See that? That’s Kona Clump rider Dave Watson jumping right over the Tour de France near the top of the Col de Galibier, that is. Complete with his name painted on the road – nice touch.

As you’ve probably guessed, it’s all for a video shoot. After all sorts of cloak-and-dagger preparations to prepare a ramp and landing beforehand, three of Freeride Entertainment’s 16mm cameras started rolling while Scott Markewitz took stills (this being one of them). The lead group was surrounded by so much commotion that jumping over them was deemed excessively silly (yes, the freeride elite still has a concept of “excessively silly”), so a group of a dozen riders a little further back was chosen.

Riding a Kona Stab Primo, Watson headed for the lip, sailed 45 feet over the heads of the riders below (apparently aiming for the back of the group, although it doesn’t look like it in this pic)… And came up about a foot short on the landing. He’d not had a chance to ride the jump beforehand, and had slowed a little on his run in to let the peloton past. He got pitched off the bike and ferried to hospital by paramedics. A brief bit of attention from the gendarmerie dissipated when they found out that Watson was the only injured party – partially separated shoulder, sore back, neck and a severely bruised groin. Nothing permanent, though…

So there you go. And no matter what you may think about the foolhardiness and/or irresponsibility of all this stuff, we bet you want to see the video footage. Disorder IV – Ride the Lightning is the video you need, released later this year.