest in his battery-powered child’s quad bike; soon he was asking for “a real motorbike” on his Christmas list.

“One that runs on petrol and that you can do jumps on.” When he was four, fake ID enabled him to compete against five-year-olds in Enduro competitions.

Aged eight, he was racing 50cc bikes, with the handlebar stump adjusted to

allow him to use the throttle and brakes at full stretch on the tank. He secured his first pole position in only his third race and from then on began a stellar career that led to a first professional contract, with KTM, aged just 15.

“The 2009 season with KTM was an important learning experience because technically we were a little bit behind the competition, but I always tried to take us forward,” Márquez remembers.

This year, racing with Ajo Motorsport on a perfectly set-up Derbi bike, he proved to be unbeatable.“Working with Marc is poetry for us,” says his Finnish team chief Aki Ajo. “He rides as regular as clockwork and during briefings remembers every little detail.”

Márquez is noted as a cool customer, happier to work than party.He doesn’t seem to want special attention. As World Champion, he finds it embarrassing when he’s asked to sign autographs.

Only on the podium will he allow his emotions free rein. On this stage, his stage, he’ll clench a fist with joy and create as much spray as he’s able to with his favourite energy drink. Being only 17, he doesn’t drink alcohol. “I’ve asked if they could make an especially large can for the podiums,” he says.

He needn’t worry. Next year, when he turns 18, with a driving licence and competing in the Moto2 category, he’ll be able to spray champagne, the real stuff, as much as he likes. It’s a taste he’s surely going to get used to.

On the racing circuit, Márquez’s normal mode of attack is all-out, yet off-track he’s reserved, not seeking attention

Check out Márquez’s year of success and his blog on www.redbull.com

Words: Friedemann Kirn.

Photography: Gold & Goose/Red Bull Photofiles

Name Marc Márquez

kunde

DEFYING LOGIC

Reg. charity 267444 Photo: © Rodrigo Baleia.

Cattle ranchers in Paraguay want to cut down vast tracts of uncontacted Indians’ rainforest and still portray themselves as environmentally responsible.

How? Simple. Just call the islands of forests that are left ‘nature reserves’. Help restore logic. www.restorelogic.org/paraguay

B u l l e va r d

Lucky Numbers

The Beatles

Half a century ago, on the back streets of Hamburg, a young rock ’n’ roll group from Liverpool called The Beatles were playing their first paid gigs.

Within 10 years they’d become, and remain, the most important group of all time

From August 1960, The Beatles played a 48-night residency at the Indra club in Hamburg’s red-light district. The audience was composed mainly of working girls and their punters; the band, then a five-piece, slept in the club, in a back room next to the men’s toilets. John Lennon said, “I might have been born in Liverpool, but I grew up in Hamburg.”

70

The Beatles released Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in June 1967. The album cover depicts 70 figures from all over the world brought together for an illustrious group picture of “new, free people”, as LSD evangelist and Beatles confidante Timothy Leary had christened them. There was Karl Marx and Marlene Dietrich, Albert Einstein and Oscar Wilde; Jesus and Adolf Hitler were rejected by the record company.

29,375 The opening chord in ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is one of the best known in pop history.

For decades, guitarists have tried to get to the bottom of that off-key, variegated sound. So too did mathematics professor Jason Brown, who examined the chord scientifically and broke it down into 29,375 frequencies. And his conclusion? Producer George Martin must have been playing five keys on the piano at the same time.

The Beatles have set records with their records that are unlikely to be broken. No one else has so many platinum records (41), so many US number-one singles (20) and number-one albums (19). All told, roughly 1.5 billion Beatles records have gone over the counter. Even The King, Elvis Presley, can’t keep up; he’s only sold about a billion.

3,000

When the tune for ‘Yesterday’ came to Paul McCartney in his sleep, he wondered if he’d heard it somewhere before. “For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before. Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it.” Musicians later got in touch to ask if they could create their own versions of the song. With 3,000 recorded versions, ‘Yesterday’ is the most covered song in pop history.

0

Paul McCartney has never died, not even once, despite what conspiracy theorists suggest. They claim McCartney perished in a car accident in 1966 and was replaced by a double. Evidence for this comes in the form of the Abbey Road album cover, on which McCartney is said to be part of a funeral procession, not least because he is barefoot.

They also claim John Lennon mutters the words, “I buried Paul,” at the end of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. (The lyric is probably “Cranberry sauce”.) The cover of McCartney’s 1993 live album Paul Is Live is a retort to the cranks.

The Beatles remastered: www.thebeatles.com

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words: florian obkircher. Photography: GAB Archive/Getty Images (1), Getty Images (2), Ullstein Bild/APA picturedesk (1)

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1,500,000,000

EYEWEAR + ACCESSORIES . SAN FRANCISCO www.sutrovision.com

Action

Going South

This trip of a lifetime for underwater lensman Karl Drevlak, aboard the Professor Molchanov, one of two Russian ships that offer diving expeditions to the Antarctic, was fraught with danger, blood-freezing cold and some very hungry carnivorous leopard seals‌ Photography: Karl Drevlak

Sunrise over the Lemaire Channel on the journey to Antarctica. Just two hours after this shot, the Professor Molchanov crossed the Antarctic Circle, heading south

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Print 2.0

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 More cool photographs from Karl Drevlak’s Antarctic expedition

Action

Cold

Thanks to its high salt content, water temperature in the Antarctic can sink below 0°C, without it freezing solid. Dives of longer than 40 minutes are impossible in this sort of cold. The main threat to divers in the Antarctic is from leopard seals. If the 400kg predator appears, your only chance is to try to escape. People like to tell the story of the British female research diver who fell victim to a leopard seal attack.

When her corpse came to the surface, the depth gauge showed 86m‌ 34

Karl Drevlak (top left) on the deck of the Professor Molchanov shortly before an icy dive in -2°C water at temperatures of -20°C. The divers encountered 15m-long humpback whales (middle left) and the much smaller but extremely dangerous leopard seals (bottom left). “It’s a total predator. If there’s a leopard seal alarm, you have to get out of the water as soon as possible”

Action

Life

Mediterranean blazes of colour in extreme conditions: kelp forests that grow several metres high, starfish, anemones, sea slugs and deep-sea crabs all somehow manage to survive in the Antarctic Ocean

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Underwater photographer Karl Drevlak with his equipment which weighs in at almost 50kg; the photographic gear alone weighs around 11kg

Ice

The Antarctic icebergs have developed bizarre and beautiful shapes over thousands of years. The darker shade of blue the iceberg, the older it is

action

Action

Excursions on land after the icy dives were welcome. Regardless of how cute they are, touching the penguins is an absolute no-no as they have no resistance to human viruses Bottom right: the Professor Molchanov

W

ith two years’ worth of planning, 25 years of diving experience and 70kg of equipment per person, this was no mere holiday jaunt for Karl Drevlak.

The experienced underwater photographer from Styria in Austria visited Antarctica under the guidance of the former World Champion of underwater photographers, Werner Thiele, and a dozen other divers on board the Russian expedition vessel, the Professor Molchanov.

Only this ship and one other Russian vessel offer diving trips around the South Pole. Drevlak realised he wasn’t aboard a cruise liner on the very first day. “Don’t whistle on my boat!” the Russian captain snarled at him. The diver would discover that it is considered bad luck to whistle aboard a ship. On the penultimate day of the trip, an Antarctic gale – 10.4 on the Beaufort scale – raged for 14 hours and held the ship in ice 40cm thick.

“This is your fault,” the captain hissed at him.

For safety reasons, the daily dives were limited to depths of 20-22m, both because of the dangerous leopard seals, which could attack the divers at any moment, and the threat posed by the breathing apparatus icing up, the treacherous underwater currents and the drifting pack ice, which can block the way to the surface in a flash. However none of the divers wanted to overdo the diving anyway.

Within five minutes at the most, the -2°C water had already frozen solid the layers of fleece and thermal underwear the divers wore under their dry suits.

More stunning pictures at en.redbulletin.com/print2.0

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Action

I love “you boys!�

The most memorable moments of a fantastic Formula One season: as told by members of the Red Bull Racing team Words: Anthony Rowlinson, Werner Jessner

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Photography: Getty Images/red bull photofiles

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 Join the championship celebrations on the dancefloor

On November 14, at 18.47 local time, in Abu Dhabi, Sebastian Vettel climbs from his RB6 car as 2010 F1 world champion

Action

If I had to choose one moment of the last season, perhaps I would pick the moment when I knew the RB6 was a fast car.

Wind-tunnel testing is one thing, but you can never be sure. Not even pole position at the first race will guarantee you’ll still be competitive at the last race.

The ‘development race’ between the teams during the season has become so tough, this might be something people outside Formula One don’t fully realise. So my ‘Magic Moment’ has to be the Brazilian GP, when we fought back after that disastrous Grand Prix in Korea two weeks earlier, where we lost both cars. Brazil showed how strong this team really is – it proved our character and it was very, very special.

What makes things even sweeter is the fact that we are a privately owned

“

red bull racing is a close-knit bunch of people, which is hard to find – A true team

”

team that fought the big guys at an even level, beat them and that I was part of the operation almost from the beginning.

When Red Bull bought Jaguar Racing to become Red Bull Racing, Jaguar was the eternal midfielder. Now we are double world champions.

There is also some personal pride involved: I had the opportunity to build a little team and set it up for a fight against the likes of Ferrari and McLaren and so on. Once before in my life, with the Leyton House team I had the opportunity to do something similar. That was a very promising operation, but it fell apart because of money problems.

To get a second chance, with a young, small team and become world champions tastes so sweet. I’ve come full circle.

A champagne moment in São Paulo for Newey (centre) and team principal Christian Horner (right)

➜

Red Bull and Formula One A history in pictures 1987 Austrian Gerhard Berger, driving for Ferrari, becomes the first Red Bullsupported athlete

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Not a great year. The Red Bull-backed Arrows with Jos Verstappen and Enrique Bernoldi scored just one point

1995

2001 Start of the long relationship with the Swiss Sauber F1 team. Drivers included Jean Alesi (above), Mika Salo, and Kimi Räikkönen

Photography: Thomas Butler (1), Getty Images (3), Action Images (1), Heinz Zeggl (1)

> Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer “How we took on the big boys”

The RB6

The stats prove the RB6 was car of the year: both titles, 15 pole positions and nine wins. Developed from 2009's RB5, its sheer speed was unmatched

Monte Carlo

The 'fantasy' Grand Prix that does glamour like no other. It's also one of the toughest tests for drivers, so a 1-2 finish was as sweet as it gets

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Photography: Thomas Butler (1), Getty Images (4), Sutton Images (1), Action Images (1)

> Mark Webber, driver “Monaco: the driver's dream”

Winning the Monaco Grand Prix was very special for sure. It was my best, most important and sweetest victory of all. So many great drivers have won there, and I joined that list: That’s something I’m very proud of. Everything is special in Monaco, even things like the schedule – with first practice on Thursday, a day off on Friday, then back to normal on Saturday. Obviously the track is like nothing else – the scenery, the fans. It’s a legendary event and every boy in a kart dreams of winning there one day. For me, that dream came true.

Walking up to Prince Rainier, being handed the trophy by him, not on a regular podium but on that red carpet so many great drivers have stood on, feeling the atmosphere of the place and having the guys back at the Energy Station waiting to have a party to celebrate the occasion together… So yes that’s my highlight of the year. This win was just one part of winning the constructors’ championship, not the driver’s title for me, but that does no harm to the memory of a special Sunday in May. Monaco 2010 will stay forever.

And the Drivers’ Trophy? I’ll get it next year!

“

Every racer dreams of one day being able to go up to the royal box as a winner

”

Prince Albert of Monaco congratulates an elated Mark Webber after his win in the principality

➜ Red Bull buys Jaguar Racing to become a fully fledged F1 constructor entrant. The RB1 car finishes seventh in the teams’ championship

2004 Support for Jaguar Racing and drivers Mark Webber and Christian Klien. It was the start of something much bigger

2005

RB1

Red Bull brings fresh thinking to F1, such as a team tie-in with the Star Wars episode III premiere and a logo’d bottle for multiple champion Michael Schumacher

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Action

> Helmut Marko, Red Bull Motorsport Special Adviser “We always believed”

There have been so many highlights this year that it’s hard to pick one. But of course the best one was winning the constructors’ title with a 1-2 at Brazil. That was an incredible moment and an amazing achievement for the entire team. I know for Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz it was a dream come true. I think that after achieving commercial success with Red Bull, this F1 title was the next great dream for him. He was almost speechless.

The most emotional moment was at Monte Carlo – winning there with a 1-2 is always going to be special and it was such a difficult race: I think three safety cars and always our cars came back controlling the race from the front, whatever the challenge.

There were signs of what we might achieve in 2008: Mark was on the front

row twice in qualifying and Sebastian won the Italian Grand Prix for Toro Rosso in the same car. So I believed from then that we could achieve great things. There were difficult moments, too – two this season. Turkey, where our drivers hit each other and Silverstone, where a decision was made [to swap nose wings between the drivers’ cars] that was not communicated properly.

That resulted in a lot of emotion and created a big problem and it put a shadow over the weekend after a brilliant win. It was unfortunate because the difference between the wings in terms of performance was absolutely minimal, but a lot of emotion got out.

I suppose these are the problems you have when you have two fast drivers and a fast car. I’d call them ‘lucky problems’.

“

Victory in the constructors’ championship was a dream come true

”

Helmut Marko, Adrian Newey and Christian Horner (left) wear special-edition T-shirts to honour the new champion

Eternal F1 minnow team Minardi becomes Scuderia Toro Rosso and a ‘drivers’ academy’ for rookie talent

First podium for David Coulthard in Monaco

2006 Race hard, party hard. Monaco success prompted a ‘naked’ plunge dive for team boss Christian Horner RB2

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RB3

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> Fabrice Lom, Renault head of track operations “I kept my harbour promise” My magic moment this season… not easy.

I would say Monaco. Why? Firstly the result: we had a 1-2-3 finish with Webber, Vettel and Robert Kubica (all driving Renaultpowered cars) and they had qualified 1-2-3.

The race was perfect for us and it was a really special moment.

