The Red Bulletin May 2017 - UK

UK EDITION

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

PULLING NO PUNCHES 70 YEARS OF MAGNUM SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

BAYWATCH BEAUTY

Ilfenesh Hadera on sun, sea, sex and inner strength

WAVE WARRIORS

The men who sail the fastest racing yachts in the world

MOUNTAIN BIKE GUIDE

Gearing up for a summer of peak performance

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R A FA OR T IZ

VIDEO STABILIZATION

WATERPROOF

VOICE CONTROL

CONTRIBUTORS

EDITORIAL

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Yuky Lutz

Fashion photographer Lutz, who currently lives between Barcelona and Zürich, is an expert at capturing the energy of fugitive moments. But our reportage of German techno DJ Alex.Do tested his stamina as well as his artistic eye.

Lutz travelled to Cologne in the evening, shot until eight in the morning, and then took a flight home without catching so much as a minute’s sleep. PAGE 72

04

The moment of truth Sport, at its most elevated level, provides not only compelling drama but, in its most highly charged moments, also serves to open a window into the soul, amplifying moments of passion, emotion, joy and despair into thrilling truths about the human condition.

Nothing captures this experience like a picture, and the masters of exposing such truths are the photographers of the Magnum agency. As The Red Bulletin embarks on a collaboration with the legendary collective, we look back on 70 years of supreme sports storytelling.

Elsewhere in this issue, the spotlight is turned on two sports that, while very different, share the same motivation: the pursuit of speed. First, we talk to the skippers of one of the world’s fastest racing trimarans, Phaedo3, then we follow the KTM team’s attempts to take on the established giants in MotoGP. Meanwhile, in the world of culture, musical visionary Björk explains why for her art and nature are inextricably linked, and movie star Ilfenesh Hadera reveals why there’s more to her Baywatch reboot than merely looking good in a swimsuit.

We hope you enjoy the issue.

THE RED BULLETIN

THOMAS HOEPKER/MAGNUM PHOTOS (COVER), RENE BURRI/MAGNUM PHOTOS

“Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually,” says Cartier-Bresson, one of its founding fathers.

The photo agency celebrates its 70th birthday at magnumphotos.com/magnumphotos-70/ and with a book titled Magnum Manifesto (Thames & Hudson). See Magnum’s best sports photos on PAGE 38.

THE NEW JEKYLL. STAGE READY. cannondale.com/jekyll

< JEKYLL 1

CONTENTS May

BULLEVARD GUIDE 12 Tougher than the rest: Fate 14 16 17 18 20 22 24 26 28

Of The Furious’ Elsa Pataky Smokin’ hot: the Jaguar XKSS returns – at a price The man who photographs the stars’ possessions Mister magic: Adam Trent Dancefloor glamour, Parisian style Festivals for grown-ups Chilling with the Iceman Claudio Caluori, YouTube’s mountain biking sensation Running a profit: the highstakes trade in rare trainers The taco goes upmarket

Get It, Do It, See It 80 What’s on Red Bull TV

this month

82 Wings for Life World Run 84 86 88 96 98

is coming – are you ready?

Think smart: a watch for every adventure Unmissable events for your diary Mountain biking special: the pros, the fans, the gear Global team Freerunning in Tinseltown

54

ILFENESH HADERA

Baywatch: nothing more than bimbos on a beach? As the new film hits the cinemas, meet the star who’s throwing that preconception to the sharks

30 PHAEDO 3

Onboard the beast of a trimaran that’s as robust as a rally car, and smashes records wherever it sets sail

06

THE RED BULLETIN

DOVE SHORE, KELVIN TRAUTMAN

Life & Style Beyond The Ordinary

FEATURES 30

Phaedo 3

38

Magnum

Hulls for heroes: the mighty trimaran that’s a match for any ocean Fully focused: enduring images from a giant in the world of photography

54 Ilfenesh Hadera

We catch some rays with the formidable star of the new Baywatch movie

60

KTM

68

Björk

72

Nightlife

How do you go about building an elite motorcycle racing team from scratch?

By thinking differently for starters, say the rookies of MotoGP The music innovator talks technology, trolls and the power of nature

MAGNUM

As one of the photo industry’s biggest hitters celebrates its 70th year, we showcase some of its most iconic sporting shots – including Ali, below

PHILIPPE HALSMAN/MAGNUM PHOTOS

The club: Bootshaus in Cologne, Germany. The time: 6am. The mission: to keep the place rocking. Here’s how techno DJ Alex.Do earned his stripes…

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THE RED BULLETIN

07

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gowhitewater.co.uk | 03000 030 616

LAUGAVEGUR, ICELAND Goal Zero team member Philipp Tenius crossing the volcanic highlands completely unsupported, relying solely on the Nomad 20 and Sherpa 100 kit.

Photo by Andres Beregovich.

ROUGH RUGGED READY

There is more to the world than what the grid has to offer. Our products are built to help you rethink the way you venture into the world.

Learn more at GOALZERO.COM

BULLEVARD LIFE

&

STYLE

BEYOND

THE

ORDINARY

JUAN ALDABALDETRECU/TRUNK ARCHIVE

Pataky reprises her role as tough gal Elena Neves in The Fate Of The Furious

THE ALLURE OF ELSA PATAKY: ACTOR, MODEL & DIVINE GODDESS PAGE 12 11

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Avenging angel

First, she captured the heart of an Avenger – now Elsa Pataky is collaring bad guys on the big screen in The Fate Of The Furious

ARRESTING PERFORMANCE 12

L

ong before she married Hollywood superhero Chris Hemsworth, actor and model Elsa Pataky was a star in her native Spain. The multilingual beauty – besides English and Spanish, she’s also fluent in French, Italian and Romanian – reprises her role as the incorruptible cop Elena Neves in The Fate

Of The Furious, the eighth instalment of the blockbuster Fast & Furious franchise. It’s a natural fit for the globetrotter and sports/fitness enthusiast, who enjoys riding dirt bikes near her home in Byron Bay, Australia, and challenging Hemsworth during their rigorous workout routines.

And if she can keep up with Thor, she’s clearly a goddess. @elsapatakyconfidential THE RED BULLETIN

JUAN ALDABALDETRECU/TRUNK ARCHIVE

Petite but powerful: Pataky, 40, stays in fighting form with a mix of yoga, surfing and boxing

BULLEVARD

Jaguar XKSS

Out of the ashes of a fire at Jaguarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s factory that destroyed the originals, nine new cars have been reborn

JUSTIN HYNES

PHOENIX FROM THE FLAMES

T

he odds of getting your hands on a Jaguar XKSS, often referred to as the original supercar, aren’t quite as monumental as those of winning the lottery – they’re worse. In order to pocket the keys to one of just 16 known examples, you’ll need to pick the lucky numbers just to get the funds to enter the real lottery to buy one.

Need proof? Last month an original XKSS, chassis 716, was put up for sale by US auction house Gooding & Co. It was the first time an XKSS had come to market since

2005 and the conservative pre-sale valuation was an eye-watering €17 million.

