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Video: Danny MacAskill goes back to his roots in The Ridge

Bike stunt superman tackles Skye's Cuillins...

Danny MacAskill has gone back to his roots for his latest video, The Ridge, riding a mountain bike on the Cuillin Ridge on his home island, Skye.

Knife-edged and treacherous, the Cuillin Ridge is a famously hard series of mountains. The full traverse "should not be your first ambition in the Cuillin unless you are a highly competent mountaineer," says skyeguides.co.uk. Perfectly sensible place to ride a mountain bike then.

Growing up on Skye, says MacAskill, he always wondered if he could ride his mountain bike up on the ridge. In this video, he finds out.

It's great to see MacAskill bringing his skills to some old school wild mountain biking. This is the type of riding I fell in love with back in the mountain bike boom of the 1980s, though I did a lot more walking and falling off than MacAskill.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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56 comments

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Scotbloc | 9 years ago
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There's a documentary on the making of this video on BBC Scotland on Friday. Should be good! If you're not in Scotland you can prob view it on Sky/Freesat (has regional BBC variants) or iPlayer. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04kntlk

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Al__S | 9 years ago
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The documentary is well worth a watch. Spoiler: the whole thing was filmed over a period of a couple of weeks.

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J90 | 9 years ago
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The jump @ 4:52....the fuck.

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brooksby | 9 years ago
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I watched that video last night. I couldn't *walk* up some of those tracks, let along ride up/down them! Gods, I'd be lying flat on my front holding on with every limb, rather than sitting on my bike.  31

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MaxP | 9 years ago
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His life insurance policy payments must be astronomical!!  13

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BazDunk | 9 years ago
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..get a grip guys, its a very well made 'film', and only a film, highlighting the beautiful Isle of Skye of which it is, good advert for cycling and Scotland.

Danny is brilliant in what he does, and cycling on some of those ridges, no matter how he got there, is awesome and a great piece of filming.

Why do we criticise always 'knock' people who have great skills and whom are promoting cycling in such a fantastic back-drop, it might just get some people out on their bikes and even visit Skye?

http://www.cutmedia.com/the-ridge-and-breathe/

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Simon E | 9 years ago
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The Skye tourism people must absolutely LOVE this  16

... though I'm not so sure the mountain rescue teams will feel the same way.

I went there for holidays as a child, went back a couple of times in the 90s. As well as Danny's immense skill and seeming lack of fear, this video reminded me what a stunning place it is.

If you have never been and decide to go I can assure you that there are plenty of other places there - and on the mainland - that won't disappoint.

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john wells | 9 years ago
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Awesome!

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3cylinder | 9 years ago
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Loved it, this is his best for a while. The pieces where he is cycling along the high tracks are true sweaty palm moments - I don't see any bail out options there.

[The in pinn climb was a bit pointless though. It isn't trivial to get up there purely because of the mind numbing drops on each side, but you could do it with a bike, or an ironing board, or a swivel chair to strike a pose on the top, and then climb/ab down. But then the pose was the point, it will be the image that gets used in media coverage]

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WolfieSmith | 9 years ago
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Somersaulting a barbed wire fence? Hardly original....  4

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Beaufort | 9 years ago
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That must've felt amazing...it's what truly living is.

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The _Kaner | 9 years ago
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There comes a time when I become 'scared' that Mr MacAskill might not make it home from one of his video shoots...I'm glad he did this time...but think he really should keep to the urban playground...

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Simon_MacMichael | 9 years ago
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I got vertigo just watching that  31

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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So he got his bike back then or was he just given another?

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Al__S replied to Airzound | 9 years ago
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Airzound wrote:

So he got his bike back then or was he just given another?

Filmed well before the bike theft. Editing these videos takes a fair bit of time- they'll have shot hours of film, including more than one camera angle in several places.

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Ham-planet replied to Al__S | 9 years ago
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Al__S wrote:
Airzound wrote:

So he got his bike back then or was he just given another?

Filmed well before the bike theft. Editing these videos takes a fair bit of time- they'll have shot hours of film, including more than one camera angle in several places.

Different bikes too.

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NeilG83 | 9 years ago
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Danny skills are very impressive, but there is something in this video that's even better: the scenery. WOW!

Oh, and that trick near the end when he flips over the fence is pretty cool too.

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MuddyGoose | 9 years ago
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But surely that's been shot in a studio or with CGI. It can't be Skye; I mean, where's the mist and the rain?

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Das | 9 years ago
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The words "Jesus Fuckin' Christ" come to mind!!!!!!

 13

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hectorhtaylor | 9 years ago
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That was a very rare flower he trashed.

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badbobb | 9 years ago
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some people are getting confused, this is a film about cycling, that has a tiny bit of climbing, and its being judged on that?

even riding along the edge, with the drop to left, would leave, i am sure, most here, rather nervous! and its stunning photography!

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philtregear | 9 years ago
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i think the serious climbers/ scramblers are missing the point here. the cuillin ridge is stunning and quite intimidating. films like this highlight these virtues. pretty amazing cycling too.
i miss skye. its a wonderful and special place. if the film inspires anyone to go, i hope the sun shines and if it does check out the faery pools

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Must be Mad | 9 years ago
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Quote:

Some of the shots on the video seem to be taken from a helicopter.

I think you will find they used drones.

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felixcat replied to Must be Mad | 9 years ago
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Must be Mad wrote:

I think you will find they used drones.

Oh. I did not think of that possibilty. Rather less noise then. Good.

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tomturcan | 9 years ago
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Eek. Not where a bike should be!

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Northernbike | 9 years ago
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what a beautiful video

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dafyddp | 9 years ago
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Stunning.

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37038 | 9 years ago
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If you've been on that ridge you'd be even more impressed by what he's just done! Some of those ledges/ridges are classed as difficult in walking books. Need ropes on two of them!

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felixcat replied to 37038 | 9 years ago
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37038 wrote:

If you've been on that ridge you'd be even more impressed by what he's just done! Some of those ledges/ridges are classed as difficult in walking books. Need ropes on two of them!

Which routes are they? I did not recognise anything harder than "moderate". Please tell me.
Routes which are classified as difficult for walkers are not necessarily very hard. I was never a very good climber but I think I would be quite happy doing anything on this, except the bike tricks. Sumersaulting over a barbed wire fence looked the most frightening thing to me.

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badbobb replied to felixcat | 9 years ago
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so it was easy all round, no issues even you had Vertigo or did not like heights? or carry a 34lb+ bike said route?

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