And personally, also, Monaco was a special place for us. The Renault team won the Monaco Grand Prix there in 2004 with Jarno Trulli, which was our first ‘modern’ win, so it has always stayed a special place for me. I promised the team then that I would jump in the harbour in celebration, but I never did.

This year, though, I finally kept my promise and I jumped off the Energy Station with the two drivers. I could see that they were going to do it and I said “hold on!” and we all went together.

We were all wet already from champagne and from jumping into the Energy Station swimming pool, so it didn’t feel so bad.

I guess it was about 5-6m and it wasn’t too cold. It was quite nice actually – a really great feeling of freedom and pleasure at finally having kept my promise.

I’ve been with Red Bull since the start and it has been fantastic to be part of a growing team. It really feels like we’ve built this with our bare hands. I remember the first firing up of the engine and it was a nightmare, but what we have done together since then is amazing. It’s not like arriving in a company that has already won world championships and this is just another one. We built this one up and I really feel part of something. And working with such a great group of people – guys like Adrian who’s a genius and feeds your brain every day – is amazing. It’s very rewarding.

“ ”

Photography: Thomas Butler (2), gepa pictures (2), Getty Images (5), Sutton Images (2), Red Bull brand Lab (1), Mark Webber Archive (1)

The race was perfect and this was a really special moment

Fabrice Lom, Webber and Vettel jump from the roof of the Energy Station to take a bath in Monaco harbour

➜ RB4

2007

Vettel takes maiden win with Toro Rosso at the Italian GP. Mark Webber breaks leg in an off-season bike accident

2008 The RB3 chassis is the first for Red Bull designed by guru Adrian Newey; Vettel becomes a Toro Rosso driver; the Wings For Life livery is raced by Coulthard at Silverstone

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LAST-GASP CHAMPION

Sebastian Vettel led the championship for the first and only time after victory in Abu Dhabi.

After 19 gruelling races, he became the sport’s youngest-ever champion

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> Christian Horner, Team Principal “To win again is tougher”

Photography: Thomas Butler (1), Getty Images (2), Sutton Images (2), Red Bull Brand Lab (2)

It’s so hard to pick just one magic moment from a season like that, so I’ll have to choose three: winning the race and the drivers’ title in Abu Dhabi; taking the constructors’ with a 1-2 in Brazil and our 1-2 finish in Monaco.

They were all amazing days.

There were some dark moments, too – like the Jaegermesiter-Red Bull cocktails the mechanics mixed for me in Abu Dhabi. My head’s still feeling those. But really, the double non-finish in Korea that put Fernando Alonso back in the lead of the drivers’ title was very hard to take when we had dominated the race. Australia was frustrating earlier in the year when a convincing lead slipped away.

Now we have to look immediately at defending our title – something that very few teams manage to do, so that has to be our challenge for 2011. We’re determined not to fade, and with the tremendous group of people we have in the team I’m sure that won’t happen.

“

Winning the constructors' title with a 1-2 finish in brazil was amazing

”

A 1-2 and victory in the constructors’ championship made the podium in Brazil extra-sweet for Vettel and Webber

➜ Red Bull Racing’s first win: a 1-2 in China, Vettel ahead of Webber

2009

RB5

Webber’s first F1 win comes at the German GP. The team has four 1-2 finishes this season

2010 In only its sixth season, Red Bull Racing takes both world titles – and no team orders!

RB6

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> Sebastian Vettel, World Champion “When the world stood still” It’s not hard to guess what my magic moment is, is it?

Of course, it’s the moment I knew I was World Champion.

During the race I asked my race engineer not to tell me the positions of the other drivers and I could not see their exact position on the trackside video screens.

But it was odd because Rocky [Vettel’s race engineer, Guillaume Rocquelin] was very talkative during the last 10 or so laps. That’s quite unusual when you’re leading a race by a comfortable margin and your car is running like clockwork. After the finish line he came up on the intercom and said: “We are looking good…”

Then he called the drivers by name who crossed the line: Hamilton… Button… Rosberg… Kubica. I knew now he was supposed to say “Alonso”, but instead he said: “Du bist Weltmeister!” in German. And at that moment the world stood still. Really, I swear: the whole world stood absolutely still for one second. Nothing moved, there was no sound, no heartbeat, nothing. All the emotions, the tears, the joy, it all came afterwards.

My magic moment is that second on the cooling-down lap of Abu Dhabi, where the world stood still.

TEAM GAME The drivers get the glory, but as you can see in this shot from the final race of the year, it’s the team behind them that create the winning magic

Ahead of the rest.

Vettel’s race engineer chose the Abu Dhabi race to remind him of his first win by writing Monza on his balaclava

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Nothing moved, There was no sound, no heartbeat, nothing.

All the emotions, the tears, the joy, it all came afterwards

See all the victory celebrations at en.redbulletin.com/print2.0

Photography: Thomas Butler (1), getty images (2)

�

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The new Giant of Skye If you haven’t seen Danny MacAskill, you don’t do YouTube.

The viral video of the Scot’s masterful reinterpretation of the streets of Edinburgh changed his life. Next up? Scotland Words: Andreas Tzortzis Photography: Paul Calver

Print 2.0

en.redbulletin.com/print2.0 See MacAskill in action

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Worth the wait: A rare glimpse of sunshine on Raasay, where MacAskill goes airborne from the former foundations of an iron mine and World War I prisoner camp

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B

y the time he was in his late 20s, Angus MacAskill stood 7ft 9in tall and weighed over 28 stone. His waist measured 80in, his hands were the size of frying pans and stories of his feats of strength had extended beyond the small colony of Scottish immigrants in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where he lived. A gentle giant with curly black hair and friendly, deep-set blue eyes, Angus was around to take over when a horse fell ill and a field needed ploughing or a barn needed raising. In 1849, a savvy American talent agent brought him on tour of lower Canada and the United States. He drew awestruck crowds wherever he went, earning a fine living to help support his parents and siblings back home. When robbers boarded his train heading out west, Angus scattered the outlaws by rising to his full height. He once bought a round of drinks for an entire bar, and then stepped over to a 140lb barrel of whiskey, knocked the bung out and raised it in a toast. He returned home in the mid-1850s, bought a grist mill and built a shop (with 9ft-high door frames), and was a beloved member of the local community until he took ill in August 1863. He was moved back to his parents’ house, his childhood bed lengthened, but didn’t last a week before dying in his sleep on August 8, 1863, at the age of 38.

In April 2009, 146 years later, a young man by the name of Daniel MacAskill, native of the Isle of Skye and a descendant of the Scottish giant, settled onto a couch with his flatmate Dave Sowerby and two friends in his Edinburgh apartment.

They hit play on a remote control and watched a film of 5 minutes 38 seconds, which Sowerby had made, showing MacAskill on a trials bike in Edinburgh doing incredible tricks off fences, down stairs, off sloped brick walkways, and a tree. There were several nods of appreciation, some sarcastic comments, then the group switched channels to watch Family Guy. Someone from MacAskill’s sponsors, Inspired Bicycles, uploaded the video later that night onto YouTube.

By the following morning, the BBC was on the phone, asking about the 56

video. Then, the newspapers were on the phone. Then a South Korean circus, asking if he’d like to join them. MacAskill checked the YouTube hits as they climbed over the 100,000 mark, then to over half a million… then over a million. A flair for spectacle, it seems, courses through the MacAskill bloodline.

What began as a small project to show friends and hopefully get some responses from the biking community, turned into a viral sensation. At last count, MacAskill’s video has logged more than 21 million views. That’s a ridiculous amount for Susan Boyle, never mind a bike mechanic from the Isle of Skye.

Now who’s the giant?

“It’s absolutely horrendous. If you walk into a shopping centre, you’ll hear the whispers,” says Nash Masson, MacAskill’s long-time riding partner and one of the guys on the couch that night. “You’ll get 80-year-olds coming up and saying ‘My granddaughter showed me your video.’”

Hero creation in the digital age is a quantifiable endeavour. Make a video, put it on YouTube, and 100,000 hits will get you respect. Half a million might get you signed. More than a million and you’re in life-changing territory.

Sponsors started arriving with contracts by autumn 2009. MacAskill gave up his job at an Edinburgh bike shop, and shelved his career plan of becoming the mechanic of a downhill bike-racing team. In the past year, he’s travelled to Portugal, where he filmed a commercial for Volkswagen; to California for a photo shoot and, in September, to New York, to work as the stunt cyclist in a forthcoming movie.

A ratty passport in the cluttered bedroom of his childhood home in tiny Dunvegan

Tree-hugging star Since uploading it in April 2009, MacAskill’s YouTube video, made with flatmate and filmmaker Dave Sowerby over four months of cold winter in Edinburgh, has been viewed more than 21 million times. The pièce de résistance?

MacAskill’s fluid backflip off a tree.

is filled with additional stamps – from customs in Abu Dhabi, and the Far East.

There might have been more had MacAskill not broken his collarbone last autumn. Three times in half a year, in fact. The same one, by the way, and it looks a bit like a gnarled root underneath his moon-white skin. And while he was laid up, he tried to make sense of what his life had become.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he says. “I’ve said it so many times, but we literally didn’t expect it… It’s weird.

I don’t feel like… I feel like I’m the same person I was when I worked at the bike shop. But every month…”

The rest got lost in the din of the Misty Isle hotel bar, down the street from his childhood home in Dunvegan. It was late August and MacAskill was home to work on his new project. It’s a new video; a two-wheeled love poem, if you will, to Scotland and, in particular, to his beloved Isle of Skye. Since midsummer, MacAskill and Sowerby have been crisscrossing the lochs and highlands of Scotland in a used camper van carrying a pair of brand-new sub-woofers and crash mats on the roof. They’ve stopped to shoot on windswept beaches, massive dams, industrial ruins and the odd castle.

But essential to the new film, according to MacAskill, is the depiction of the isle on which he grew up. A landscape that changes majestically between rough-hewn crags and the verdant bracken around the isle’s lochs, Skye has been inviting to only the hardiest and most single-minded of souls in the past few centuries.

The home of powerful clans and the occasional magical fairy in its long history, nowadays it’s British retirees and the island’s native sons and daughters, working in tourism or various odd jobs, who populate Skye. “I’ve put pressure on myself to make this place look like I want it to, and ride it the way I think it should be ridden,” he says. “I want to represent how I feel about where I’m from. I want people from here to look at it and say, ‘That’s cool!’”

The cyclist’s childhood friends, a boisterous group of electricians, mechanics and off-shore oil rig workers – most, it seems, named Kenny – gathered at the increasingly rare sight of MacAskill at home.

In the past week, they helped him dig and stack peat for ramps and cut down bracken in locations around Skye.

Several had been out earlier, watching him ride around in the drizzle of the skinny isle of Raasay, between Skye and the

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More than a million hits on YouTube and you’re in lifechanging territory.

MacAskill has 21 million

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mainland. MacAskill had planned a big day that involved jumping his bike and whipping 360s down a set of six massive concrete blocks, the remnants of a former iron mine and World War I prisoner camp. The weather, as it often does in this area of the world, didn’t play along.

And so, a few hours later, his compact and sinewy 5ft 8in frame was perched on the edge of a bar stool at the Misty Isle, the less salubrious of the two dives Dunvegan was stuck with or had earned, depending on your perspective. Glasses were passed around and the group toasted: “To Collarbones!”

Considering that his thirst for highrisk adventure began at a very young

age, it seems like MacAskill got off easily with nothing more than a series of broken collarbones and a broken wrist or two.

Small for his age, MacAskill was the most fearless of his group of friends growing up in Dunvegan. His father, Peter, a local personality from whom Danny has inherited a sharp nose, a stubborn focus and a penchant for mischief, obliged when his son asked him to help string fishing nets across the base of the trees in the family’s backyard. From a height of 10-20ft, and sometimes more, MacAskill and friends would leap from the tree tops and somersault into the nets. There was also something called boulder-rolling,

Did you see that?

Granted, 21 million is hard to top. But here are five videos we think should get a bit more attention

Guillaume nery http://bit.ly/algpU0 BASE-jumps into a black hole underwater.

And then climbs back out.

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DAN OSMAN http://bit.ly/9ssijd

ASHER BRADSHAW http://bit.ly/atrzf7

Free climbs up 400-plus feet of California cliff.

In 4 minutes 25 seconds.

The six-year-old doing grown-up things on a skateboard down in Venice Beach.

MIKE PARSONS http://bit.ly/KxIOG

fred syversen http://bit.ly/asU1Tb

Recovers from a devastating wipeout the wave before to surf a 40-ft-plus monster at Jaws.

Drops 351ft off a snowy cliff on skis. And in doing so, sets a world record (unintentionally).

which kind of explains itself and seems just as ridiculous and dangerous.

Once, MacAskill and an accomplice decided to “do a little DIY” as he recalls, jig-sawing a doorway into a wall in one of their friends’ homes, knocking down the sink that they found (with surprise) on the other side, and burying it underneath the floorboards before anyone noticed.

“Skye was an awesome place to grow up in, but you had to make your own fun,” he remembers.

Mostly, that was to be found on his bike. Peter and Anne MacAskill didn’t recall exactly when they gave Danny his first bike, but they remembered without a doubt how quickly he took to it. So did the townsfolk. “He was a nutter,” says Willie Allan, who was having a fag outside of the Dunvegan Hotel as MacAskill filmed a part on the kerbs of the car park. “He was fearless.”

From the age of four to before he left Skye for Aviemore in his late teens, there wasn’t a kerb, rail, wall or skip that MacAskill hadn’t pounded with his tyres – or limbs.

“He was very popular as a child in the village,” says Peter MacAskill.

“The majority of people loved him, aside from the people whose newly painted walls he rode along.” Well, them, and the local constable, whose office was located conveniently down the road from the MacAskill home for his frequent visits there. When Danny was 13, the exasperated PC finally confiscated his bike for the summer, after he caught MacAskill doing a wheelie along the pavement. “In a small village,” Peter MacAskill offers, “the police don’t have much to do.”

But he carried on in the same vein.

His small, wiry body and love for throwing himself from trees had given him flexibility, spatial awareness and a certain fearlessness.

Without a group of like-minded riders to follow and only two bike videos in his collection, MacAskill developed a singular style, marrying the balance and technique of the trials scene with the speed and vision for trick combinations of the BMX crowd.