Lucky, then, that Jaguar last year decided to offer a ‘budget’ alternative, priced at a mere €1.2m. The only catch is that just nine all-new, perfectly detailed examples of the XKSS have been made – and they’re all sold.

Why nine? In January 1957, a few months before its D-Type racer would take five of the top six places at Le Mans in the hands of privateer drivers, Jaguar called time on its works motorsport programme. Left with 25 D-Types, the decision was taken to homologate them for sale in the lucrative US market.

Sixteen were built and eventually shipped. However, on the night of February 12, 1957 a devastating fire broke out at Jaguar’s Coventry plant and the remaining nine cars were destroyed.

Almost 60 years on, Jaguar’s Classic division intervened, announcing last year that it would build ‘continuation’ versions of the nine lost XKSS cars to the exact specification of the originals – featuring perfect recreations of every nut and bolt, from the 262hp, 3.4-litre, straight six-cylinder D-type engine, to the grain of the leather seats, the brass knobs on the dashboard, even the original Smiths gauges.

Problem solved, right? Not quite. Because the cars are built to exact 1957 spec, they don’t satisfy current emissions or safety standards. It means that the cars can’t be legally driven on the open road and owners are being advised that they’ll have to seek individual permissions or stick to closed circuits or private roads. At €1.2m a pop, we’re pretty sure the owners will have those in their back yards already. jaguar.com

The new XKSS is not a replica as it has been built from the original drawings for the car

15

Henry Leutwyler

The New York-based lensman tells us about his idols from the last century, with very particular photographs of their possessions

“ELVIS WAS NOT A FAN OF TV NEWS” 16

C

harlie Chaplin’s cane, Michael Jackson’s dancing shoes, Elvis Presley’s TV with a bullet hole in it…

Twelve years ago, Swiss celebrity photographer Henry Leutwyler decided to track down everyday objects that had belonged to his idols and photograph them. He has now brought together 124 of these in his book, Document.

The Red BulleTin: You became famous thanks to your portraits of the stars.

Why did start photographing their belongings? henRy R leuTwyleR: Because Ry objects often say more about their owners than photos do.

How do you mean?

These days, magazine portraits are enormously retouched.

When it came to the objects in the book, I set about my work with the sober-mindedness of a photographer at a crime scene: I took the photos from above. They are harsh, undoctored images.

How do you come across objects like Elvis’s TV set?

The King’s family invited me to Memphis to take pictures of his legacy for the book, Elvis By The Presleys.

What’s the story behind the bullet hole?

Elvis was a gun fanatic… but clearly not a fan of TV news. henryleutwyler.com

THE RED BULLETIN

HENRY LEUTWYLER

Elvis’s TV, snapped

by Leutwyler, from Elvis By The Presleys

FLORIAN OBKIRCHER

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The illusionist

Is there a tougher career path in entertainment than that of a magician?

Adam Trent played the streets and cruise ships before hitting the heights

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

Trent, 31, appears in The Road Trick on Red Bull TV

CORY JONES

ANDREAS TZORTZIS

A

THE RED BULLETIN

dam Trent’s career in magic began with a stutter.

It was a fierce, uncontrollable one that plagued him as a child, but disappeared when Trent was doing his tricks in front of others. Performance boosted the American’s confidence, and magic gave him the ability to read an audience and win them over. the red bulletin: You worked as a busker for a year, then performed on cruise ships and at colleges before hitting Broadway with The Illusionists. The perseverance paid off… adam trent: The people who want it will get it, one way or another. The people who don’t want it won’t get it, no matter what. There are magicians who are much better than me; people who are more talented. The thing I’ve always been able to do is outwork people.

What do you like about street performing?

My whole life, magic has opened doors for me. At the bar, you’re getting free drinks bought for you. And you’re meeting these crazy people because you can do magic.

You can say ‘women’, by the way…

Well, it’s definitely the world’s best icebreaker.

For the full interview, subscribe to The Red Bulletin podcast on iTunes 17

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T

he night started at the VIP Room on Rue de Rivoli where we were celebrating Playboy coming back to France. There were two models turning heads on the dancefloor: Olga Kobzar and Maria Demina.

“We met in Moscow,” Olga explains. “And we travelled to Paris together several times. Maria is younger than me and more of a party girl.”

Olga started modelling at 18 just for fun and turned it into a job. The 25-year-old Russian joined the elite Playmates for a shoot with photographer Ana Dias.

“I loved posing for Ana and Playboy. It’s important to Playboy work with someone who shares your point of view when it comes to beauty and photography.” On this occasion, Olga was at VIP Room to “get the night started and meet some interesting people”.

She and Keffer then moved on to Versailles, a superluxurious loft run by Swiss photographer Damien Ropero.

Does she work as hard at partying as she does on a photo shoot? “No, I expend a lot more energy at a photo shoot,” she insists. “I prefer small-scale parties with friends to clubs. And I like small Parisian bars like La Maison Sage [on the Boulevard Saint Martin].”

She may actually be telling the truth, as a look at her Instagram account reveals. instagram.com/bugs_bunny_gf

On the town

Parisian photographer Keffer is king of the big night out. Here, he’s joined by model Olga Kobzar for a tour of the City of Lights

WORK HARD, PLAY HARDER 18

KEFFER

PIERRE-HENRI CAMY

Bunny hop! Playboy France party at the VIP Room: Russian model Olga Kobzar (right) believes in the benefits of wine

BULLEVARD

Comfort zone

Don’t want to stay awake for three days any more? How to survive a music festival when you’re over 30

FESTIVALS ARE FOR EVERYONE

F

estivals are great as long as you’re 20. You drink a lot, you wallow in mud, you don’t wash for three days and yet, if you’re very lucky, you still find someone willing to share a tent with you. Trouble is, there comes a point when 20 is a distant memory and your idea of a wild night is hitting play on that last Netflix episode, even though it’s past 10pm and you’ve got a breakfast meeting to make.

And yet lots of people still like the idea of festivals, so even if you no longer know your FKA Twigs from your Lemon Twigs, you can still get your festival freak on. Here’s how.

Don’t stay in a tent

Try to find a way of sleeping in a proper bed. A lot of festivals have cabins for hire.

Others provide shuttle

services to bring guests from hotels in nearby towns to the festival site and back.

You’re not a student any more, you have disposable income, so invest in rest.

Enjoy the music

You’ve already seen a thing or two and you don’t have to go wild about every group that’s being hyped right now. Work out in advance what you want to see and plan accordingly.

Dress the part

Functional clothing, for example something warm and waterproof, with loads of pockets, may look odd, but who are you trying to impress? You’re a grown-up.

Wear what you want to wear and feel comfortable.

Spend, spend, spend What did we say

about disposable income?

Make the most of it. A lot of festivals offer opportunities for you to blow your hardearned on anything from bungee jumping and aligning your chakras to carving your very own wizard’s staff.

Embrace the madness.

JULIAN BAJSEL

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are over 50.

If they can still attend festivals, so can you

JONAS VOGT

Care less! Do you want to wallow in the mud and not wash for three days? Then do.

Rules are made to be broken.

Even if you are over 30.

