Words and photos by Rich

Have you ever got halfway down a hill and suddenly realised that you havn't been thinking any conscious thoughts for the last 5 minutes?

In between all the hairpins, miles of sweepers, flat-out straights, the higher functions of the mind put on hold for a while as your body deals with the constant challenges that skating a 10km long open road throws up.

Often you don't even realise that you've been anywhere different until you get back. You reach the runout, brake down to a stop, and pull off - and suddenly you are back in the normal world again. And suddenly everything is light and meaningless but full of importance and intent in the same breath, and you can't stop laughing.

 

Where does your mind go? What is it doing while it's away? Do you even care? Is the perfect fusion of mind and body for those few precious minutes such a bad thing to be craving and risking everything for?

 

 

The Pyreneean mountains in the South West of France are so full of amazing roads and spots that the locals who have been searching for answers for over ten years are still finding new spots. We were there for over a week and barely scratched the surface. If you even have a clue what I am asking you, go there and you will find the same answers we did. If you havn't tasted it yet, trust us when we say you owe it to yourself...  WE LOVE DOWNHILL!!!!

 

Jojo Martinez... kills it. This time without the aid of a chicken suit, snorkel or bucket and spade.

 

Darren Rathbone - evening speed check into a hairpin, secret spot.

 

 

 

Mike River in Race Mode. If you want a stupidly small tuck - this photo is a pretty good starting point.

 

Matt Pearce sticks it sideways on his local Bournemouth hill... less than 2 minutes skate from his doorstep. Sometimes you don't have to travel that far to find what you're looking for - Bournemouth was on the way for us so we thought we'd stop by and say hello.

 

 

 

Dasha Kornienko eyes up another hairpin. Those orange things are snow road markers... don't think you can skate this one in the winter!

 

 

Rich, eyes on the next apex... there's about twleve more of these to come on this hill. Photo by Darren.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's out there... What can you find?

 

 

There are way more photos of the trip on FLICKR - enjoy...