His skill at both was on full display in the video: riding with power as he jumped from one sloped wall to another and balancing precariously (and falling a few times) as he crossed the top of a narrow wrought-iron fence. “I missed out on having a scene,” recalls MacAskill.

“But at the same time, it’s meant that I’m able to ride the way I do.” What wasn’t

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Growing up on Skye involved a lot of ‘DIY’.

YouTube stardom doesn’t change all that much

The roadshow stops wherever there’s a ledge to jump off Dunvegan car park: He’d have been arrested for this as a boy

“I’ve put pressure on myself to make this place look like I want it to, and to ride it the way I think it should be ridden” apparent in the finished product, is the hours that go into making a film look that smooth. One of the final shooting locations in Dunvegan was the town bakery, a small thatched cottage with a ramp up to the front door that MacAskill had been riding on or around since he was a kindergartner.

The plan was to get a fast run-up to a small grassy knoll, from which he hoped to get enough air to tap the tyres of his bike 5ft up on the whitewashed bakery wall – and inches above the window – before landing again. Sowerby set up his camera close to the side of the two-lane road that bisected Dunvegan, moving it every time a car neared. Inside

the bakery, Janice MacLellan finished up for the day as the sun began its slow descent. MacAskill was outside, placing a board over the window. “Danny!” yelled a woman from across the street.

“Janice says don’t go on the roof!”

“I don’t really care, as long as he doesn’t go through the window,” says MacLellan. Like everyone in Dunvegan, the baker has known the YouTube sensation since he was a small child. “He’s done this forever,” she says. “The amount of time he’s put into it, he deserves it.”

A dozen or so locals, including several children, gather in the car park as MacAskill takes a few run-ups,

measuring his speed and eyeballing the angle of the jump. “For me, it’s the same kind of sense you’d have, if you were trying to walk along the street and you had to jump over a manhole cover,” he says. “I look at something, I know what I can do and straight away I can kind of visualise what I’d like to do.”

Of course, visualising it is not even close to actually pulling it off. On his first dozen or so attempts, MacAskill struggles with his speed, braking slightly before launching off the knoll. He barely clears 2ft. “My commitment issues,” Danny says to himself. His mother, who is standing nearby overhears and shoots back: “Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”

Next to her, Peter MacAskill wears a bemused expression.

The sun has been unseasonably generous on this day, but as it begins to bathe the green hills and blue-ish inlet west of Dunvegan in light for the final time, it becomes clear that it isn’t going to be MacAskill’s day.

“I’m going to give it one more try,” he says. He looks around at the crowd uneasily and tries to ignore it all, the way he did back when it was just him and a bike and a pair of headphones for company. From way deep in the car park, MacAskill races out and zips past the onlookers, across the two-lane road, hits the jump and plants both tyres firmly on the board covering the window. A cheer goes up from the crowd. The 20th jump is his first successful one. But he’ll need a few more tries before getting it perfect – Danny MacAskill-perfect.

With the sun all but gone, the crew wraps up and drives back down the road, pulling into the small gravel car park in the MacAskill’s front yard. Facing the street is a small thatched cottage, the home of the Giant MacAskill museum, opened by Peter in 1989. An eerielooking life-size replica of Angus MacAskill stands in a corner next to a massive chair on which visitors can sit for photographs. Laid carefully across a replica of Angus MacAskill’s huge bed are socks the size of suit trousers. Very little has changed since MacAskill opened the museum to his famous ancestor more than two decades ago.

Aside from the front door, that is, where a poster of Angus’ descendant doing a jump in front of some trees now hangs. Time will tell which MacAskill will be the more famous.

MacAskill’s new film, Way Back Home, is out next month. View teasers at enredbulletin.com/print2.0 Watch the clip that made him famous at en.redbulletin.com/macaskill

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Like father, like son. Seun Kuti stands at the microphne at the Fela Kuti tribute concert and celebrates Afrobeat‘s raw energy

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It’s a Felabration Music producer and intrepid correspondent James Singleton, akaJames Pants, gives in to dodgy touts and navigates kamikaze traffic in Lagos on his way to witnessing the world’s greatest drummer team up with a Detroit DJ legend Photography: Liam Lynch

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Tony Allen played with Fela Kuti‘s band for two decades and helped define Afrobeat with his complex rhythms. Nowadays, he shares the stage with people like former Blur, and current Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn or Charlotte Gainsbourg

Theo Parrish reinvented house music 15 years ago in Detroit. Here, he provides low-end frequencies on keyboards during Tony Allen‘s performance at the festival

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The small market stands and umbrellas offer respite from the heat in the Ikeja district

Buildings adorned with graffiti warning off potential thieves are quite common

The preferred mode of transportation for Lagos: Motorcycles define the rhythm of the Nigerian capital‘s streets and serve as taxis for those late for that meeting

A practice session in the hotel‘s abandoned water park. Not the best acoustics for Tony Allen and Theo Parrish to run through their set list before the festival

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rom the moment I stepped off the plane, I must have stuck out like a fish on land. A sea of eyes followed my every move with amusement and distrust. On the street, car horns blared, people shouted, and mopeds darted around like diesel-spewing moths. A grinning man in flowing white garb approached me. It appears I seemed ripe for the taking. He didn’t introduce himself, but shaking my hand, he suggested I follow. I had my reservations, but at this point I had no idea what I was doing, where I was going, or whom I was supposed to meet. Screw it. I went along.

Wading through an ocean of people, I found myself passed off to a pair of former Nigerian professional wrestlers. They introduced themselves as Machiavelli and Cosmos. Machiavelli wore a Tupac shirt littered with plastic gemstones.

Cosmos chose the more conservative route and dressed in a bright-blue tennis shirt.

Differences aside, these men most definitely meant business. At this point, I had two options. The first was probably the saner – to flee. The second was to trust in the goodness of humanity and climb into a dilapidated Mazda passenger van with these men. I chose the latter. Thus began my week-long Nigerian adventure.

Before I dig into the trenches though, I need to give an explanation of the raison d’être. I was sent on a special mission from 63

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Red Bull Music Academy to help facilitate a concert collaboration featuring the legendary Nigerian afrobeat drummer, Tony Allen, and Detroit house-maestro, Theo Parrish. The concert was part of the annual Felabration festival, which commemorates the legacy left by afrobeat originator, political singer, and musical icon, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who died in 1997. Afrobeat is a homegrown local music style that combines traditional West African rhythms with the energy and intensity of American funk music. Fela is basically the Nigerian counterpart to James Brown, but bigger.

Allen happened to be Fela’s premier drummer throughout the ’70s, playing on hundreds of songs. He is credited with inventing the highly syncopated drum patterns that give the afrobeat genre its forward-thrusting sound.

Allen has been described by a multitude of musicians, such as Brian Eno, as the greatest drummer who has ever lived – no small words.

With him was Theo Parrish, Detroit musical legend who composes and produces records on his own label and DJ’s all over the world. He continues to be one of the true innovators of the Detroit techno and house scene.

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he pair met several years ago when the four-week international music workshop, the Red Bull Music Academy, brought them together in Toronto.

They kept in touch, and recorded several songs together at the Red Bull Studio in London earlier this year.

The aforementioned concert was to feature both musicians performing their collaborative work. So there it is. And where was I? Still in the van.

We sailed through the nighttime city chaos. Or more correctly, sputtered. You can’t move more than 5ft before some kamikaze comes weaving through on a moped. People crossed the street in a constant stream holding chickens, selling household wares, and carrying immense amounts of random detritus on their heads. Cosmos, behind the wheel, seemed unfazed. Nigerians are some of the most skilled drivers on the planet. If the end of the world occurs in my lifetime, I’m hiring a Nigerian to drive me through the carcass of the scorched earth.

We rolled into a gated, fortress-like structure some considerable time later.

I was told that this was the hotel. Thank God I was indeed safely in the hands of the appropriate company. The hotel

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The legendary New Africa Shrine is sold out: all are present to pay homage to the grand master of Afrobeat.

Tony Allen‘s performance was his first live one in Nigeria in 30 years

Backstage at the New Africa Shrine, dancers rehearse their routine ahead of the concert

Musicians, dancers, entertainers: everyone’s welcome on the performance stage

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“Incense, smoke and sweat bathed the air.

The red walls were sticky with resin.

A muscular dancing dwarf appeared…”

James Singleton, 27, alias James Pants lives in Spokane, Washington. The multi-instrumentalist with albums on Stones Throw Records does double duty as a globe-trotting journalist when required. Even if that double duty can sometimes be exhausting

resembled one of those cookie-cutter chains, but one difference reminded me I was not in Kansas – a perimeter patrolled by heavily-armed guards.

Wild-eyed with excitement for the adventures in store, I turned off the lights in a vain attempt to rest. Some soft buzzing sounds brushed past my ear. Mosquitos. Thank heavens I was covered head-to-toe with a lather of DEET and filled with a concoction of nauseating anti-malarial medication.

The next few days brought a string of rehearsals featuring Allen on drums, Parrish on keys, and a local cast of about a dozen or so percussionists, horn, guitarists and a Parisian bass player.

The band was stacked. The rehearsals were held in a defunct waterpark in the grounds of the aptly-named, ‘Aquatic Hotel’. Giant dragonflies darted by while onlookers peeked out of apartment windows at the raucous afro-funk sound on the ground floor. The band rolled through a handful of Tony’s compositions, as well as a few by Fela himself. Seun Kuti, son of the legend, showed up to rehearse a few songs on saxophone.

Soaking in the Nigerian sun, eating yucca-root samosas and listening to the joyous afrobeat was my preferred pastime. I really couldn’t complain.

Feeling a hint of Puritan guilt caused by the comforts, however, I decided I needed a break one afternoon, and ventured to the beach with Machiavelli, crawling through colourful terrain filled with bright pink shanties, shiny green motorcycles, and vendors hawking purple taro root. We passed flooded deltas, where young boys fished, and houses sat on stilts. When the car came to a halt, street merchants would knock on the car windows offering everything from pencils to the latest R. Kelly bootleg.

After a short stop and a belly full of chilli-spiced croaker fish, we arrived at the beach. I breathed in the salty Atlantic air. Not the most beautiful beach I’ve

ever seen, but shells lay abundant on the sand and the water was warm.

Thursday night brought the big event.

The concert was to take place at the New Africa Shrine, the legendary venue where Fela often performed in the ’70s and ’80s. For decades this has been the spot in Lagos for concerts. Mobs lined the street outside to get in. The building was a hive of activity. The concert security bustled around carrying golf clubs, bats and wooden boards for protection. As a cavalcade of opening acts primed the crowd, which provided a constant stream of shouting, whistling and applause. Incense, smoke and sweat bathed the air. The red walls were sticky with some kind of resin. An incredibly muscular, dancing dwarf appeared throughout the night. All the conditions were met to have a good party.

On stage, throngs of colourfully costumed dancers gyrated to the music.

The dancing often seemed to contain elements of a storyline, things like husbands coming home from work and being beaten by their wives. This was all to great applause by the females.

Around 3am, Allen and the band took to the stage. They burned through songs off his recent Secret Agent album, as well as the songs Allen and Parrish cooked up together in London. The horns sounded fierce. And, for being a septuagenarian, Allen sounded fierce as well. Seun Kuti joined the band on saxophone and vocals in the final moments for several classically boisterous Fela compositions.

Throughout the hour-long performance, an intensely energetic reverence filled the auditorium. This was the first time Allen had performed Fela Kuti’s songs in Lagos in 30 years. Cameras shot off like fireworks; several elderly women wept; a success story, through and through.

It was well into the 5am hour when the band packed up. The security guards put their clubs and bats in a pile and opened beers. Machiavelli signalled that he was ready to return me to the fortress.

Driving back to the hotel, I reflected on the vibrancy of the Nigerian culture.

Here, in Africa’s most populous country, where extreme wealth and poverty sidle up next to each other, sincerely beautiful music continues to be created. The complex rhythms Tony Allen pioneered seemed to mimic the sights, sounds, and smells within the African city. And this is the beautiful cacophony that is Lagos.

“Whatever it is or whatever it becomes – crazy or not, it is my home” – Tony Allen, Seun Kuti and Theo Parrish can be found on www.redbullmusicacademy.com

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“ First you’ve got to beat the Dakar” As the Volkswagen Motorsport team prepared for the defence of its Paris-Dakar title in the Sahara, The Red Bulletin joined them Words: Werner Jessner

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The Dakar isn’t quite F1. This is the garage in Morocco. By the doors is Eduard Weidl, the technical director and father of the Race Touareg

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Peru Bolivia

Arica Iquique

Brazil

Calama

Antofagasta Copiapó Chilecito

San Salvador de Jujuy San Miguel de Tucumán Córdoba Victoria

San Juan

Argentina

BUENOS AIRES

Chile

Dakar takes place in South America for the third time in 2011. The start and finish line of the endurance classic is, as before, Buenos Aires. The victors will be crowned after 14 day-long stages featuring sporting as well as natural highlights. Among them, the Atacama Desert and the crossing of the Andes

photography: Ferdi Kräling Motorsport-Bild

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ris Nissen, Volkswagen’s Director of Motorsport, has a problem. Giniel de Villiers and Mark Miller have been hounding their Race Touaregs through the Moroccan desert 500 miles a day, every day for two weeks, sometimes on unimaginably bad tracks, but they’re still using the original driveshafts. “They’ve already lasted for over 4,350 miles, but they only need to last for 950 to 1,250 miles as they’re changed every other day anyway.” So what’s the problem? “It means they could be lighter. On the other hand, such a stable car obviously has its advantages. It means the car isn’t pushed to the limit under normal circumstances.

So when you really have to go for it during the race, the chances are the car will come through unscathed.”

Welcome to hell. Or as close as you can get. It’s 46ºC and there’s not a puff of wind. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, as yesterday’s breeze turned into a fully fledged sandstorm within half an hour, which did a pretty good job of getting rid of the mix of mud and straw the garage was plastered with.

Three geckos hide under a dustbin to shelter from the sun.

But the people wearing dark-blue T-shirts aren’t here to enjoy Morocco’s flora and fauna, nor to enjoy the spectacular desert landscape. And you’d be hard-pushed to imagine anything more off-season than early August on the edge of the Sahara.

Any illusion of tourism is shattered. Fossil collectors never venture to the east of Morocco at this time of year.