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THE RED BULLETIN

BULLEVARD

Human evolution

Journalist Scott Carney set out to expose endurance artist Wim Hof – and came back a convert. His latest book reveals how humans can push past their limits

ubbed ‘The Iceman’ for his ability to withstand the freezing cold using little more than controlled breathing techniques and mental strength, renowned Dutch daredevil Wim Hof is no stranger to scepticism. A few years ago, investigative journalist Scott Carney set out to disprove the shirtless adventurer and expose him as nothing but a genetic anomaly and a dangerous charlatan.

“When I first met Wim in 2011, I was sure I was going to debunk him as another fake guru with some sort of miracle cure,” Carney says. “But it turns out he wasn’t a sham.”

As the American writer explains in his latest book, What Doesn’t Kill Us, Hof’s methods trigger reactions deeply embedded in our DNA. Up until fairly recently in our history, humans were routinely exposed to the

Using Hof’s methods, Carney climbed a mountain – shirtless

variations in our environment – cold at night, hot during the day. So while the modern individual has grown accustomed to the comfort of temperature-controlled surroundings, our bodies are capable of adapting to more extreme conditions.

“What the Wim Hof method and – more important – evolutionary biology shows,” adds Carney, “is that when you reintroduce variations into your environment, all that machinery in your body has something to do. It sounds nuts, but you are able to heat yourself consciously.”

Gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘central heating’, eh?

SONYA DOCTORIAN/HENNY BOOGERT

JOSH RAKIC

UNCOVERING THE COLD, HARD TRUTH

D

Frozen assets: Hof is not called ‘The Iceman’ for nothing

22

THE RED BULLETIN

U.I.M World Record Cork – Fastnet – Cork The ‘Allblack SL44’ is a state of the art purpose built all aluminium powerboat powered by 1120HP turbo charged FPT racing engines with surface drives, delivering in excess of 160km/h.

With the assistance of Red Bull Media we will be recruiting some additional crew members. The applying crew members will be selected based on their CV. They will then be offered to take up a weekend long training and assessment course at an RYA/ISA training centre.

The selection and training will be filmed as will the actual record runs and preparation before and after each event, all in a ‘fly on the wall’ style and for later use in a proposed TV production.

FANCY A RIDE?

‘A WORLD RECORD HOLDING OFFSHORE POWERBOAT RACING TEAM, CHASING U.I.M. OFFSHORE OCEAN ENDURANCE AND LONG DISTANCE WORLD SPEED RECORDS.’

Other upcoming challenges: Round Anglesey, Round Britain and Ireland, London to Gibraltar, Gibraltar to Monte Carlo, London to Monte Carlo, Napoli to Capri, Round Britain, The Southern Islands, Miami to New York.

London to St Petersburg.

To find out more contact the Team Coordinator at team@allblackracing.com Facebook @allblackracing Instagram @allblack_racing Twitter @allblackracing

HENRILLOYD.COM

These UIM World Record’s are notoriously expensive to chase, each team member must be prepared to make a financial contribution to each record attempt to help the running of the team.

Interested individuals or companies will receive a fantastic return on investment by being part of something real, exciting, glamourous and thrilling. You will have an opportunity to achieve an official UIM World Record as an active and functional team member of Allblack Racing.

Want to be part of this?

Any interested persons should contact the Team Coordinator at team@allblackracing.com

BULLEVARD

Caluori shows you how the likes of downhill star Greg Minnaar (pictured) ride courses

24

THE RED BULLETIN

The YouTube millionaire

He talks to himself at 70kph, expresses fear, joy and jubilation, and it’s all unfiltered. Claudio Caluori has totally captivated his audience

HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF A SHOOTING STAR F

ormer professional downhill mountain bike racer Claudio Caluori showcases the world’s quickest and toughest bike tracks on Red Bull TV. His YouTube videos are cult viewing for millions of fans.

Here, he reveals the three steps you need to take to become a YouTube sensation.

Step 1: Get the right equipment

MICHAL CERVENY, DAN CERMAK

DANIEL KUDERNATSCH

“Three GoPros – one on your helmet, one on the handlebars and one on your chest – plus a highly sensitive microphone that doesn’t pick up wind noise. That will guarantee you razor-sharp recordings and impressive sound.”

amazing from a viewer’s point of view. I can only get the sensation across if I go for it myself and I can only do that if I’m perfectly prepared.

I know the courses from the old days or I check them out before the recording. And during the run itself I’m as focused as if I was still racing for World Cup points.”

Step 3: Show how much fun you’re having… and how afraid you are

“What’s the strategy behind my live commentary? There isn’t one. There are two things I pay attention to: a live analysis of the track (‘Lots of dust, slippery!’) and concrete tips on line and technique (‘Try to take the inside line – no, that doesn’t work’). And another thing: when I’m really scared or really having fun, then I start to talk to myself.

‘First little crash at the first corner, you better focus, Claudio.’ Or, ‘Oh, oh, oh, whoa!

Stay on your bike, stay on your bike, Claudio!’ As soon as you hear me saying my name, you know it’s a crucial moment!”

Search for ‘Claudio’ on the Red Bull YouTube channel.

As a bonus, Red Bull TV is broadcasting all 2017 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup races live. The first downhill of the season is in Lourdes, France on April 30.

Step 2: Know what you’re talking about “Riding through the woods at up to 70kph and doing jumps of up to 20m is routine for the likes of World Champion Loïc Bruni or World Cup winner Aaron Gwin, but it’s THE RED BULLETIN

Claudio Caluori and his work tools: helmet, GoPro and downhill bike

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BULLEVARD

Shoegazing

Chances are that buying and selling trainers won’t make you rich, but who cares – few investments are this much fun

R

emember that friend of yours whose collection of rare trainers was strictly lookbut-don’t-touch? He probably thought he was sitting on a gold mine. Turns out he might still be. StockX, an online marketplace, is the brainchild of sneakerhead Josh Luber.

“If you look at the resale market over time, it looks exactly like a Nike swoosh,” he says. “The price starts high pre-release, comes down, then climbs.” How steep it rises depends, of course, on demand: a pair of zebra-striped Yeezy Boosts, which cost

The Nike Mag debuted in the 1985 film Back To The Future – 89 self-lacing pairs went on sale last autumn

ANDREAS TZORTZIS

THE $200K HIGH-TOPS

around $220 on release by Adidas in February, are now trading at five times that, due to rumours of a limited run.

So, how do you beat the market? “You should plan on holding onto a pair at least two years,” says Luber; in other words, enough time for supplies of deadstock [boxed, unworn pairs] to dwindle.

And the ultimate insider tip is knowing the production run – a closely guarded secret.

For example, only 89 pairs of the self-lacing Nike Mag were released. Which explains why one pair sold for more than $200,000 at a charity auction, and another is trading at close to $33,000 on StockX. stockx.com

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THE RED BULLETIN

WINNING. WITH. TECHNOLOGY.

