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Video: Brazilian man trackstands — with a gas bottle on his head

Can you top this? Let us know

So you think you can trackstand? You'll have to go some to beat this guy, caught on camera in Brazil, first riding with a large gas tank balanced on his head and then stopping at the lights, cool as the proverbial salad vegetable, trackstanding with the tank still in place.

The clip appears to have been originally posted to Facebook by Aecio Rullian Freire Barros, a regional sales manager for ceiling fan maker Arge.

"How can he balance?" Aecio asks on his comment to the video. We'd like to know that too. In fact, we'd like a demonstration, so if you can do this or any similar feat of jaw-dropping trackstanding, get in touch.

There must be something in the water in Brazil. Our most popular video of 2014 featured Brazilian rider Evandro Portela filming himself drafting a truck at 124 km/h.

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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11 comments

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Timsen | 9 years ago
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Is he related to Lars Boom ?

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andyp | 9 years ago
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to be fair, the gas bottle would probably give more protection in a crash than a bit of polystyrene would.

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andyp | 9 years ago
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Nice. But an unsecure combustible likely to explode and rupture the feet would be *more* opposite.

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Kadinkski | 9 years ago
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Well, I was looking at it more from the angle of an unsecure combustible likely to explode and rupture the head as opposed to a secured protective hat designed to protect the head.

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andyp | 9 years ago
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'literally the opposite of a helmet' wouldn't have any head involvement. *Shoes* are probably the opposite of a helmet.

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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That man's got a lot of bottle. The stakes are high if it falls ….. BOOM!

Can't see Elf and Safety here being impressed  39 . You'd probably get a arrested.

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Kadinkski | 9 years ago
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That's literally the opposite of a helmet.

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kie7077 replied to Kadinkski | 9 years ago
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I'd say having a big bottle of explosive gas on his head causes drivers to give him a wide berth... Er, so yes the opposite of a helmet which causes drivers to think it's ok to drive close because you are 'protected'.

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ronin | 9 years ago
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No more excuses, need to learn to track stand...say what a gas tank on his head (who would believe that if they didn't see it?)...it's either time to try extra hard or just give up  1

But now I'm wondering, did he learn to carry the gas tank first, and then track stand, or track stand and then carry the gas tank.

The guy is a legend and he probably doesn't know it.

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sfichele | 9 years ago
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Impressive skillz. But then that bloke does have a quite a low centre of mass  10

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antonio | 9 years ago
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Impressive or what? He would have made a hit at the revolution series version of the go slow race.

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