Which is only a good thing as far as the Volkswagen Motorsport people are concerned, as it means they can simulate all the stresses and strains of the Dakar Rally in close to real 67

A quick look into the cockpit gives some idea of just how complicated the co-driver’s job is

The new Touareg More speed, more power

ENGINE A 2.5-litre dual turbocharged diesel engine and five-speed sequential transmission. A restrictor plate reduces power to 310bhp. The torque is impressive at 700 Nm. BODYWORK Aerodynamically and thermally improved, though otherwise close to the mass-produced model.

The downside is the angle of driving slope is marginally worse.

EASY TO SERVICE and durable: those have always been the Touareg’s strengths.

Higher gearing and a more powerful engine should also now make it the quickest car in this year’s field.

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photography: Ferdi Kräling Motorsport-Bild (3), getty images (1)

FRAME The Race Touareg 3’s core is an aeronautic steel multi-tubular frame. Particularly impressive is the performance of the two ZF-Sachs dampers on each wheel. In the rear: spare wheels, sand ladders, parts.

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circumstances without being disturbed.

It won’t be anywhere near as bad as this in the Atacama Desert in January.

The Long Run was once a stage on the Paris-Dakar Rally. It’s not particularly difficult from a navigational point of view, but it does have tortuous stony roads, rutted tracks, an untold number of sudden treacherous waves and a dune field to deal with too. The speed that Mark Miller – who came third in this year’s Dakar – manages to achieve here is incredible. “This is a double caution,” he croaks into the radio, “but what the hell.” Before his co-driver even sees it, the shade on the horizon is a pot-hole half a metre deep, Mark has decided to ignore it – no laughing matter at speeds of 110mph – and carries on talking about racing bikes. For any normal car, this pot-hole wouldn’t just have been a “double caution”. It would have been the end.

The car gives a bit of a jerk, the engine gets louder for a second as all four wheels are off the ground, and then the blue VW thunders on as if nothing had happened.

Have we just used the whole range of spring? Mark puts us at ease. We have, but he’s happy that the dampers are so well calibrated that they can deal with the very progressive ‘bottoming out’.

That’s something to be very proud of.

The VW Race Touareg, the winner of the last two Dakar rallies (in 2009 with Giniel de Villiers and 2010 with Carlos Sainz behind the wheel), is a racing car at the top of its game. When the BMW X3s from Sven Quandt’s X-Raid team briefly displayed some speed last year, Volkswagen Motorsport was already working out how to improve the Touareg back home in Hanover. Which meant a greater top speed (this year it can reach 120mph, like the BMW, rather than the 112mph it posted last year) and minimised power loss at altitude (now the five-cylinder diesel engine only loses 15 to 20 per cent of its power at 2,700m above sea-level as opposed to 30 per cent last year). The reason for that is the power units having a better air supply (there are now two air inlets on the roof). Meanwhile the sales department wanted the car to be more similar to the mass-produced model, which has led to new lights and the front end of the car becoming 5mm longer.

“OK, so the angle of driving slope might not be as good as it was [meaning the new car can’t attack as steep a slope as its predecessor without damage], but the drivers come back from the dune stages with the front end of the car all

squashed anyway,” Eduard Weidl, the technical mastermind behind the Race Touareg, explains with a wry smile.

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he Austrian, who had already come up with rallying and touring cars for Audi and Super Touring racing cars for Opel, has created his masterpiece with the Race Touareg.

The 1,800kg car has a multi-tubular frame made of 126m of aeronautic steel and a five-cylinder, twin-turbo diesel engine at its core. It’s 100 per cent prototype: “There’s nothing really left of the original Touareg,” Weidl muses, “although obviously we use a lot of parts from different firms. The VW logo comes from a design study of a bus, the cooler comes from a Porsche Boxster, the air-conditioning compressor comes from a VW Lupo.”

Hang on a second. Air conditioning?

“Air conditioning really helps in the desert,” says Timo Gottschalk, the co-driver to Nasser Al-Attiyah, who finished second behind Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz last year. “It brings the temperature inside the car down by 15 degrees. It’s very pleasant when you bear in mind the temperatures in the desert, the large windscreen and how hot your legs get from the engine and it helps you maintain your concentration. But it’s not at all uncommon for you to lift your feet off the ground in the car, as the heat that creeps up through your shoes is unbearable.”

The co-driver’s job, chiefly as navigator, is just as tough mentally as the driver’s. Reading the road-map, keeping their bearings, constantly adjusting the tripmaster because a straight line on the GPS is, of course, never a straight line in the sand, finding the checkpoints and being even more precise than they used to be (from 2011, you have to get within 400m of them rather than 3km as things were before), keep an eye on the competition and make lightning-quick decisions, every one of which might cost more time than the driver can make up for, even if he takes excessive risks.

The boys in the proverbial hot seat are the unsung heroes of the Dakar. You’re wasting your time if you haven’t got a strong personality. Oh, and by the way, the co-driver’s got to be able to tinker with the car too, because when things go wrong, they’ve got to be fixed. Carlos Sainz’s codriver Lucas Cruz is considered the best mechanic among the navigators. Timo Gottschalk has a degree in mechanical

kris nissen Team Director, VW Dakar Project What are your expectations for 2011?

After last year’s victories, everyone expects us to repeat the success. We do too. But BMW have improved, and if it wasn’t for his technical difficulties, Robby Gordon could have secured a podium finish last year. We’re the favourites but we know it won’t be easy. The course is going to be tougher than last year too.

But a tough course should suit the Race Touareg, shouldn’t it?

Yes, I’d say so. Our car is very well engineered and it’s quick. This year’s Race Touareg is definitely the best we’ve ever had.

Is the team the best it’s ever been too?

We’ve had the best team since 2008 now.

If we’re even better this year, it’ll be because we remain very constant and know how to win. Four of the five best crews are sitting in our cars. The only one who isn’t in one of ours is Peterhansel.

Will any win do?

Absolutely. First you’ve got to beat the Dakar itself, and only then the competition.

markus preuth Team Doctor, VW Dakar Project What happens when someone at VW gets injured?

The organisers provide 30 doctors for first aid and transport.

I take over at the hospital and decide whether further steps need to be taken for a more complete diagnosis and organise the injured party’s transport home. And people are always happy to see a familiar face.

What are the most common problems you face?

Colds, sore throats, hoarseness, diarrhoea or little injuries people pick up working on the car. I probably see all 100 team members at some point during the rally.

What and how much do the drivers drink?

Depending on the stage, between 2 and 5 litres of an electrolyte drink designed by the University Hospital in Bad Nauheim to meet the stresses and strains of motorsport.

We use CamelBaks [portable drink pouches] attached to the back of the seats.

What happens at the camp?

By the time they come in, the chef will have made them pasta to fill them up with carbs.

We don’t have any diet sheets. The guys are professional enough as it is. The only rule is that this is no time for experiments.

While the driver is being briefed, the co-driver gets a massage and vice versa.

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Why it’s the ‘Toughest Race on Earth’

Sand man: Giniel De Villiers has mastered the Atacama desert, but that won’t make the 2011 Dakar any easier

The Red Bulletin: It’s hot.

Giniel De Villiers: Oh yes. But you do get used to it a little. You get extreme temperatures here: 50ºC in the shade and 60ºC out on the dunes. We do have an air conditioner in the car which helps a lot and brings the temperature down by 15º inside. It’s still hot though, but manageable.

So what is it about the Dakar that gives it the reputation for being the toughest race on earth?

It’s the length. It’s more than double the stage mileage of any other rally. You have to concentrate for so much longer.

And the longer it gets, the more difficult it is to concentrate, of course. Navigation is key. And this year it will be a lot more difficult.

As always there are certain GPS points we have to go through, but this year they’ve tightened the radius from 3km to 400m. So you can imagine that if there’s no road to get to that point, it’s quite difficult. It’ll be fun though.

And you can’t recce the stage either, can you?

Not at all. You can’t physically go out and drive the route beforehand.

That’s instant exclusion.

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What about using Google Earth?

You can, yes. When they’re plotting the daily route, co-drivers such as Dirk von Zitzewitz do look at Google Earth maps, as well as some other maps. They also get a road book the night before the day’s stage and then spend most of the night going through it with maps. Despite all this we’re still basically driving blind.

You’ve driven both versions of the Dakar – in Africa and in South America. Which is tougher?

They are two completely different races. I probably like the South American edition of the race more – the atmosphere is unbelievable.

There are almost a million people at the start of the race to support the drivers. That said, the South America Dakar stages are a little bit harder. High altitude is a big factor that makes it tougher for the car and the drivers. The highest point we cross is 2,700m above sea level and the air is pretty thin out there. As far as the terrain is concerned, I would say it’s much the same as in Africa. Perhaps the dunes are a bit bigger in South America, but sometimes bigger dunes are easier to drive over. It’s

less up and down and it’s easier to get stuck in smaller dunes.

Besides all the testing we’re doing here, I’m guessing you need to be in good shape yourself.

Physical preparation is crucial. At home I do a lot of mountain biking – four or five times a week – and gym three times a week. The cars are pretty physical to drive and to drive one for 400 or 500km you need to be in top condition. If you’re not, you lose concentration.

And then you lose the race.

You and your teammates have dominated the Dakar over the past three years. There’s got to be a level of rivalry among you?

There is competition within the team and that’s healthy. Last year there were some words between Carlos Sainz and Nasser Al-Attiyah in the heat of battle, but that’s normal. Afterwards they were talking to each other again. We all get along in a very good way.

The main aim for the team is to win races. There is no such thing as number one, two, three or four in the team. Of course, the guys in our team are all very quick so it’s natural that it will be a big fight between all of us.

Are there any dark horses you’ve identified outside Team VW RaceTouareg?

Sure. There’s also Stephane Peterhansel who’s driving the BMW X3. He’s very experienced. I also hear Marcus Grönholm, the former world rally champion, could be in one of the other BMWs. I think he will be quick on the fast road stages, but otherwise I don’t think he’ll be a contender. It’s rare that someone wins this race straight away. Look at Carlos. He raced for a few years before he was able to win it. In your first year there is so much you have to learn. You have to be in a superior car and you need a lot of luck.

photography: getty images (1), Ferdi Kräling Motorsport-Bild (1)

The 2009 Dakar champion, Giniel De Villiers, takes time out from intensive testing in the Moroccan desert to explain what makes this legendary car- (and man-) breaker so hard

Twice over the Andes and once across the Atacama Desert: this year’s Dakar will have it all again. Start date: January 1, 2011

engineering, as does Ralph Pitchford who sits by Mark Miller’s side. The fourth man in the group, Dirk von Zitzewitz, had been riding a motorbike on the Dakar for years, and having never had a co-driver, he knows what they can bring to a team.

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ut even for experts such as these, practice makes perfect. Before the cars are loaded onto ships, the crews are summoned to Hanover for a week to learn everything there is to know about their Touaregs. Mechanics heat the cars up good and proper to make conditions as close as possible to what they’re likely to face, then they’re given tasks to do, such as change the steering. And all against the clock, of course.

At least they always have a spare steering set-up as well as full-floating axles, suspension arms and other parts at risk of breaking. Whichever of the VW Dakar squads is running last is the one that has to carry the cargo of spares.

It’s not particularly popular, as you can imagine. But it’s necessary because, as Kris Nissen explains: “To finish first, first you have to finish,” using one of

the favourites from his arsenal of motorsport expressions. “The stiffest competition is always the Dakar itself,” he adds – though you’d be hard-pushed to think so from the air. The Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma being piloted by Captain Basbousi, who, with his moustache, wiry figure and grey overalls, looks exactly as you’d expect a Moroccan helicopter pilot to look, tracks Giniel de Villiers from above. Although the service crew back at base in Erfoud always know where the car is, thanks to GPS, the helicopter with the team doctor is still sent out just in case. From above, the desert looks so beautiful, so majestic, so eternal. A flock of dromedaries appears. Giniel passes within 20m of them. None of the animals bats an eyelid.

That’s the calm of the desert for you.

The Race Touareg finally ends up in the dune belt. Rather than taking the shortest line, Giniel constantly makes little turns – left, right, left. “It’s like surfing,” he explains. “You’ve got to be able to read the terrain like a surfer reads the waves. You always try to drive on the crest of the dunes. You never want to go down into them.” But what might look easy or logical from up in the air can look hopeless from where the co-driver

is sitting. It’s all a matter of perspective.

Giniel can see a mountain on the horizon and that becomes his point of reference.

That’s where he’s got to get to. From then on it’s dry surfing, comparable to travelling through deep snow, which you need years to get used to.

The evenings back at the garage in Erfoud start pretty loud. First the helicopter comes back and then the blue car appears 20 minutes later. It’s remarkably quiet for a car of its calibre.

From the way it looks you’d expect it to make a lot more noise. The team of mechanics leap onto the blue monster, wash it, pull off the wheels and fire up the laptop to analyse the performance.

It’s a routine of quick movements.

Precise. Off-pat. The race mechanics are just as competitive as the drivers whose cars they’re looking after.

Barely an hour later, the fuss has died down, although the dampers have been changed as a matter of course and a couple of new components have been installed for testing purposes. Try as they might, they couldn’t find anything else to do.

And there’s a good chance things won’t be all that different on the Dakar itself.

The Dakar Rally, January 1-16, 2011, Argentina and Chile: www.dakar.com

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Mountain bike

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Dress to impress: Women’s race winner Heather Logie (below) chose police uniform, while DJ Birtch (left) wore very little

The Singlespeed World Championships is more of a social event than a sporting one with both professional cyclists and weekend warriors out to have as much fun as possible on two wheels Words: Robert Tighe Photography: Graeme Murray 73

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“It’s kind of a joke of a race but it means a lot at the same time,” says ‘Rad’ Ross Schnell, the runner-up at the 2010 Singlespeed World Championships in Rotorua, New Zealand. “This is the soul of mountain biking. The guy who wins is the fastest dude but we’re all out here having fun.”

If The Dude from The Big Lebowski had been into mountain biking instead of tenpin bowling he would have been a participant in the 2010 SSWC. Consider this philosophical tidbit from Heather Irmiger on the bad start that ruined any chance she had of defending her title: “I was just going with whatever the universe wanted,” she says at the finish with a perma-smile on her dial. “I just went out there and did my thing.”