+

GREG CALLAGHAN WINS IRELAND EWS 2016 AND TWEEDLOVE INTERNATIONAL 2016

RIDING A CUBE STEREO 140 29â&#x20AC;&#x2122;ER

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Nomadic chef

Rene Redzepi’s Copenhagen restaurant, Noma, won best in the world four times. But his style trumps any location

THE WORLD’S BEST COOK TAKES ON THE TACO

B

Rene Redzepi admires Mexican cuisine

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Redzepi, 39, and his staff have been touring Mexico, gathering ingredients and ideas, before a seven-week residency in Tulum. Expect a couple of innovative variations on tacos, tortillas and tamales when it opens between April 12 and May 28, but don’t expect to get in.

Tickets – priced at $600 – sold out within a day. noma.dk/mexico

Noma Mexico will serve up a multicourse tasting menu ANDREAS TZORTZIS

new restaurant on the harbour in Copenhagen. His tours yielded seasonal recipes such as carrot sautéed in goat’s butter with chamomile sprigs; or oysters steamed with greens gathered on the nearby beach.

The reaction was unanimous: Restaurant magazine named Noma best restaurant in the world in 2010-12, and 2014.

Following successful popups in Tokyo and Sydney,

VINCENT LONG

efore seasonal became the byword for every new restaurant hoping to create a mystique thick enough to attract well-heeled hipsters, Rene Redzepi was foraging alone in Denmark.

The trainee from the renowned French Laundry in California was only 23 when he was tapped to head up a

THE RED BULLETIN

footwear in stores nationwide

www.dare2b.com

THE

SEA KINGS Built for outright speed and the toughest of conditions, multihull yachts such as Phaedo3 are the thoroughbreds of offshore racing.

Owner Lloyd Thornburg and skipper Brian Thompson take us into the oceanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fast lane

Words: Justin Hynes Photography: Kelvin Trautman

30

Bowman and trimmer Pete Cumming changes the sail on the bow. The weight of the sails and a lumpy swell makes this a tricky job

â&#x20AC;&#x2030; 33

“Our boat is a cross-country racer, a rally car; it’s built for speed… and rough conditions” Brian Thompson

D Above: Crew member Sam Goodchild helms Phaedo3 during the Rolex Middle Sea Race Left: Phaedo3 blasting along at 29 knots, almost double the wind speed THE RED BULLETIN

own a fizzing phone line from Antigua, yachtsman Brian Thompson is explaining the finer points of his current vessel.

“A lot of people call these boats supercars,” he says, “but they’re so much more. For me, they’re more like Dakar cars. America’s Cup boats are Formula One, really they can only sail in flat water – on a circuit, so to speak.

Our boat is a cross-country racer, a rally car; it’s built for speed… and rough conditions.”

The boat in question is Phaedo3, a 21m trimaran in the MOD70 class. It’s a carbon-fibre wonder designed with the express purpose of being, well, an express: this multihull racer is capable of hammering across the waves at speeds of up to 75kph.

Thompson, Phaedo3’s British co-skipper along with American owner Lloyd Thornburg, is speaking from Antigua’s Falmouth Harbour, where the duo are about to kick off their 2017 campaign with the RORC Caribbean 600, the headline event of that region’s racing season. Listing the islands that mark the waypoints of the 965km blast – Antigua, Anguilla, Monserrat, Guadeloupe, St Kitts & Nevis – it’s hard to envisage this kind of racing as anything other than the preserve of ‘thrillionaires’ with an overactive adrenal gland, and a heap of money to burn.

Thornburg certainly fits the image of a time-rich, high-networth speed-freak. The 36-yearold son of an investor whose fund manages $55 billion in assets, he flies his own private jet, skydives, and drives fast cars. In light of those pastimes, racing high-power yachts is an almost too prosaic

extension of a lifestyle few will find tangible. But while it’s easy to raise an eyebrow at so gilded an existence, Thornburg’s wide-eyed, undiluted passion for his sport and the boat he races is infectious.

“I started out wanting to sail around the world,” he explains, “so I built a boat for that – a catamaran – and sailed it across the South Atlantic to the Caribbean. I decided to race it, and we had a bit of success, but then we really got into racing and entered the Transpac [from LA to Honolulu] three or four years ago.”

It was in that race Thornburg encountered Thompson. “It was quite a lonely, long motor back, and we were already planning and talking about what else was out there,” says the former.

Thompson’s CV reads like a catalogue of must-dos at the outer limits of ocean racing. As well as being the first Briton to break the round-the-world sailing record twice, the 55-year-old has won the Volvo Ocean Race, the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe, and finished fifth in the Vendée Globe solo round-the-world race in 2009. In conversation, the pair appear to compliment each other perfectly, Thornburg’s machine-gun delivery being offset by Thompson’s often more phlegmatic view of racing. There’s a clear meeting of minds, as proved by the pair’s decision – after discussions on the route home from Transpac – to move into MOD70 trimarans.

“I’d been taken out on a test sail, and I got the chance to drive one for 10 minutes,” says Thornburg. “It was a mind-blowing experience.” Entranced, he tried to charter a MOD70, but failed to secure a boat. The dream of racing the cutting-edge trimarans seemed to be fading when, in late 2014, Thompson called to say one was on sale in France. Thornburg didn’t hesitate: “It was now or never. So we leapt; we just dove in. That was the beginning.”

Since then, Thornburg and Thompson have made Phaedo3 arguably the most successful yacht of its kind on the planet, with a slew of records to their credit, including breaking the Bermudato-Plymouth transatlantic record by more than a week, then smashing America’s Cup hero Sir Ben Ainslie’s record for sailing around the Isle of Wight by almost half an hour. Most recently, the boat set a new benchmark for the run from Monaco to Port Cervo in Sardinia, breaking the record by more than two hours.

“It was a huge leap going from the catamaran to the trimaran, but it really brought the thrill of motor racing,” admits Thornburg.

“A lot of it has to do with the hardships and the extremity of being onboard, screaming along offshore at night, with 50 knots of apparent wind in your face, freezing cold and getting thrown around the boat. It’s probably the hardest sport to show how extreme it really is because all the starts and finishes generally occur in pretty benign conditions. But it really is amazing.”

The forces at play can be extraordinary, says Thornburg.

“It’s an incredible thrill when you’re approaching the very limit of what you can control – just the sheer power of the boat.”

Thompson concurs, adding that the boat is capable of so much power that the key to success is often not to push for more speed, but to harness what’s being generated by the trimaran.

“A lot of the time you’re slightly de-powering the sails you have, changing course to be in a position where you could easily escape if you get overpowered, and also, in the bigger sense, changing to smaller or larger sails. It’s like a car engine, except here you can change cylinders in the engine. You have a lot of choices to make about what sails to put up; what course to steer to keep it fast and safe. Anyone can go fast for a while, but to go fast and safe consistently is an absorbing challenge.”

For Thornburg, the extremity is a fundamental part of the attraction. “You’re always one bad decision away from the limit; from – to use a motor-racing analogy – putting it in the wall.

35

“It’s like trying to sleep in the back of a pick-up truck driving down a dirt road at more than 100kph!”

