Even if you haven’t ridden a long, snaking descent, you’ll know from watching the Tour de France and other races on TV that nothing is quicker going down one than a decent rider on a bicycle – remember Vincenzo Nibali’s winning attack in Il Lombardia last year when he zoomed past a couple of motos?
This video from Colombia shows the awkward moment when a pair of motorcyclists out on their bikes on a road near the capital Bogota were overtaken by a cyclist who’s clearly nailed his descending skills.
The biker in front is having none of it, though and gets back in front of the cyclist – not with the intention of giving him a tow, by the look of it – with the rider sensibly dropping back and expresses frustration to the other motorcyclist about his friend’s actions.
Of course, we couldn't mention a descent in South America without flagging up one of our all-time favourite videos - the Brazilian rider who drafted a lorry ... at 124kph.
Back to Europe, and here’s Nibali’s descent to win the autumn Monument last year.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.