Irmiger, like Schnell, is a professional mountain bike rider from the US, a country that has embraced the singlespeed subculture. Singlespeed refers to the bikes, which are stripped back to basics with one gear and limited or no suspension.

It is considered a pure form of cycling with the focus on riding rather than fiddling about with gears.

The first world championship for singlespeeders was held in California in 1995. The W.H.I.R.L.E.D. (Wasted Hairy Insanely Retro League of Enlightened Degenerates) Championships attracted more than 250 riders. Since then the event has grown every year and is open to anyone with a single-gear bike and a sense of humour. The laidback vibe of the event attracts cyclists who don’t take themselves or their sport too seriously, as well as professionals like Irmiger and Schnell looking to kick back and relax after a long hard season.

“I think every racer started the sport for something like this, this kind of friendship and camaraderie,” says Irmiger who is pimped out in a retro gold pinstripe sailor suit she found on a strippers’ website.

“You think racing in circles every Saturday (at professional events) is the most important thing in the world but there are all these people out there doing crazy, fun things. We’re all hooligans at heart and it’s so good to get back in touch with that.”

The hooligans have gathered in the marquee the night before the race to watch teams from Ireland, South Africa, Italy and Canada compete in a table quiz with a difference – think clothes pegs on faces and mousetraps on fingers.

The prize: a place in the final eliminator to decide who will host next year’s 74

“The event attracts cyclists who don’t take themselves too seriously” Animal magic: One competitor tries to get a little extra horsepower

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Competitive attitudes: Some riders clowned around while others acted like Muppets

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SSWC. Ireland and South Africa survive the silliness before Dean Watson, the race director, takes to the stage to deliver the pre-race briefing.

“There are some formalities to take care of because we’re combining cycling and alcohol,” says Watson, dressed as Papa Smurf (costumes aren’t compulsory at the SSWC but anyone wearing standard cycling gear risks being laughed at).

“Firstly, there will be two beer shortcuts on the 25-mile course, but remember we do want you to drink responsibly or at least I need to tell you to drink responsibly. What you do after that, I don’t give a damn,” says Watson.

“Secondly, if you’re riding really, really fast, but don’t want a tattoo, don’t win the race. The winner will be tattooed at the finish line, so decide before you start if you want a tattoo or not.”

For the record, the riders who went under the (tattoo) gun after two 12.5-mile laps up and down the trails of Rotorua’s Whakarewarewa Forest – try saying that, never mind riding it, after a couple of beers – were local favourite Garth Weinberg and Heather Logie from Australia. But the SSWC is as much, if not more, about the party than the podium.

Take ‘Disco’ Damian Auton, a sixfoot-something bike café owner from Melbourne who turns up at the start on Saturday morning wearing a disco ball helmet and a striking silver one-piece disco suit sort of thing.

“I dreamed this costume up one night listening to some old ’80s songs,” he explains before breaking into the chorus of The Pina Colada Song (which was actually released in 1979 but went to number one in 1980. If you’re too young to remember it, check it out on YouTube. It’s a classic).

That ‘Disco Damo’ manages to stand out in a crowd of almost 900 riders from 30 different countries, a crowd that includes guys wearing diapers and girls sporting mutton-chop sideburns, says something about his outfit. Others dressed to impress include Marilyn Monroe,

“The SSWC is as much about the party as the podium” 76

Looks amazing Although it’s not obligatory to dress up, most competitors put on a good show. Here are just some of this year’s most impressive outfits, including those of DJ Auton (in glitterball helmet) and Billy ‘Spaceman’ Bleichner (below); Heather Irmiger (stripes and shades); DJ Birtch (G-string and braces); ‘Rad’ Ross Schnell (bottom right with facial hair); and Geoff Huber (Superman)

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“The race starts when the riders finally finish admiring their get-up” The Mark of a Winner

Well done: Women’s runner-up Nic Leary congratulates Heather Logie at the finish

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“Weinberg, you legend!” shouted one admirer as the victor made his way to the cabin just a few metres from the finish line where the tattooist awaited his arrival.

Just minutes after he skidded across the finish line and fell off his bike to embrace his wife Rachel and two daughters, Melissa and Hannah, Garth Weinberg (right) pulled off his shirt and pointed to a spot on his chest where he wanted to be branded. “It will be the last time I’ll probably ever win something like this so I decided a few weeks ago it was going over my heart.”

Heather Logie (left), the winner of the women’s race wasn’t quite so keen when she crossed the finish line and was asked if she was prepared to accept the tattoo.

However, despite some second thoughts she bravely bared her back for a permanent reminder of the Singlespeed World Championships 2010.

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albeit with very hairy legs, and Animal from The Muppets. One poor unfortunate struggles in the sunshine under the weight of a full-camouflage ghillie suit while the crew from Bike Vegas, one of the many local businesses to support the event, come dressed as beer cans.

“It puts the fun back in cycling,” says the appropriately named Dave Joy, owner of Bike Vegas. “There are some serious racers here, but look at all these idiots.

I mean there are kids around,” continues Joy, pointing to a man in a black G-string with the words ‘Happy Pain ‘written in magic marker across his buttocks.

DJ Birtch is the guy in the G-string.

This is his ninth SSWC and he’s concerned about the direction the event is taking.

“Some people have started taking it too seriously. People should be at the bar until at least one o’clock on the night before the race,” he says.

‘How was your night?’

“It’s still going. I got some sleep but I’d have been better if I stayed awake all night.”

“Tell me about your costume.”

“I’m dressed as myself, on any given day,” he says with a giveaway grin. “This is what I wear walking around the streets of Tucson, Arizona.”

“What is Happy Pain?”

“I’m feeling Happy Pain right now and I sure hope the Happy Pain stays for the rest of the day and doesn’t turn into regular pain.”

“Will you take the beer shortcuts?”

“Hell, yeah! I might take the beer and still ride the regular course.”

“Are you in it to win it?”

“Heck, I’m winning right now,” says Birtch as he heads for the start.

When the riders have finished admiring each other’s costumes, the race finally starts at the respectable time of 10.30-ish. Garth Weinberg and the defending champion Ross Schnell steal a march on the rest of the field at the first beer shortcut and the title is ultimately decided at the final beer pit-stop. Despite a super-fast chug by Schnell, he can’t make up a 10-second deficit on Weinberg.

“I don’t think I needed more ink on my body anyway,” says Schnell, “and it’s awesome that Garth won on home territory. The crowd was going nuts in the trees. People were yelling at me, ‘Good job, but slow down.’”

Schnell did slow down after leading Weinberg for the first half of the race, but it was the beer and not the friendly banter from the crowd that did him in.

“I took the first beer shortcut, but I was a little loopy at the end of the first lap. Then I started cramping so I opted

out of the second beer shortcut. I knew if I had another beer I’d be standing on the side of the trail. But there’s water in beer so I don’t know what I was thinking.

It would have numbed the pain.”

Weinberg also struggled with the local brew in his belly, but after a cleansing chunder at the top of one climb, the 38-year-old ‘rode his arse off’ to hang on for the biggest win of his career.

“I went through a really bad patch at the top of one climb. I started throwing up and couldn’t breathe and I was just trying not to choke on my own vomit,” says Weinberg as the tattooist prepped his chest for the unique trophy.

Heather Logie, an adventure racer from Australia, won the woman’s race, wearing a revealing policewoman’s outfit complete with fishnet stockings. Ireland beat South Africa in the horizontal bungee eliminator to win the hosting rights for next year’s event, while Disco Damo crossed the finish line after spending most of his race in the beer tent with New Zealand professional road cyclist Julian Dean.

“I took a dive in the drink and my race was over,” he says, taking a slug from a bottle of beer.

“But the disco ball survived the crash?”

“Yeah man.”

“Are you looking forward to the party later?”

“I’m looking forward to the afterparty.

Last year in Durango, Colorado, the after-afterparty was pretty cool. Those Durango boys… they know how to party,” says Disco Damo, introducing a friend who goes by the name of Spaceman.

“Those Durango boys?” says Spaceman, picking up where Disco Damo left off. “Holy shit!”

“We were hot tubbing…” Auton reminds him.

“Hell, they raised the bar so high, I didn’t even hit my head on it,” deadpans Spaceman, “which made me wonder why it hurt so bad.”

“How did you go?’ I ask Spaceman, steering the conversation away from hot tubs and back to the race.

“Well, I went.”

“Did you finish the two laps?”

“There were two?” says Spaceman with a smile.

“I’ll do the other one tomorrow.”

What a pack of jokers. And it’s still only two in the afternoon. It’s gonna be a long night…

For more pics and video footage from this year’s Singlespeed World Championships visit www.sswc10nz.com.

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More Body&Mind The how, when and where of this month’s issue

Photography: miles holden/ red bull photofiles

82 Where to go snowboarding 84 experience weightlessness 85 a top chef’s secrets 86 get the gear 88 listings 92 nightlife 98 Mind’s eye

If you like your winter sports filled with halfpipes and kickers, snake runs and cliff drops, turn to page 82, where you’ll find 10 of the world’s best freestyle playgrounds

more body & mind

Shredder’s Delight For all those snowboarders and skiers who find over-prepared ‘motorway’ slopes too boring, we present 10 of the most beautiful, most varied and most rambling freestyle playgrounds the world has to offer. Excitement awaits…

1 Whistler Blackcomb (CAN) Whistler Blackcomb, near Vancouver in British Columbia, is one of the oldest parks there is. The area now contains eight parks. You have to pass through all skill levels from Easy Terrain Garden to Habitat Park to Nintendo Terrain Park if you want to be one of the few who makes it into the XL Park. Whistler has always set the benchmark in North America and has been a pioneer on the freestyle scene for years. www.whistlerblackcomb.com 2 Bear Mountain (USA) The All Mountain Terrain Park has been seen as the creative backyard and melting pot of the Southern Californian skatestyle scene ever since it moved to Bear Mountain from Snow Summit 10 years ago. In view of the more-than-150 hits spread all over the mountain, you can find almost every imaginable rail set-up here.

One small tip: you’ll often find wellknown professional riders at the signature rails once the lift has closed, being filmed and photographed in the area known as The Scene. Any real shredder should see this at least once in their lives. www.bearmountain.com 3 Mammoth Mountain (USA) The Unbound Parks at the Mammoth Mountain Resort in sunny California have been among the best and most innovative facilities that North America has to offer freestylers since the mid’90s. With three halfpipes, more than 70 jib features (benches, rails, picnic tables, etc), a boarder cross run through the forest and a virtually unbeatable number of varied tabletops, step-up (landing higher than the take-off) and step-down kickers, they have constantly raised the level over a number of winters.

The Unbound Main, South Park and Family Park provide the perfect opportunity to improve technically. www.mammothmountain.com 82

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more body & mind

Sunset at Ischgl Snow Park

Kronplatz in the Dolomites

Absolutely cool Flachauwinkl

Photography: Alex Berger, simon van hal, Vitek Ludvik/Red Bull Photofiles, falco marten schmidt, Graeme Murray

Snow Park NZ, the Kiwi top spot

4 Snow Park NZ (NZ) What is probably the best and best-known snow park in the southern hemisphere is about 20 miles from Wanaka and 30 miles from Queenstown. Snow Park NZ has two pipes, a quarter-pipe, a professional kicker run and an easy kicker run; there are also rails, boxes and wall rides spread around the mountain. Half the European and American professional scene gathers there from June to September to get through the summer in the only way northern hemisphere freestylers can. www.snowparknz.com

8 Grandvalira (AD) The three parks in the Pyrenees’ biggest ski-resort – Grandvalira – are the best freestyle facilities in this mountain range between France and Spain. El Tartar is the largest of the three, with its full range of facilities including a professional area. The other parks are the Isards Park and Snowpark Xavi. The mixed AngloFranco-Spanish shaper scene has boasted a highlight of the freestyling calendar in the Totally Fight Event towards the end of the season for years now. www.grandvalira.com

5 Kronplatz (IT) Kronplatz in the middle of the worldfamous Dolomites has earned itself the reputation over the past three years as having the best professional run in Europe beyond Livigno. All the snow features are wonderfully slick and the creative rail set-up leaves nothing to be desired. It’s the ultimate in park development. The park’s central location and the clear division of runs into different levels of ability has won it fans beyond Italy’s borders. www.kronplatz.com

9 Xperia Ischgl Snowpark (AT) The snowboarding Mecca of the early ’90s could boast the Alps’ largest fun park even way back then. Now the Xperia Ischgl Snowpark has the Alps’ longest professional and rookie runs once again. They each have over 20 top-to-bottom features that stretch out over the 1-mile Velill and Idalp Park areas. They are a challenge even for the fittest of riders as you shred through them in one go. The step-up and tabletop rollers’ modern design means riders of different levels can use the same snow features. The same applies on the 0.6-mile roller and banked course.

The park’s reputation will be further underlined as it plays host to the ‘Style on Art Weeks’ early next year. www.ischgl.com

6 Flims Laax (CH) Flims Laax has been a byword for freestyle action for two decades now, and not just up on the mountain but down in the valley with its Riders Palace and Rocks Resort too. The extensive Swatch Snow Park has four separate parks. In addition to the slopestyle on the Vorab Glacier, there is also the Beginner Park, the No Name Park and the Plaun Park, which all begin at the Crap Sogn Gion mountain station. The best-known superpipe in the Alps and the massive choice of rails have recently faced real competition from the extensive kicker set-up. www.laax.com 7 Avoriaz (FR) The winter resort of Avoriaz, opened in 1966 in the Portes du Soleil area of HauteSavoie, contains the leading French snow park. Since 1993, the beginners’ park – La Chapelle – with its many little boxes, kickers, waves and tabletops as well as The Stash, Lil’ Stash and the Burton Kids Parkway have been added to the Arare Snow Park and the super-pipe. The first European Stash (motto: the woods are the goods), created by snowboard pioneer Jake Burton for freestyle riders using objects in the woods, has runs for beginners, amateurs and professionals and stretches for more than half a mile through a man-made forest. www.avoriaz.com

10 Flachauwinkl (AT) Flachauwinkl Shuttle Mountain – with its traditional Absolut Park and the Alps’ only other Stash – probably offers the most snow and rail features in Europe.