Lloyd Thornburg

“Once you’re on deck, it’s like being sprayed with a fire hose,” says Thornburg

Where it becomes really extreme is if it’s raining at night. It’s like being an instrument pilot: you’re only looking at the instruments and working on feel as you barrel into the darkness.”

There’s also the thorny issue to trying to stay in control while battling not only the elements but also human limits, particularly tiredness. “You can only really sleep when you’re happy there are no massive decisions to make, and also that the boat is sailing safely,” says Thompson. “It’s a matter of looking at the weather visually, and at the forecast, and saying, ‘OK, I think there are a couple of hours of stable conditions, so it’s safe to have a rest.’

And you have to do that, otherwise you’ll make bad decisions.”

Thornburg’s assessment of the likelihood of grabbing useful rest is more blunt: “It’s like trying to sleep in the back of a pickup truck driving down a dirt road at more than 100kph!”

It’s not only sleeping that becomes a struggle; even the simplest of tasks can become problematic when Phaedo3 is at full speed. “It’s extreme in everything,” Thornburg adds. “It’s hard to put your wet weather gear on, and you’re tired before you even step on deck, because it can be that difficult to hold your body in place. Once you’re on deck, it’s like being sprayed with a fire hose. Everything’s a challenge when it’s going fast – even the basics, like making tea or eating, become really difficult.”

It’s not only in the heat of battle that mistakes can be made, however, as the crew found out in last year’s Rolex Middle Sea Race. After opening up a solid lead over rival boat Maserati, the crew of Phaedo3 made a huge navigational error, effectively turning the wrong way as they headed for the island of Lampedusa, off the south-western tip of Sicily. By the time the mistake was rectified, they were more than 100km behind Maserati. The race was over.

“The navigator entered the waypoint into the navigation computer several days before the race and did all the analysis with the course plotted incorrectly,” says Thornburg. “There are all these other forces around when you’re at sea, things that can really force an error, and this was simply a mistake made in a hotel room three days before the race. We did round an island, just not the right one!”

The team made up for the catastrophe in spectacular style when they next met Maserati, in the RORC Transatlantic Race last December. “We were heading over the top of Tenerife, and Maserati was just maybe 7-8km behind us,” says Thompson. “We had to decide which side of Las Palmas to go through, so we took the gap between it and Tenerife, which carried the risk of light air. Maserati hacked off to the north and went around the top of Las Palmas. We managed to get through a period of light air and accelerated away. We finished almost 500km in front.”

While the heroes’ welcomes that await in finish-line ports, along with the records the yachtsmen chase with assiduous glee, are the obvious spoils of racing, for Thornburg the rewards extend far beyond the accolades. “With all the technology at our disposal in our everyday lives, a lot of us have scattered minds, and there’s something calming about the sea. The very act of being in this limitless environment, having an endless horizon before you expands your thinking. This openness, being in this sort of formless world, is very relaxing and very interesting.”

It’s this simplicity that Thornburg says is the ultimate draw: a distillation of life into a series of singular moments of clarity.

This, he says, is the real thrill of racing a boat like Phaedo3. “When we’re out there, the focus is so singular and so clear. When you can get really hurt and there’s real danger involved, you’re not thinking about the electricity bill or whatever else. I guess people describe that as the flow, or the zone. To be able to sustain that flow for so many days is... incredible. Just incredible.” teamphaedo.com 37

MAGNUM

FORCE 70 YEARS OF SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY In 1947, photographers Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, William Vandivert, George Rodger and David â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Chimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Seymour set up a photographic agency in New York. As a large bottle of champagne had been involved in the process, it was named Magnum. Founded as a co-operative to be able to exert greater authority over clients when it came to quality and fees, Magnum and its creative members went on to set a benchmark in all areas of press photography.

Here, The Red Bulletin, which will soon start working in partnership with Magnum, showcases the best sports pictures from 70 years of visual storytelling

Words: Robert Sperl

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MICHAEL SCHUMACHER Peter Marlow, 2001

Already a three-time world champion, Michael Schumacher relaxes in his motorhome during testing at Ferrariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mugello circuit in Italy. In this photograph, Peter Marlow achieved something only great photographers can: he made himself virtually invisible and the photo into a painting.

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CLIFF-DIVERS IN SANTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ELIA

Ferdinando Scianna, 1982 Sicilian Ferdinando Scianna is that rare dual talent: a brilliant writer and a gifted photographer.

A master at capturing the moment, he can make staged shots look spontaneous.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER Elliott Erwitt, 1977

Raised in Paris and Milan before emigrating to the US in 1939, Elliott Erwitt had already worked with stars such as Marilyn Monroe before photographing Hollywood hopeful Arnold Schwarzenegger. At this point, the Austrian was still more famous as a bodybuilder than as an actor.

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RUGBY TRAINING John Vink, 1999

Factory workers, travelling salesmen, farmersâ&#x20AC;Ś The rugby team of the small French town of Villefranchede-Lauragais was a team of amateurs. As such they would assemble for training after work and scrum down until late into the night, and until they were on the point of collapse.

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TOUR DE FRANCE Harry Gruyaert, 1982 Famous for reportage pictures of Morocco and India, Belgian Harry Gruyaert nonetheless retained a soft spot for cycling and, thus, the Tour de France. And not just the stars; he was also fascinated by the lesser lights, such as Austrian cyclist Harald Maier, pictured receiving medical treatment on the move, or absurd moments, such as this sit-in on the 12th stage. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was interested in all the elements," said Gruyaert last year. "The details were as important as the humans.â&#x20AC;?

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AT THE VELODROME D’HIVER Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1957

The co-founder of Magnum and genius of black and white photography blazed a trail for decades. His MO was to creep up silently – a single word could have ruined everything – and then capture the decisive moment, as he did here during a break in the Six-Day Bicycle Race in Paris.

MUHAMMAD ALI Abbas, 1974 (above), Thomas Hoepker, 1966 (below) Two views of the greatest boxer of all time. Above, we see him in Kinshasa ahead of his epic fight against George Foreman – the Rumble in the Jungle – invulnerable and unmoved by the attention of the international press. Below, we see him in London at a film studio, being spooked by a bee – fearful, sensitive, frightened. Ali subsequently had the words “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” embroidered into the silk robe in which he entered the ring.

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CASSIUS CLAY

Philippe Halsman, 1963

Halsman produced 103 covers for the illustrious magazine LIFE, including portraits of Salvador Dalí and Albert Einstein, unique testimony to his creative talent. The only way to achieve so much was, as Halsman always did, to look deeper.

“Every face I see seems to hide […] the mystery of another human,” he said. When he photographed the greatest boxer of all time in New York, Ali was still called Cassius Clay, but he already wore his second face: that of undisputed champion.

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MEXICAN WRESTLING Alex Webb, 1978

The American sees himself as something of a street photographer, living a life of conflict and confrontation as he follows his inner compass. Sometimes Webb also seeks out indoor confrontation, such as to document the world of Mexican wrestling seen here.

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THE BOXER

Peter Marlow, 1996 Their bouts may take place in the spotlight, but boxers train in the often lonely and down-at-heel atmosphere of the gym, a place with a pervasive smell of blood, sweat and broken dreams. Here we see ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed, then the WBO featherweight champion, in New York.

