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VIDEO: Over 100 mph downhill on a Mountain Bike

Markus Stockl clocks 104 mph on a standard mountain bike down a mountain with no name in Chile’s Atacama desert

Marckus laid out a plan to put himself in the record books. In just 11 seconds and at a speed of 167.6 km/h with a standard mountain bike, whose components you could buy yourself in any cycling shop.

Stöckl has a penchant for the record books. Brought up in the Austrian mountains, his thirst for speed was established at a young age, his place in the speed annuals first cemented in 1999.

In the interim, records have been set at the French ski resort of Les Arcs and on a volcano in Nicaragua among others. For his latest attempt on 13 December – sealed following eight practice runs – it was the barren Chilean desert with barely anything in sight from the 4,000 meter highest point from which he set off.

With the gravel slope of 45 degrees deemed the perfect angle for his record, the 43-year-old’s pulse hit the 170 beats per minute mark, the wind whistling past his ears on a 1,200-meter descent in a place 11,000 miles from his home in Austria’s Tyrol mountains.

Speaking emotionally moments after the finish and his latest record, he said: “I’m back on the mountain without a name in the middle of the desert. It’s tricky because it’s all rocky and loose at the start. It was such a long time and standing up there was like we already cried at the start. It was great fun.”

But for Stöckl, as thrilling as the successful record attempt was, it was just as much about the two years in its making.

“The whole project is an adventure,” he said. “This is the top bit of it but also travelling here with all the stuff and making our way through the middle of the desert.”

His journey to 100km/h and then 120, he insisted, was straight forward but, as the descent ran out, the increased speed was harder to come by.

“It’s hard to reach top speed,” he explained. “After 160, each km/h is a huge effort. If you want to reach a certain goal then you have to put it all in. When above 160km/h, each and every extra kilometer per hour requires an enormous effort. If you want to get an idea of the air resistance, you only have to stick your hand out of the car window when you’re driving at 150 or 160 km/h. This force has an impact on the bike and the entire body. Even though I’m no weakling, physically it is something that I have to contend with too!”