It has a vibrant park community and boasts one of the biggest professional teams. And all topped off with an indoor skating area at the end of the Alps’ most universal run. The run offers step-down kickers and rails, a halfpipe, box kickers and finally a jib area with a wall-ride of massive variety. The Stash also features natural cliff-drops and snake-runs. www.absolutpark.com

For information and photos of a further 30 parks, check out the snow-parks.com YEARBOOK, available free of charge in almost all European snowboarding outlets

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Weight to go!

Ever fancied floating like a spaceman? Well you can – as long as your pockets are deep enough

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According to David Coulthard, former Red Bull Racing Formula One driver, it was one of the strangest experiences of his life: “It was almost like my stomach and internal organs became weightless and then I could feel my stomach pushing itself up into my chest, before my big fat arse left the ground.”

Now this is a man who for many years was used to subjecting his frame to extreme braking and acceleration forces, to hurling body and car around corners as fast as he could, while a heavy helmet strained at his neck and shoulders, loaded up with lateral G-forces. Yet nothing he encountered in F1 came close to the (space) oddity of the most peculiar physical stimulation he has ever experienced. So

what sensation might it be that could prompt Coulthard to notice his internal organs were being rearranged? He’s talking of the time, a few years back, when he was taken on a so-called ‘zero-G parabolic flight’, that allowed him to experience the feeling of weightlessness that until recently had been the preserve only of astronauts and a few military pilots.

At the behest of a sponsor, Coulthard travelled to Star City, in Russia – home to cosmonauts and astronauts since the former Cold War superpower developed interplanetary ambition – where he was loaded, along with an F1 car, onto a Russian Tupolev transporter plane.

After take off, the plane climbed to a safe height of around 24,000ft, from

Photography: Action Images (1), Steve Boxall/Zero-G (2)

We have lift off: David Coulthard (above) experiences the strange sensation of weightlessness on a parabolic flight

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photography: Stef Candé/Red Bull Hangar-7

“You feel new sensations, like your organs developing a mind of their own” which point pilot and co-pilot put it through a series of extreme climb-anddive manoeuvres to describe a parabolic arc. They climbed rapidly to 35,000ft, then ‘pushed’ the plane over the top of the arc, into a dive. As it crested the rise, everything on board the plane became weightless for up to 30 seconds – which condition prevailed until the pilots drew the plane out of its dive and allowed the free-floating racer in the hold to return safely to the aircraft floor.

Coulthard admits he was lucky to enjoy a very special kind of joyride for free. But unlike F1 race thrills, which are impossible to purchase at any price, commercial parabolic flights are within reach of most credit card limits. A number of commercial operators in the USA and Russia, such as The Zero G Corporation, organise zero-G trips for around €3,500 (£3,000), during which passengers will experience weightlessness between 12 and 15 times. Zero-G veteran Coulthard recommends it as a once-in-a-lifetime thrill: “Weightlessness is a very strange experience and I’m not sure I would want to be in that condition for any amount of time,” he says, “but certainly to experience it on a parabolic flight was great and I’d recommend it to anyone.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” he continues. “You have to concentrate and you feel new – and not entirely welcome – sensations, like your organs developing a mind of their own.”

Coulthard reckons the most perturbing aspect of the zero-G experience is that of being unable to correct or change posture – in the way all animals do continually without conscious effort – once weightlessness is achieved.

“You don’t float Buddha-like into the sky once you lift off,” he says. “If you’re leaning to the left or right you keep going in that direction and there’s nothing you can do to stop yourself. There’s nothing to work against and nothing to hold on to.

“And if you try to do a ‘Superman’ and fly from one end of the aircraft to the other, unless your launch is perfect you’ll go straight into the top of the fuselage or into the sides, and you won’t be able to do a thing about it. ” Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

Take the weight off your feet with The Zero G Corporation at www.gozerog.com

Colagreco and his team like to experiment at Mirazur. You expect fruits de mer on the Côte d’Azur, but not necessarily sea urchin

A Question of Taste: A Top Chef’s Secrets

An Italian Curry We quiz Mauro Colagreco, the Italian-Argentinian who fuses the food of his dual nationalities at Mirazur, in Menton on the French Riviera What’s the one ingredient you can’t do without?

“Different types of oil,” says Colagreco, who was named the Chef of the Year in 2009 by restaurant guide Gault Millau, the same year his Michelinstarred Mirazur restaurant was voted as one of the world’s top 50. “I’ve even created dishes with a special oily surface, like an olive oil ice cream or squid cooked in oil. At the moment, I like using Ligurian olive oil the most.

It has a slight taste of artichoke, but it’s also mild and doesn’t tamper with the overall taste of the dish.”

What food couldn’t you stand when you were younger?

“As I’m of Italian origin, spicy food was never really my thing,” Colagreco admits. “Plus, the food is pretty mild where I grew up.” It was only when he began travelling that the Argentinian-born chef warmed to hot food. “I’ve tried mole in Mexico and curry in India. Now I make my own curries and enjoy working with more intense cuisine.”

What’s the most important item of equipment in your kitchen?

“A good knife, of course. It’s the basis of all good cooking,” says Colagreco, who is as particular about the origin of his blades as he is of his ingredients. “The knife must be Japanese. They’re the king of knives.”

Mauro Colagreco (“Mirazur”, Menton) is the guest chef at the Ikarus Restaurant in Hangar-7 for December 2010: www.hangar-7.com

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Keep Uncool Diving in water that reaches -2°C hurts even if you are wearing a neoprene dry suit 7mm thick. The diving regulator is fitted with an anti-icing mechanism, but does still sometimes freeze up.

Smart Suit The diver can inflate his dry suit, in the same way as he regulates air in the buoyancy compensator jacket (see right), so that at lower depths, where the suit’s buoyancy and thermal protection decrease, he won’t get so cold or suffer from ‘suit squeeze’.

Layer Upon Layer Diving in the Antarctic without wearing the maximum amount of thermal insulation under your dry suit would be life threatening.

Something warm, with 300g/m2 of insulation, is the order of the day.

Light In The Dark Taking pictures in the freezing depths requires serious kit, and the underwater housings and flashguns made by Seacam are seen as the RollsRoyces of their sector. Also pictured: a Nikon D200 camera, lens and three macro- and wide-angle dome-ports.

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You Will Get Cold Feet The question is whether they’ll just be unpleasantly cold or dangerously cold.

If you want to plump for merely the unpleasant option – and you should – then you wear three layers under your flippers: thermal socks first, then neoprene sock liners, topped by the boots, which are part of the dry suit.

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Get the Gear

Diving Below Zero 1

To conquer the Antarctic undersea, Karl Drevlak (see also page 32) requires a boatload of advanced diving equipment. Flask of hot coffee not pictured

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1. Diving computer The underwater data centre is linked by radio to a transmitter attached to the scuba tank.

The computer displays vital info: depth, time, elapsed time, temperature and, perhaps most crucially, amount of air remaining.

2. Camera with housing All the controls on this camera can be operated even when a diver is wearing gloves thick enough to protect his hands from freezing in sub-zero temperatures, thanks to the Seacam housing.

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3. Lead pouches and weights Used increasingly rarely, pouches and their corresponding weights are attached to the diver’s jacket to counteract its buoyancy.

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4. Diving knife Not a weapon to be used in self-defence against aggressive underwater creatures: Drevlak, in common with almost all other divers, advises timely and unquestioning escape in an encounter with something unfriendly (and possibly hungry).

Instead, a blade is required to cut through fishing lines and other tangling obstacles.

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Photography: Philipp Horak

5. Scuba tank This 15-litre steel cylinder contains compressed air, and has two separate air outlets at the top.

The double outlet set-up is especially necessary in sub-zero Antarctic waters: trouble starts if your one-and-only air supply freezes over.

6. Buoyancy compensator jacket Inflated when worn on the surface, the diver lets air out of the ‘BC’ on his descent, until he achieves his required depth. Then, on the return journey, the BC is inflated. It also has a backplate to support the heavy cylinders.

Find out about Antarctic diving trips in 2011 at www.responsibletravel.com

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more body & mind Orlando Magic v Boston Celtics 25.12.10

hot SPOTS

Magic host their former star centre, Shaquille O’Neal, now with the Boston Celtics, who knocked them out of the playoffs last year.

Amway Center, Orlando, USA

This month’s round-up of the best sporting events around the globe

FIS Snowboard World Cup 07 - 08.12.10

Red Bull Light House to Leighton 11.12.10

This season’s snowboardcross World Cup finally gets underway a little later than anticipated in Lech, after the cancellation of events in Argentina’s Chapelco.

Last season was all about Maelle Ricker (CAN) and Pierre Vaultier (FRA) who, with the exception of one event each, waved from every podium in the competition.

Lech am Alberg, Austria

Western Australia’s breezes and rolling swells have made it a favourite with kitesurfers around the world, and a fitting place to host the country’s longest-ever kitesurf race.

Contenders battle it out over 20km, from the former prison of Rottnest Island to Leighton Beach, fighting to be first.

Rottnest Island, Australia

photography: Getty Images/NBAE, Kolesky/Nikon/Red Bull Photofiles (2), Ray Demski/Red Bull Photofiles

IBU Biathlon World Cup 10 - 12.12.2010 The sport that unites skiing and shooting gears up for another season of action. Last year there were Norwegian victories courtesy of Ole Einar Bjöndalen and Emil Hegle Svendsen, while in the women’s competition, Anna Carin Oloffson-Zidek and Helena Jonsson stepped onto the podium for Sweden.

Hochfilzen, Austria

FIS Ski Jumping World Cup 10 - 12.12.10 Last year the competition on the Certak hill – the gentlest slope to feature on the World Cup calendar – had to be cancelled due to lack of snow. All eyes are now on the Harrachov skies…

Harrachov, Czech Republic

SA Gravity Racing Series 10 - 12.12.10 The eighth Hot Heels Africa downhill skateboarding and street luge contest is also the final of the IGSA World Cup Series, where defending downhill champion Mischo Erban hopes to retain his crown.

Kogelberg, Cape Town, South Africa

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Red Bull Salzburg v SK Sturm Graz 11.12.10 This match is the 19th Bundesliga round and the last before the winter break.

Red Bull Arena, Salzburg, Austria

Red Bull Big Drop 11.12.10 More than 50 longboard skaters race down a steep Andean road in a 10-minute, heart-thumping ride full of natural obstacles and hairpin curves.

Lo Barnechea, Santiago, Chile

FC Salzburg v Lech Poznan 16.12.10 The sixth and final game for the Austrian champions in what has been a tough Europa League group stage. In Poland, Salzburg were defeated 2-0 and now hope a game on home soil may change their luck.

Red Bull Arena, Salzburg, Austria

FIS Snowboard World Cup 16 - 18.12.10 There are six competitions on the programme in the Colorado ski resort. Men and women take to the slopes for parallel giant slalom, snowboardcross and snowboardcross team events.

Telluride, USA

ASP World Tour 08 - 20.12.10 Mick Fanning and Jordy Smith join Kelly Slater, who’s just picked up his 10th world title.

Banzai Pipeline, Oahu, Hawaii, USA

more body & mind FIS Ski Jumping World Cup 02 - 03.01.11 Last season, 22,000 people saw Gregor Schlierenzauer triumph on his home hill, an emotional win he’ll be working to repeat.

Innsbruck, Austria

FIS Ski World Cup Ladies 16 - 19.12.10

FIS World Cup Cross Country 31.12.10 - 01.01.11

During this season’s first speed weekend on European snow, the ladies compete in downhill, super-G and super combined.

Last year in the super-G it was first and second for the Swiss, while Lindsey Vonn claimed third for the USA. Val d’Isére, France

The fifth Tour de Ski kicks off at the first of five venues to host the competition tour. Last season, Petter Northug (NOR) had to settle for second place on the podium, but this year hopes to take a step up.

Oberhof, Germany

FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cup 18 - 19.12.10 The FIS Ski Cross World Cup brings two days of competition for men and women to the Italian slopes.

San Candidio, Italy

Red Bull Hüttenrallye 21 - 22.12.10 More than 200 skicross amateurs have the chance to qualify for the finals, where they compete against 24 professionals including Daron Rahlves and Tomas Kraus.

St Anton, Austria

EC Red Bull Salzburg v EC KAC 26.12.10 Red Bull hosts Klagenfurt, Austrian ice hockey’s most decorated team, in a regularseason clash.

Ice Arena, Salzburg, Austria

FIS Ski World Cup Men 27 - 29.12.10 There’s no Christmas break for the men competing in this downhill race on the demanding, steep and winding Pista Stelvio.

Bormio, Italy

FIS Ski Jumping World Cup 28 - 29.12.10 The traditional Four Hills Tournament returns for its 59th year. In 2009, Austrian Andreas Kofler won on the Schattenberg ski jump and subsequently took the overall victory.

Oberstdorf, Germany

Ghetto Jam 19.12.10 Buddy Chellan joins South Africa’s biking best to compete on the beachfront in the country’s largest annual BMX contest.

Durban, South Africa

Dakar Rally 01 - 16.01.11 For the third year in a row, the legendary Dakar Rally takes place in South America. Last month the Dakar reconnaissance team criss-crossed the Atacama on a final test-trip of one of the most testing and exhilarating routes in motorsport. Frenchman Cyril Despres took victory in the bike class last time around, while Spaniard Carlos Sainz won on four wheels in his VW Race Touareg 3 and Russian Vladimir Chagin with Team Kamaz took the truck class.

Argentina and Chile

FIS Ski World Cup 02.01.11 Leaving the mountains behind, the world’s best skiers head into the city as men and women compete for World Cup points in parallel slalom inside the Munich Olympic Park.

Munich, Germany

New Orleans Saints v Tampa Bay Buccaneers 02.01.2011 A high-octane offense led by Drew Brees and Reggie Bush helped the Saints win the team’s first Super Bowl last year. How will they do this time?

Superdome, New Orleans, USA

Anglo-Scottish Cup 02 – 03.01.11 The Scottish Ski Club and the British Ski Academy join forces to test the next generation of talent in slalom and giant slalom, with skiers aged 10-14.

Les Houches, France

Biathlon World Team Challenge 30.12.10

TTR World Snowboard Tour 02 - 08.01.11

Biathlon moves away from its traditional tracks to a football arena, enabling 50,000 fans to watch as the mixed relay team competition plays out.

Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

By raising the bar high in the halfpipe and slopestyle competitions at Jakobshorn, the O’Neill Evolution 2010 has earned TTR’s 6-Star highest difficulty category.

Davos, Switzerland

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Weezer 17.12.10 For 20 years, Weezer have shown that humour and indie rock live happily together.

So it’s appropriate their new album is called Hurley, after the joker from TV series Lost.

Roseland Ballroom, New York, USA

night spots Come rain, shine, snow or sun, the party starts right here

Public Enemy 07.12 .10

ZoukOut 2010 11.12.10

Despite being a long way from their NYC home, when Chuck D or Flavor Flav launch into one of their tracks, an audience of thousands raps along with them. What else would you expect from one of the biggest hip-hop acts on the planet?

The Assembly, Cape Town, South Africa

With soaring temperatures and 26,000 people dancing on a Singapore beach, ZoukOut is the biggest dance music festival in South-East Asia, with premier-league DJs including David Guetta, Booka Shade, Dubfire, Lindstrøm and Jazzy Jeff in attendance.

Siloso Beach, Sentosa, Singapore

Photography: Imago, Naim Chidiac/Red Bull Photofiles, Mr. Mass./Red Bull Photofiles, Mauritius Images

Recontres Trans Musicales de Rennes 08 – 12.12.10 Since 1979, this event has given new artists and fresh sounds a platform and, true to form, this year the line-up includes household names alongside rising stars: M.I.A, Janelle Monáe and A-Trak share a stage with French Fried, Mama Rosin and Concrete Knives.

Parc Expo, Rennes, France

D25 10.12.10 Techno was born in Detroit 25 years ago. One of its creators was Juan Atkins, alias Model 500, whose single ‘No UFOs’ breathed hot funk into cold electronic music.

His successors Carl Craig, Theo Parrish and Moodymann honour that moment and their home city with this tour.

Brown Alley, Melbourne, Australia

Craze 10.12.10 “When I was a kid, my mother asked me what I wanted to do with all these record players.

I said that I wanted to be the best DJ in the world,” Craze recalls. Three DMC World DJ Championship titles later, the US scratch-master has made his dream come true.

Loft Club, Lausanne, Switzerland

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Modeselektor 11.12.10 These two Berlin boys bring bass that will rattle your whole body with their mix of techno and dubstep. And fans will be glad to hear there’s no change with their latest offering, Modeselektion Vol. 01#1/12.

The Warehouse Project, Manchester, England

Matthew Dear 14.12.10 Audion, Jabberjaw, False – Matthew Dear has a lot of pseudonyms, which change depending on the musical field this electronic musician from Texas wants to plough.

Here he uses his real name so he can vent his passion for melancholy techno-pop.

Trouw, Amsterdam, Holland

Numbers Label Night 17.12.10 The hottest dance label of the year isn’t to be found in the hip cities of London or New York. No, Numbers, or rather label-owner Jackmaster, lives in Glasgow where, to the alien ear, the local accent is as cool and unusual as the garage beats and frenetic grime sounds that the youngster produces.

Sub Club, Glasgow, Scotland

Red Bull BC One All Stars on Tour 10 – 13.12.10 Alongside fellow B-Boy Roxrite, Lilou heads to Columbia to teach young breakdancers how to defy gravity.

Bogotá, Colombia

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Red Bull Thre3Style Finals 09.12.10 Three styles of music in 15 minutes: that’s the challenge facing the young DJs in this turntable test. The winners will meet the world’s best to do battle again at the world finals.

Paris, France

DâM-FunK 17.12.10

Rhythm and Vines 29 – 31.12.10

He’s known as the Californian ambassador of boogie funk, and his Funkmosphere parties in Los Angeles are the stuff of legend. And his current album – Toeachizown – lives up to the reputation, as it’s bristling with a cool mix of modern soul and electro-funk.

One Eyed Jacks, New Orleans, USA

On a festival wish list, there aren’t many boxes this annual shindig would leave unticked.

It’s set in a vineyard, between Gisborne’s rolling hills and picturesque beaches. There are waterslides. And fireworks. Oh, and one of the best line-ups of any New Year’s celebrations anywhere – N*E*R*D, Carl Cox, Chromeo, Tinie Tempah, Miami Horror and Dick Johnson are among those providing music for 2011’s first dawn.

Gisborne, New Zealand

Red Bull Music Academy PRESENTS THE HIT IT & QUIT IT REVUE END OF YEAR SHOWDOWN 17 – 18.12.10 The outspoken beat king and Red Bull Music Academy lecturer joins forces with DJ Day and lands in New Zealand to fill the floors with blends of techno and house, starting at Galatos before moving on to Garden Club.

Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand

Mother City Queer Project 18.12.10 There’s always been one simple rule when it comes to South Africa’s biggest gay festival: no costume, no entry. Now gearing up for its 16th edition, this is no exception. As ever there’s a theme that’s open to interpretation (The Toolbox Project), live music, DJs, bars and a lot of people looking for the mother of all parties.

De Waterkant, Cape Town, South Africa

Soulwaxmas 23.12.10 The alternative electro-rockers from Belgium are donning guitars rather than festive white beards and they’ll be raving around the Christmas tree for some seasonal fun.

Grande Halle De La Villette, Paris, France

Civil Twilight 29.12.10 Aphex Twin & Friends 11.12.10 This British electronic musician’s name is legendary.

And here he’s venturing out to join in Club Razzmatazz’s 10th birthday celebrations.

Barcelona, Spain

The power trio return home from the US after blazing a trail that has won them fans around the world and seen them contribute to soundtracks of prime-time TV shows, including One Tree Hill and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

The Assembly, Cape Town, South Africa

Phat 11 Festival 29.12.10 – 02.01.11 This is a music festival-cumadventure holiday: you’re in the middle of the rain forest, the closest town is two hours away and there’s no petrol station. But thankfully there is electricity, so electronic acts such as Camo & Krooked, Electric Wire Hustle and dubstep pioneer Loefah can still pump their hefty bass from the sound system.

Inangahua Rain Forest, West Coast, New Zealand

La De Da 31.12.10 Some of New Zealand’s finest gather under the stars on the year’s biggest party night.

Hollie Smith, Katchafire and Mt Eden Dubstep lead revellers into the New Year in style.

Alana Estate, Martinborough, New Zealand

Highlife 31.12.10 Those lucky enough to get a ticket to this boutique event get whisked, via a bespoke nightclub-ferry, to the party island of Waiheke, for a night of music and entertainment in stunning surroundings, featuring Belgium’s Junior Jack & Kid Crème.

Stonyridge Vineyard, Waiheke Island, New Zealand

Warm NYE 31.12.10 Some people might want to welcome in the New Year with a waltz, but others prefer some good old disco. And Londoners will be given just that by four top DJs – Âme, Move D, Mark E and Gerd Janson – bringing the perfect start to 2011.

CAMP, London, England

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Mount Kimbie Reykjavik

Green Room

Return to the Blue Lagoon Hordes of Vikings, walls of sound, Caesar salad and dining in betting cafes. Florian Obkircher watched British ambient dubstep newcomers Mount Kimbie do Iceland Airwaves 92

It’s drizzling, the sky is grey and a cold wind is blowing down the narrow alleyways.

October in Reykjavik. “And it could be a lot worse,” a female passer-by volunteers. “We often have snowstorms at this time of year.”

The Icelanders are well prepared. Most are wearing hoods and heavy coats and have scarves wrapped around their faces. Bar one. He’s standing in front of the Plaza Hotel in a thin jacket and trainers and dragging on a cigarette. “I love it here,” Kai Campos reveals. “We played in Los Angeles recently.

It was boiling hot. It was a nightmare.”

The 24-year-old Brit forms one half of Mount Kimbie, a duo that’s grabbed the

Photography: Hörður Ellert Ólafsson

Kai Campos (left) and Dominic Maker touch down in Iceland for the Airwaves festival

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Mixing it up: Maker and Campos work the decks with focus on stage, the performance more about the tunes than the men playing them. “We’re not really attention whores,” admits Maker

imagination as few other electronic acts have this year. Dubstep devotees, indie kids, techno aficionados and music magazines like FACT and Pitchfork are all of one mind when it comes to Crooks & Lovers, their debut album. Their sound manages to be both experimental and popular. Gentle ambient moments meet juddering hip-hop loops, whooshing field recordings cover wobble base, sweet, spherical sounds get lost in an echo.

Music to sleepwalk to. Music that suits Iceland perfectly.

“Because our sound creates plenty of space. Like the landscape here,” says Dominic Maker, Campos’ partner in crime.

“I was overwhelmed yesterday as we drove from the airport into the city. The flat rock faces, the clouds, the intense colours. It’s a really dramatic place. It looked as if a horde of Vikings could appear on the horizon at any minute.”

But Mount Kimbie haven’t yet had a chance to explore beyond Reykjavik.

And this weekend there will be no need to.

That’s because this weekend the Icelandic capital is playing host to 290 concerts and 252 bands in about 40 venues.

The Iceland Airwaves festival turns Reykjavik into the international crucible for aspiring musicians for five days. Bands like Bloc Party, The Rapture and Hot Chip all played in small bars or record shops here long before they could fill thousand-seater venues. You might meet Modeselektor on an afternoon stroll around the city centre, American chillwave newcomer Toro Y Moi

bathing in the Blue Lagoon – a natural openair swimming pool in a fantasy landscape somewhere between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings – and dozens of other musicians making the pilgrimage from one venue to another with their guitars strung around their necks. Rolling Stone magazine hit the nail on the head. “Iceland Airwaves is the hippest weekend on the festival calendar.”

Last night, the Mount Kimbie boys went to British band Silver Columns’ concert and then supported ex-band member James Blake at the decks for his deejaying gig. They wanted to try Icelandic cuisine beforehand, but ended up with Caesar salad.

“We must have ended up in the worst restaurant on the island,” says Maker. “It was a betting café. Because all the other restaurants close by were full. So there were more TV screens than customers.”

“How you guys doing? All right? We’re Mount Kimbie. And this is a pretty old song,” Maker says a little later to welcome the crowd in a busy venue called NASA. They

Working the electronic sound boxes

Sound bites: Maker mixes analog with digital drum sounds at NASA, their festival venue

are one of nine bands who’ll be performing here tonight. Hercules and Love Affair will also be playing. For 30 minutes. No more.

But whereas the other artists forge ahead with things, Mount Kimbie take their time.

They build their tracks up unhurriedly and make very considered use of their limited range of instruments: a snare drum, a guitar and two bar-tables covered in electronic sound-boxes. The floating intro to their hit ‘Maybe’ is supported by an ethereal, almost Icelandic synthesiser melody. Maker lets the beats in gradually. He programs them in real time and concentrates as he does so. Not exactly the most rock ’n’ roll of stage presences. Eyes down, lowered heads nodding along to the music.

“We’re not really attention whores,” Maker admits later. Which doesn’t matter, because lots of the crowd have their eyes closed anyway. Mount Kimbie is as much about feeling as it is listening.

After the concert, fellow Londoner Blake comes and knocks on their door backstage and asks them if they fancy helping him out at the decks again at 3am that morning. Maker raises his left eyebrow, thinks about it and says yes. Even if their flight to Glasgow is pretty early in the morning. “Which means we probably won’t make it to the Blue Lagoon,” Campos says.

But never mind. It probably won’t be their last trip to Iceland. The Return to the Blue Lagoon can only be a matter of time.

Aktuellesalbum: Album:Crooks „Crooks & Lovers” (Hotflush); Current & Lovers (Hotflush Mount Kimbies zum Recordings); forLive-Show tour dates andNachhören: videos go to www.myspace.com/mountkimbie redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/2374/

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A-TRAK LOndon Arts & Crafts

Grand Vinyl Right now one of the world’s most sought-after remixers and DJs, Montreal’s A-Trak tells Tom Hall who he plays for and what works on a packed dancefloor – and what definitely doesn’t When Alain Macklovitch, better known as A-Trak, was just 15, he won the Technics/ DMC World Championship. That’s kind of like winning gold at the DJ Olympics before you’re even old enough to enter a nightclub.

The Montreal-born turntablist has been in heavy demand ever since from the likes of Kanye West, while also helming his own record label Fool’s Gold. Last month, he helped judge the London leg of Red Bull Thre3style, which challenges competitors 94

to keep dancefloors packed during genreswitching, 15-minute sets. With the international final this month in Paris, we caught up with A-Trak so he could explain the science behind an über-successful DJ set.

Does switching genres work, or should you try to stick with one throughout a set?

It’s a question of being clever. If you’re mixing records and their tempo is close enough, then you can mix whatever you

want. But obviously some stuff sounds good and some stuff doesn’t. It’s kind of like weaving together a story. You want something that takes the audience somewhere and surprises them.

What records have surprised you recently?

I was playing a gig in Brighton, in England, and I felt like the crowd might let me throw a curveball. So I remember dropping the Romantics’ ‘Talking In Your Sleep’, it’s an old ’80s rock song. I had no idea what it was gonna do, but I felt like playing it and people were like “Woah!” and loved it.

If a situation like that backfires do you have a trick to get you out of the hole?

I think it’s important to know how to react.

I don’t want to sound cheesy, but I think the DJ philosophy kind of applies to life too. It’s like everybody’s going to fall, but you’ve got to know how to recover. The remix I did for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ‘Heads Will Roll’ last year starts with these big, loud chord stabs and as soon as those hit it’s like a fire ignites. Same thing happens with ‘Babylon’ by Congorock. It’s always good to have that emergency parachute.

As someone who is no stranger to taking prizes, is winning the prize in a competition like Red Bull Thre3style more important than pleasing the crowd?

I think it really depends on the DJs. Some really play for crowd reaction and there’s things you can do for an easy cheer. But other DJs are more about originality and pulling off difficult feats and that could be more satisfying on the night. I’m a little bit more of the latter kind. As much as I do appreciate a good crowd reaction and have a concern for it, I think what’s even more of a priority for me is to do the unexpected and play songs that I’m currently championing.

When I DJ, I come with an agenda that’s stylistic, in that I scratch a lot and still mix like a hip-hop DJ regardless of what’s playing. But also I’ll try and play a few songs that maybe only I have, maybe it’s something off my record label or maybe it’s a remix I just finished. Carrying a message is probably the biggest priority to me, but the objective is to be able to do it in a way that the crowd is into.