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MARADONA John Vink, 1986 Argentina won the 1986 World Cup, beating West Germany 3:2 in the final. John Vink thinks Argentinian No 10 Diego Maradona is the very image of success. On the one hand, there was his incredible skill, on the other, controversy in the shape of the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal against England in the same tournament. The beauty and beastliness of Maradona’s game, and personality, led to glory and notoriety.

EN GARDE! Christopher Anderson, 2015 Canadian-born Christopher Anderson is well-known for his war photography. So it was only right that he should be invited to work his magic at the oldest fencing school in Paris – La Salle D’Armes Coudurier. The jousts are just as hard-fought as the battles he photographs elsewhere, but here, at least, there are set rules and the only casualty is pride.

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FOOTBALL Abbas, 1976 (above), Harry Gruyaert, 1998 (below) Why is it that football is the most captivating of all the games? A picture can say more than a thousand words. Whether it’s mired in the mud of a waterlogged pitch in Guapi, Colombia, or on the red earth of the Canons’ training ground in Yaoundé, Cameroon, bent goalposts, a ball and the players’ desire are all you need to spark that passion for the beautiful game.

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MAGNUM FORCE 70 YEARS OF SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY

ROBERT CAPA/INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY/MAGNUM PHOTOS,RENE BURRI/MAGNUM PHOTOS, HELGE KIRCHBERGER PHOTOGRAPHY/RED BULL HANGAR-7

W

hen the Magnum photographic agency was set up over lunch one day during the spring of 1947 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, sport wasn’t really in the forefront of its founding fathers’ thoughts. Robert Capa, William Vandivert, David ‘Chim’ Seymour, George Rodger and Henri Cartier-Bresson had all been war correspondents. Now they were driven by an urge to satisfy people’s curiosity for things other than the horrors of conflict.

To combine their skills as reporters and artists, the Magnum photographers were in search of unusual formats. Part of that meant limiting themselves to the very highest quality and barely 100 photographers have ever been good enough to work for Magnum to this day.

Their work has often been a struggle against the mainstream to which the glossies and other magazines of the day have felt confined. It made perfect sense that Magnum should be an economic entity as well as an artistic one – the members made contributions they all benefited from – to make them less dependent on their clients.

Even if sport was of almost zero interest to them, especially in those early days, when geniuses like Robert Capa or Henri Cartier-Bresson spoke on the subject, there was no hiding their mastery. Capa photographing wrestlers in Soviet Georgia in 1947 was one marvellous example of him finding his feet. John Steinbeck, Pulitzer Prize-winner and eventual Nobel laureate, wrote the report for the Ladies Home Journal and was paid $3,000 for

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Magnum photographers founded a language every eye could understand: James Dean by Dennis Stock (top), D-Day by Robert Capa (middle), Che Guevara by René Burri (bottom). Left: the book marking the anniversary

the piece. Capa was paid $20,000, showing in just what high regard he was held at the time. (A car would have set you back about $1,500 in those days.)

From a technical point of view, the Magnum photographers had no problem finding their bearings in the world of sports photography. Capa’s well-known motto, “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough,” applied with equal severity to shots taken when under enemy fire and to those taken at horse races, wrestling bouts or baseball games. What you needed in the trenches was similar to what you needed when snapping away on the sidelines: small, quick cameras and sensitive footage.

In his book Images à la Sauvette (The Decisive Moment), published in 1952, Cartier-Bresson spoke of a photographer’s duty to create everlasting impressions of

fleeting events and in so doing he hit upon the salient point of Magnum’s sports photography. The aim wasn’t merely to freeze the action so that the beholder could take in the moment again. The aim was to show what was going on behind the scenes.

Far more important was the fact that, even when it came to sports photography, Magnum photographers were still sublime storytellers. Their photographs aren’t the icing on the cake, they are the cake. A single image, with its multiplicity of details, figures, nuances and shade is enough to pull a second, third, fourth layer from an event, thus stimulating the beholder’s imagination and helping them to think an event through to the end.

Magnum photographers have always seen sport as a particular challenge and Jonas Bendiksen is no exception. He often tears himself away from his work as a documentary photographer to capture skiing subjects. And 2014 was no different when he travelled with freeskier Henrik Windstedt, raving afterwards, “The most interesting moments for me are when art meets sport.”

Magnum photographers are also willing to invest greater time and effort and to patiently lie in wait.

Thomas Hoepker, who shot one of the most honest pictures of Muhammad Ali, spent almost 30 years shadowing the boxer. Hoepker aimed to become invisible at a certain point, as only then would he be able to catch the suspicious Ali off-guard.

Hoepker’s role model in this approach was probably Magnum colleague Inge Morath. She virtually got under the skin of Marilyn Monroe on the set of The Misfits in 1960 to get closer to the actress’s true self. “Monroe knew all the tricks about how to pose,” Morath revealed. But her time came eventually. magnumphotos.com

MAGNUM AT HANGAR-7 IN SALZBURG, AUSTRIA

The exhibition, ‘70 Years of Sports Photography’, runs from April 5 to May 1 at the architecturally unique Hangar-7, which also houses a collection of historic Flying Bulls aeroplanes and Formula One racing cars. Entry is free. In addition to the exhibition space, Hangar-7’s Restaurant Ikarus, two bars, outdoor lounge and café mean that it is not just an event location, but also a meeting point for art-lovers and connoisseurs. hangar-7.com

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BEAUTY BEACH

AND

THE

I N T I M I D A T I N G LY B E A U T I F U L , Y E T R E F R E S H I N G LY A P P R O A C H A B L E A N D A B U N D A N T LY C O M P A S S I O N A T E : I L F E N E S H H A D E R A , S TA R O F T H E N E W B AY WAT C H M O V I E , R E A L LY D O E S H A V E I T A L L W O R D S : N O R A O â&#x20AC;&#x2122; D O N N E L L P H O T O G R A P H Y: D O V E S H O R E

Two-piece bathing suit: Duskii

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One-piece suit: Duskii Sunglasses: vintage

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OW D O YO U D U ST O F F B AY W AT C H , A N I C O N I C T V SERIES FROM THE 1990S, AND MAKE IT FEEL LIKE A FRESH FILM IN 2017?

F I R S T, G I V E I T A T O N G U E I N - C H E E K S L A N T. S E C O N D , F I N D T H E R I G H T C A S T. F O R D W AY N E ' T H E R O C K ' J O H N S O N , T H E S TA R A N D ALSO A PRODUCER OF THE FILM, CASTING HIS LOVE I N T E R E S T WA S N O E A SY TA S K . “ S H E H A D T O B E A LOT OF THINGS,” JOHNSON W R O T E O N I N S TA G R A M . “ S T R O N G , I N T E L L I G E N T, FORMIDABLE, BEAUTIFUL A N D F U N N Y. W A N T T O W E L C O M E T H E TA L E N T E D ILFENESH HADERA TO O U R B AY W AT C H F A M I LY. ” We can confirm Hadera is all of those things – and more. The 31-year-old actress, who was born and bred in Harlem, New York, has made her mark in recent years in acclaimed US TV series Show Me A Hero and Billions, and through her frequent collaborations with film director Spike Lee. This is not a CV that would typically lead to a role in Baywatch, but, as we discover, Hadera is anything but typical. What can we say? The Rock has phenomenal taste.

