As Martyn Ashton and friends have proven, skinny-tyred bikes are a lot more capable – in the right hands – than most of us realised. But how do skinny tyres cope with a full-on downhill mountain bike course?

Top Austrian Masters class racer Peter Deppner isn't quite shredding the Semmering downhill track on his Scott flat-bar road bike in this video, but he's hardly hanging about either.

Aside from one minor mechanical hiccup, fixed with a good old set of mark one fingers, Deppner makes it through some pretty hairy sections intact and rubber side down.