You mentioned telling a story with records earlier. Is 15 minutes enough time to be able to tell that story?

I think a lot of times DJs are forced to cut a few corners and really distil what it is they’re about quickly. But that’s the challenge: they’re having to work with limited time and resources, but ultimately you can always tell a great DJ. You should see that in a matter of minutes.

Single ‘Ray Ban Vision’ (Fool’s Gold).

Red Bull Thre3Style International Final, December 9. For details go to www.redbull.com

Photography: Keith Davis Young credit

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The Ivy sydney

Please use the dressing room before entering the pool

World’s Best Clubs

The Vegas of Oz

Photography: Wolfgang Stecher

Sydney’s Ivy is a cleverly designed pleasure palace more akin to Las Vegas. A packet of Tylenol to anyone who makes it from the pool to all the bars, restaurants and lounges, in a single night A young man by the name of Justin Hemmes came from a prosperous Sydney home.

He didn’t have a care in the world and loved to party. So it probably wasn’t much of a surprise that he ended up working in nightlife too. And because he didn’t want people to think that he was just some rich kid, he worked as a washer-upper, barman and accountant.

And all the while Hemmes dreamed of creating his own nocturnal empire. So he employed a couple of cool architects and had several properties within four high-rise complexes in downtown Sydney designed according to their plans.

And thus was born The Ivy. Since it opened in 2007, the Woods Bagot-designed venue has won one award after another.

Far more than simply a nightclub, The Ivy is a collection of restaurants, bars with a number of cocktail lounges, dancefloors – and even a pool club – ranging over several floors. Hemmes knows how to make his guests happy and he does it well, providing

the right atmosphere for the perfect night out. A night out that begins before sundown.

In changing rooms decked out with disco balls, early guests can change from suits to swimsuits and relax with a cocktail by the open-air pool, or in one of the bars under the palm trees. If you get hungry, there are restaurants on the other floors.

Seven of them, ranging from Italian, New York steakhouse, Indian or Thai to sushi.

And from there the guests can go to one of four bars or straight to the dancefloors.

If you’d rather have more privacy and have a bit of cash to spare, you can hire one of the two penthouses on the upper floors.

You know, to be above it all.

The list of resident DJs at The Ivy is long; New Year will be rung in by House icons Basement Jaxx and Bob Sinclar with a Pacha Party. There will be 6,500 guests but, as so often in this party wonderland, a lot more who wish they could attend.

The Ivy, 320-330 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000: www.merivale.com

Get down on the main dancefloor or chill out in The Den: the choice at The Ivy is huge. A veritable playground for night owls

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On the Record

Electricity Mando Diao Unplugged Stockholm Forget candlelight and soft acoustics, Mando Diao’s ‘unplugged’ gig involved Juliette Lewis and an on-stage campfire. Florian Obkircher met the Swedish rockers after the album’s release MTV Unplugged hosts mature bands taking time off from amplified rock ’n’ roll to perform their songs on acoustic guitars by gentle candlelight. But Mando Diao weren’t really keen on sticking to the script.

Though the Swedish rockers left the distorter pedals at home for their session at the Berliner Union Film Studios in September, they packed in a theatrical backdrop and guest appearances from Ray Davies of The Kinks and Juliette Lewis. We caught up with keyboarder Mats Björke, drummer Samuel Giers and guitarist Gustaf Nóren following the album’s release last month.

Guys, did you watch the MTV European Music Awards yesterday?

Mats Björke: I watched for five minutes and soon realised that it wasn’t for me.

That means you must have caught the moment when Justin Bieber was being given the award for best male artist?

MB: No, but it was a girl version of Justin Bieber. It wasn’t much better.

And there I was thinking you’d be interested in the show. You were nominated for ‘Swedish Act of the Year’ at last year’s awards.

Samuel Giers: We didn’t go then either.

We were touring at the time. It normally goes something like this: the MTV people tell you if you’ve won. And then you go.

Having said that, MTV have now knighted you in another way: you were invited to do an unplugged session. How do you approach that kind of project?

SG: We didn’t just want to put up a chandelier, light some candles and sit and sing. That’s why we had rooms made.

A backdrop. As if it was a theatre play.

Gustaf Nóren: The backdrop reflected our career. We almost built a house, with different rooms. The attic represents our past because everything ends up there eventually. Band memorabilia like old guitars, a reel-to-reel tape-deck and live recordings. The garage, by contrast, 96

Fall guys: Gustaf Norén, Samuel Giers, Björn Dixgård and Mats Björke in autumnal Stockholm

represents Mando Diao’s energy. That’s where we practised, that’s where we wrote our earliest hits, like ‘Sheepdog’.

And the hotel lobby… Well, we spend most of our time in hotels nowadays.

Speaking of ‘Sheepdog’... You’ve released a total of five albums. How did you choose the songs for this special occasion?

GN: At first I thought we’d just play the regular Mando Diao setlist acoustically.

But then MTV told us we’d have to fill two and a half hours.

SG: It would have been boring if we’d just played our hits. So we went digging around among our old stuff and found some B-sides that we rarely perform live.

GN: It was a Best Of Mando Diao. Well, maybe not from the record company’s point of view. But that’s how we saw it.

A song called ‘No More Tears’ made it onto the live album. I’d never heard it before.

GN: It’s not that new. A good friend from Germany asked us why we didn’t perform the song ‘I Want Your Love’. And we replied that we didn’t have such a song. He then showed us a YouTube video. It was a song of ours that we’d recorded as a demo seven years earlier but had never released.

Somehow it found its way onto the internet.

We’d forgotten all about it, but the 100,000 views convinced us. So we wrote new lyrics and made a fresh recording. Our fans effectively voted the song onto the album.

MTV Unplugged normally means the artists shifting down a gear. Your energetic stage show broke with that tradition...

GN: We wanted it to be a bit more like Bob Dylan’s legendary Budokan concert. We

Photography: thomas Karlsson (2), MATT WIGNALL (2)

The ‘Unplugged’ session (top), Berlin in September; followed by the record release party in Stockholm club Berns, October

didn’t understand the term ‘unplugged’ to mean switched off; we wanted to come up with a good live album.

So why not just a good live album then, rather than an MTV Unplugged session?

GN: As far as I’m concerned, ‘unplugged’ means unaffected. Pure. Like Dylan at Budokan. With pianos, acoustic guitars, flutes and the like. So for us, the challenge was more like Mando Diao but different.

SG: Plus a lot of our songs have that energy regardless of whether you distort them or play them on an acoustic guitar. It would have been odd to play them sitting down.

What also stood out, besides the wonderful backdrop, were your odd little jackets.

SG: They were traditional Swedish costumes.

GN: We went round a huge folklore centre and picked the coolest things we could find,

which the people there didn’t like at all.

I wanted to combine a jacket from the north of the country with a hat from the south.

The guy we were hiring the stuff from looked at me aghast. “You can’t do that. It’s not allowed! You could be locked up for that!” So we just hired a number of outfits and then stealthily mixed them up before the concert.

SG: They’ll probably never let us hire clothes from them again.

One of your guests was Ray Davies, from The Kinks. You performed their song ‘Victoria’ together. Who picked the song?

GN: We listened to all the old Kinks records and looked for the song that sounded most like Mando Diao. And ‘Victoria’ felt right straight away. What’s more, while we were choosing, a friend came into the room and asked, “Hey, is that one of your new songs?”

Juliette Lewis also sang a song with you.

Wearing warpaint around a campfire.

SG: Gustav said, “Yeah, I want the stage to be on fire when I sing with Juliette Lewis.”

GN: At first the Union Film Studio people told us we couldn’t do it. But two days later they found a solution. I thought of a ritual, of an exorcism. And Juliette wore the warpaint. It was perfect.

Which is your favourite MTV Unplugged recording? And please don’t say Nirvana.

GN: The Oasis session. The songs Liam doesn’t sing on. And that Bob Dylan ain’t bad either.

Yeah, yeah, I know. The guy’s not as bad as everyone says he is...

GN: Exactly. You’ve just got to listen more carefully. Then he’s not so bad.

Mando Diao: MTV Unplugged – Above and Beyond (Universal Music) is released as a double CD and DVD

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O

ctober 24, 2010, at about 12.30, I was standing on a squally and very wet patch of the Zattere, acqua alta lapping at my Edward Greens, watching the three-hour finishers in The Venice Marathon limp and wheeze their red-faced way towards the finish line.

I thought: “poor bastards” and went off to a fine lunch in a favourite restaurant.

The wind rattled the glass, but in the dark wood and white-tiled tiled interior we felt secure, even flirtatious. We were just starting our second flask of the house white at about the marathon’s five-hour mark. This was the time I was predicted to finish, but race number 7,539 did not finish. Race number 7,539 did not even start. Just two days before the off, I had decided that the contest between enhanced lower backache and fritto misto was going to be won by fish.

My preparations for the 2010 Venice Marathon began in 1974. After zealous and imaginative and absolutely consistent avoidance of any sport at school, I became a late convert. And, like most late converts to any belief system, became a tubthumping proselytiser. I was, and still am, mad keen on running.

But 1974 was my first and, as it turned out, only competitive outing as a runner.

I came an emphatic last in a national-level 200m race in Blackburn. The man at the finish said, “Pulled a muscle, have you?”

I did a looks-could-kill and said I was, as a matter of fact, going as fast as I could.

Since then, I have run only for my own amusement. And I mean “my own”.

I don’t even run with friends, since a part of my pleasure is being alone. And my running is a complicated sort of laziness.

I run often and quite long distances, but I don’t go quickly. I don’t, to be honest, exert myself much. But I enjoy the metaphysics of the workout, the wind in my face, getting hot and that warm bath of moral superiority that you feel when it’s over.

Still, a marathon has always been lurking as a challenge. It’s a sort of

Mind’s Eye

Going the Distance Stephen Bayley explains why sometimes it’s better to give up before you even start Mephistopheles in Asics, a diabolical smirking figure who says ever so quietly, but ever so often, “You can do it. What are you afraid of?” So this year, I succumbed.

Of course, I succumbed a bit too late.

I never had any intention of following a proper training schedule, because running for me is a way of escaping regimentation.

It’s an anarchic spurt, not enslavement to regulations and diet. And I am both too busy and too fidgety to be able to commit to three days a week of 16 miles. The dedicated Marathon Man is not me. Besides, I have lunch commitments in Soho.

Still, I took it relatively seriously.

My physician, who specialises in ballet dancers, wired me up with bio-medical sensors, strapped me to a static bike and produced some metrics that showed I was, at least mechanically and aerobically speaking, easily capable of the 26 miles.

I hired a personal trainer. He was an ex-SAS instructor who could, he soon showed, run backwards saying “Catch me!” faster than I could run forwards.

He made me do solid hours of 2 × 37.5m repetitions, insisting that my time for the 75m was lower at the end of the

hour than it was at the beginning. I was assured I could do the distance. It’s all in your mind, the trainer said.

But some of it was in my bottom.

That same physician zapped me with a testosterone injection (£245). He assured me that this would have no alarming side-effects, no basso profundo, no hairs on the forehead, but would just enhance muscle and skeleton. So, with days to go I was in good shape, although I did continue to exercise a strategy of defensive pessimism. This is well known to sports psychologists: talk yourself down in order to receive a rush of satisfaction when your predictions are shown to be misplaced.

But I found my defensive pessimism was real, not a psychological negotiating position. My situation was a torment of such cruel sophistication, Dante might have adopted it for the television adaptation of The Inferno. Do I run and face failure and humiliation? Or do I drop out and face failure and humiliation?

I travelled to Venice on the Thursday before the Sunday marathon. I took my kit, as a sort of specific against denial.

But on the Friday, I wimped out. My trade was the very remote possibility of celebration against the absolutely frank confrontation with failure.

And do you know the really interesting thing? I found that frank confrontation with failure one of the most exhilarating experiences I have ever had. I felt free.

And I did not feel ashamed, I felt in control.

That’s why I thought “poor bastards” when I saw the struggling runners on the Zattere. Remember Samuel Beckett?

“Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” There is quality, you see, in failure.

Back in London, I went for a run and did 10k faster and more comfortably than ever before.

Stephen Bayley is an award-winning writer and a former director of the Design Museum in London

United Kingdom: The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bulletin GmbH Editor-In-Chief Robert Sperl Editorial Office Anthony Rowlinson (Executive Editor), Stefan Wagner Associate Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editor Andreas Tzortzis Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Production Editor Marion Wildmann Photo Editors Susie Forman (Chief), Fritz Schuster Deputy Photo Editors Markus Kucera, Valerie Rosenburg, Catherine Shaw Design Erik Turek (Art Director), Miles English, Judit Fortelny, Markus Kietreiber, Esther Straganz Staff Writers Werner Jessner, Uschi Korda, Ruth Morgan Contributors Stephen Bayley, Karl Drevlak, Tom Hall, Friedemann Kirn, Scott Murray, Florian Obkircher, Olivia Rosen, Thomas Schrefl, James Singleton, Caroline Stammers (production), Robert Tighe Production Managers Michael Bergmeister, Wolfgang Stecher, Walter Omar Sádaba Repro Managers Christian Graf-Simpson, Clemens Ragotzky Augmented Reality Christoph Rietner, Martin Herz, www.imagination.at General Managers Alexander Koppel, Rudolf Theierl International Project Management Bernd Fisa Finance Siegmar Hofstetter. The Red Bulletin is published simultaneously in Austria, the UK, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Poland, South Africa and New Zealand. Website www.redbulletin.com. Head office: Red Bulletin GmbH, Am Brunnen 1, A-5330 Fuschl am See, FN 287869m, ATU63087028. UK office: 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP, +44 (0) 20 3117 2100. Austrian office: Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 (1) 90221 28800. The Red Bulletin (Ireland): Susie Dardis, Richmond Marketing, 1st Floor Harmony Court, Harmony Row, Dublin 2, Ireland +35 386 8277993. Printed by Prinovis Liverpool Ltd, www.prinovis.com For all advertising enquiries, email adsales@uk.redbulletin.com. Write to us: email letters@redbulletin.com

The next issue of the Red Bulletin is out on january 2 & 4, 2010

Illustration: Von

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