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the red bulletin: A 1989 Hollywood Reporter review of the Baywatch pilot read: “Let’s be honest, it’s the oiled bodies that will bring viewers back.”

More than 25 years later, how has the Baywatch mindset changed? ilfenesh hadera: [Laughs.] You know, it’s still all about [that]. There’s still a huge emphasis on fitness and health: Zac [Efron] transformed himself, and Dwayne’s body is his trademark. But the film is also fun and doesn’t take itself super-seriously. It’s by no means a spoof of the original Baywatch, but it’s actionpacked, with explosions and boat chases.

What about as a woman, thinking about where we were 25 years ago?

Versus now? I mean, the funny thing about my character, Stephanie Holden, is that she’s the most buttoned-up of the three female lifeguards. So maybe it was easier to go into it not feeling as objectified as you would have otherwise.

Dwayne Johnson has praised you for being “tougher than new rope”.

Where does that strength come from?

I’m really lucky to have been raised by some incredibly strong women. My mother and grandmother are the most compassionate, wonderful, lovely women I know, but they are f--king tough. My grandmother is 84, and she’s active, self-sufficient, smart, adventurous and as tough as nails. My mom is the same.

She’s my best friend, and she’s the f--king coolest. She’s from Vermont and has a total hippy vibe. She never judges, always listens, and gives great advice.

Your parents run the African Services Committee, an organisation in New York City that helps refugees like your father, who came to America from Ethiopia. What’s the greatest lesson their work has taught you?

They taught me to be a good person wherever possible, because you never know what other people are going through. You have to treat people with compassion and generosity.

Which is a great tool as an actress. How did those lessons help your acting?

I grapple with that, because I feel like what I do is silly work compared with what they do, you know what I mean?

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Top: Duskii One-piece: Duskii Sunglasses: Vintage

YOU’RE HUSTLING GET SUPPOSED NO SHAME YOU’RE DOING GET THERE” “AS LO N G AS TO

WHERE YOU’RE

TO BE,

I N W H AT

THERE’S

TO

Stylist: CHRISTINA PACELLI at TheOnly.Agency Assistant stylist: CAROLINE CURTIS Hair: MATT FUGATE at Exclusive Artists Management, using Kérastase Paris Make-up: CAROLA GONZALEZ at Forward Artists

Acting can reach a lot of people…

It does. But you have to actively remind yourself of that. I’m really fortunate that I’m finally able to do what I love to do every day; there were many years of working in restaurants to pay the bills.

So what was I? A hostess, not an actress.

But that was a stupid way to look at it.

As long as you’re hustling to get where you’re supposed to be, there’s no shame in what you’re doing to get there.

And now you’re here…

This is the dream. But it’s hard when I get a call from my parents about a grant not going through, and I’m taking the call on a beautiful beach, prancing by the ocean in my red bikini. It’s hard to see the connection between their work and how it influences mine.

But your celebrity can help spread the word about their cause, right?

I finally feel like I’ll be able to use what I’m doing to help them; to feel like I can pull my weight a little bit. My parents recently started a youth committee and asked me to speak to generate some excitement. I always shy away from public speaking, but I told them I would make a video instead. And then I had a thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if Dwayne could do the introduction to get these kids excited?’ Everybody loves The Rock. I didn’t even have to give him specifics: he knew what my parents did, and he just said, “Sure, say no more.”

He made the coolest, nicest video about why it’s so important to give back to your community.

Speaking of The Rock, your response to his Instagram post read, “Dedicated to everyone who laughed at me when I fell off the starting block at that swim meet in 1997.” Explain…

I was in the YMCA swim team before starting high school. At my final meet,

I was standing on the starting block, and I just fell into the water before the whistle blew. It was the most excruciatingly embarrassing moment. I wanted to stay at the bottom [of the pool]. It was horrible.

What about your swimming skills now?

How much training did you have to do?

I’m a pretty strong swimmer. For two months, we trained twice a week, two hours a session. Two hours in the pool is a long time. Swimming is insane exercise – a total body workout.

And probably a good way to bond with the cast. How was the vibe on set?

We had a great time. There were so many different personalities. Alexandra [Daddario, who plays Summer Quinn] is just a ham. She’s also from New York, so it was nice to have another New Yorker on board.

You would always hear rumours about the cattiness between the female cast on those classic 1990s TV shows…

There really was none of that. Which seems crazy to me, because you’ve got three women in bathing suits, and you think, ‘Oh, we’re all going to be competing.’

Do you think that’s just a difference between then and now?

Perhaps. Or could it be that’s what people think should happen when three women get together?

But why should it?

I don’t know. I think on Baywatch we all wanted to be our best for ourselves, and not to outshine anyone else.

In a way, you’re all redefining what it means to be a “Baywatch babe”…

Which is such a weird… what does that even mean, right?

That you should never hide your intelligence to appear more appealing to men? We’re so beyond that…

Thank God. Baywatch is in cinemas from June 2; thebaywatchmovie.com

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ES, S A C T R O P S AN R T R , U S O E I F R Y T T N U O SIX C NT E R E F F I G D N 0 I 1 K A M O M R E F H E T L : 38 PEOP ES AND TWO RIDERS TOGP TEAM O M M T K FOUR BIK E H T OF

ern Words: W

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hy: Greg Fu Photograp r Jessner

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Bradley Smith (right) gets technical with crew chief Tom Jojic

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“MY GREATEST WISH? HAVING 10 MORE DAYS’ TEST EXPERIENCE UNDER MY BELT“ BRADLEY SMITH, KTM FACTORY RIDER

H

ow does a rookie hold his own against the top dog? Not by copying them, that’s for sure. Only if you’re willing to forge your own path, achieve your goals quickly and prioritise a can-do informality over hierarchy, will you have a real chance at unseating those currently at the pinnacle of the sport. The way KTM is going about joining the elite of motorcycling is an object lesson in just that.

“I don’t care whether it’s raining or not. At some point I need feedback,” says Günter Bauer, KTM’s chief chassis designer. Hanging around is annoying; people want to get down to work. Last night, heavy rainfall hit the track in Sepang, Malaysia, and now, at midday, it still hasn’t dried off completely, or at least not to the point where the engineers might draw any sensible conclusions. This may well be the 46th day of testing in KTM’s short MotoGP career, and also the umpteenth version of the frame of Pol Espargaró and Bradley Smith’s bikes, but in this arena the KTM team are still absolute rookies.

Sepang is the first official test of the 2017 MotoGP season. It’s the first opportunity for them to size themselves up against the opposition; the first time things get real.

Rivals like Honda, Yamaha and Ducati all have decades of experience and are technically at their peak, whereas KTM still needs to find its feet.

