John Wike (Pic © Ian Hylands)

Overall winner Myles Rockwell (Pic © Ian Hylands)

The roadies give it some pack-race action (Pic © Ian Hylands)

Inside the pack (Pic © Francois Portmann)

Brian Lopes (Pic © Ian Hylands)

Red Bull’s latest spectacle has been and gone, and the conlusion is that mountain bikers descend faster on roads than road riders. Official.

The event in question was Red Bull Road Rage, a downhill race on a Tarmac course at Tuna Canyon, Malibu, California. The 2.5 mile course featured a 2,000ft elevation drop and an impressive 49 corners. The invited riders, drawn from mountain biking and road racing, did solo timed runs and “Pack Race” four-up elbows-out scariness.

And the winner of both formats? None other than former World DH Champ Myles Rockwell. He was a clear second ahead of runner-up David McCook in the time trial, and then worked his way through the Pack Race rounds against the other fifteen fastest riders to come out on top. McCook managed to grab the $1,000 Avid Speed Trap bonus for highest speed of the day, though, hitting 58mph – presumably he managed to find a straight bit. (As an aside, we failed to stifle a chuckle at Red Bull’s description of the speeds reached on the day as “up to nearly 60mph”…)

Commenting on his win, Rockwell said, “It’s nice to shut everybody up. Everyone thought it was going to be McCook or Lopes, but it’s nice to be the underdog. I didn’t really prepare in any special way. I did a couple of spin classes and that’s it.”

Rockwell won $3,000 for his time trial efforts, with second-placed David McCook winning $2,000 and Brian Lopes getting a grand for his third place. Then there was another $3,000 for winning the Pack Race – six grand for a day’s riding, not a bad haul…

Of course, all this begs the question – would Rockwell have come out on top against some top-flight road pros?

Find out more at www.redbullroadrage.com.