Video round-up: Downhill madness, overtakes, & crashes

Once again, the video round-up is back with the best cycling videos the internet has to offer. Well, the ones we haven't already featured here on road.cc already, at least.

This weeks selection features a lot of speed, mostly gravity aided speed, with some sensational overtakes of fellow downhill cyclists and even some motorised vehicles.

There's also some great on-board footage of the Tour of Britain with the folks from Madison Genesis, a pretty brutal crash, and a celebrity appearence from Sven Nys.

We round things off in a much more relaxed manner though, with some incredible footage of an fantastic 12-day journey across Italy, and a preview of Specialized's new Sequoia bike.

Cyclist overtakes motorcyclist

Those of us who have a dysfunctional safety gland love flying down the sides of really steep hills. Most of us aren't sure why we risk life and limb for the few seconds of speed, but we do it.

We don't all manage to couple that sense of freedom and power with a feeling of pure superiority, like outpacing a bunch of motorised vehicles.

Hats off to this guy.

3-vets take on this week's UCI Downhill MTB WC course

The Downhill Mountain Bike World Championships are underway at the moment over in Val di Sole in Italy.

Here's a fantastic full preview of the course that'll keep you thoroughly entertained at the same time.

Three DH veterans, Claudio Caluori, Steve Peat, and Rob Warner take to the slope at a significantly slower pace to the folks whow are flying down it right now.

On board with Madison Genesis @ Tour of Britain

Brit Erik Rowsell took third spot at the Bath stage of the Tour of Britain yesterday.

We were there to watch him over the line, but his team Madison Genesis were there the whole way round.

Here you can see what they saw as the young man completed his epic ride.

Left hook van collision 

Here's a lesson in not trusting people in control of vehicles much bigger than you to obey road laws.

We're not putting any of the blame at the feet of Lance Rathbone who was on the poor end of this example of dreadful driving, but it's a timely reminder of the risks we run and that a cycle lane won't always keep you safe.

Better education needed? Perhaps. Humans are fallible though, even highly educated ones. Stay on your toes.

Sven Nys welcomes CX to the US in controversial preview

If you were paying really close attention to the media storm that surrounded Femke Van den Driessche and her ban for mechanical doping at the Cyclo-cross World Championships, you should get the reference here in this preview for cyclocross season in the US.

If the reference sailed straight over your head - like it did most of us here at road.cc - let us enlighten you. Ms Van den Drissche's immediate excuse was that the bike she road at the world champs, which contained a motor in the seat post, wasn't hers. She said it was a bike she sold to a friend of hers who works at a frites shop.

Here we see legendary cyclocross rider Sven Nys doing just that. Hmmm.

One stunning ride across Italy

Be careful, this video will give you itchy feet.

In fact, we're already desperate to jump on the plane ahead of our third Italy week next April.

Introducing the Specialized Sequoia

Specialized's excellent range of steel touring bikes are set for an upgrade.

If you've ever wondered what touring on a bike feels like, this video has a decent stab at recreating it.

Now, where's the bike? We want a go.