“My greatest wish?” says British rider Smith, rubbing his hands over his cropped skull as he sits in a fold-up chair on the left-hand side of the pits. “Having 10 more days’ test experience under my belt.”

One man couldn’t agree more: 54-year-old team manager Mike Leitner. He has worked in MotoGP in various capacities at Honda for 15 years, including the role of crew chief for multiple World Championship winner Dani Pedrosa. His main task at KTM has been to build from scratch a team that can keep up with his former employers; a team that will one day beat the world champions using their very own methods.

“We do things differently in Mattighofen,” Leitner explains. “We don’t sit around asking ourselves questions forever; we act. It doesn’t matter how many different nationalities you have on board, the parent company sets the cultural tone.”

This means no long-winded board meetings or harmonising with corporate HQ thousands of miles away, but instead achieving your goals in as short a time as possible

amid a culture of personal responsibility.

Leitner sought out 37 people cool with this philosophy, most of them coming, not surprisingly, from within the field.

Now they have to learn to work together.

“Being a total genius won’t help one bit if you’d rather be sitting at home on your laptop, or you spend the working day looking at your watch,” he says. “Anyone who works in my team has to be burning with enthusiasm for the cause; has to be willing to suffer, and needs to be able to cope with constantly being away from home. The best theoretician is no good to me if he doesn’t know how to handle the pits: the pressure, the claustrophobia, the stress. The paddock creates a type of people all of its own.” The majority already have a language in common when arriving for testing. But now KTM has to develop a language of its own.

Andreas Rieger is one of the few ‘civilians’ – that is to say, someone with no background in MotoGP – to have

"THE PADDOCK CREATES A TYPE OF PEOPLE ALL OF ITS OWN“ MIKE LEITNER, TEAM MANAGER

There are a dozen specialists just taking care of the technical side of each rider’s bike

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KTM builds its frames from steel, not aluminium like other manufacturers.

It does its own thing with the chassis, too

“WE HAVE TO GET THE BRAKING UNDER CONTROL“ POL ESPARGARÓ BRINGS UP THE REAR

passed muster to work at the track. The mechanic formerly tweaked bikes for a KTM dealer before working his way up to the factory team. “Yesterday, we were in the pits from 8am to 11pm with a 15-minute break in the afternoon,” he reveals. Everyone does, at least, have a room of their own. “If you can’t shut the door behind you at night and have a little bit of privacy, you’ll end up going mad.”

Leitner concurs: “Even if I picked the majority of them from candidates who I knew were used to stress, you still want a team who will work the whole year through. People need space and a chance to step back. We’re stuck with each other all day as it is.”

It sounds like a lot when you first hear that it takes 38 people to get two bikes onto the race track. But there are more jobs to be done than there are people to fill them. “I’d sooner we closed ranks and shared the jobs between us than one of us be out there on the track and not know what he’s doing,” says Leitner. “We’re as big as we have to be, and as small as we can be.”

T

he truck drivers, for example, are also responsible for the race tyres, and when the riders are on track they’re the ones who communicate with them via boards held above the pit wall. There’s no pit radio in MotoGP as there is in Formula One, so one very important job falls to people who you’d think were further down the pecking order.

“Every rider wants to communicate in his own way. You’ve got to get a feel for him and for the way the race is going,” one crew members reveal. “For one guy, for example, T during a race means time.

In other words, go for it. Sometimes the whole board was just full of Ts.” In Leitner’s understanding of team spirit, there are no unimportant jobs: “The man who rivets the chain lock is just as important as everyone else. That’s what I told everyone on the very first day.

What use is the best engine or the best electronics if the wheels aren’t turning?

This respect for colleagues comes from the top and is also lived out at the top.”

His prior knowledge comes in handy: “I’ve worked in almost every position.

That’s why I can put myself in my team’s shoes and understand why they’ve made the decisions they have. What’s my job?

To get my head around the project as a whole, and to optimise it. Not a day passes when I don’t try to improve something.”

The pits, meanwhile, are a hive of activity. The track is now completely dry THE RED BULLETIN

THE TEAM IS AS BIG AS NEEDED AND AS SMALL AS POSSIBLE

No room for excuses. Thanks to the telemetry, the rider is just as transparent as his race bike

Team boss Mike Leitner has been shaped by the paddock. He’s sheer brawn, with nerves of steel.

Nothing fazes him, not even during testing

and testing can begin. They do five laps and then it’s back to the pits to try to come up with a better set-up. Each rider has two bikes, and they can’t even see the difference themselves. “But once you’re on the bike, you can feel it within a matter of metres,” Smith explains. Tiny details matter, like the thickness of the frame, or slight adjustments to the inside of the fork.

Before a rider goes out on track, a set of wheels is fetched from the back of the pits and heated to 90°C. Then two carbon brake discs are fitted, each of which costs €5,000. The wheels are put in place, the brake calipers are screwed on, and the brake system is bled and filled with new brake fluid. Maintenance that you’d have to wait for at your local bike shop is par for the course here. Twelve litres of fuel are taken from the fridge in the pits and put into the bikes. But why from a fridge? The fuel has to be between 15-20°C during the race, so you must mix room-temperature petrol with the cooled stuff to ride “legally”. Cold petrol is also

less voluminous, which means you can take more than the regulation 22 litres with you, hence the point of the exercise.

The tyre warmers come off, the 270hp V4 engine starts, and the primal scream it emits from the titanium exhaust electrifies the pit lane. Espargaró is back 12 minutes later. A laptop is hooked up to download data. A fan cools the bike’s electronics as it stands there. After a quick swig of something to drink, it’s time for a debrief.

“The rear wheel is losing grip at the start of the braking phase,” Espargaró reports. “I have to modulate the braking pressure. The back of the bike judders when that happens. We have to get that under control.” The Spaniard is the man in charge. His crew chief, Paul Trevathan, gives instructions to chief mechanic Christophe Leonce, and the guys get to work. While Leitner interrogates his rider, the trim of the bike is removed, the pivot point adjusted a few millimetres, and the shocks calibrated. Then he’s off again.

This may all seem run-of-the-mill to the layman, but that’s not how Leitner sees it: “We can improve in all areas.”

It’s an attitude that pervades the whole team: everyone looks for improvements in their own area. “The bike has to be more mechanic-friendly,” says Rieger.

“It still takes three hours to change the engine. That’s too long when push comes to shove. We still have a lot of cable ties and simple solutions for where there are clips and quick-release connectors on the finished bike. If a rider crashes during qualifying, every second counts.”

“We’re building a new frame for the next test. The trim will be different, too,” says chassis engineer Bauer. “Our updates come later on in the season,” adds engine designer Kurt Trieb.

“The team is already really good, but each of us has to squeeze out another one per cent,” says rider Smith. “When 38 people find that in their specialised areas, that’s a whole lot more on the bottom line.” This is where Smith sees the biggest difference between factory teams and the satellite teams he’s ridden for: “There’s no 99 per cent with a factory team.”

Which is exactly the attitude Leitner wants to see. So, what’s next? “We get seriously blown away in the first race,” he says, “then we come together even more and begin to eat away at the distance that separates us from the more established teams. Any group works when you’re winning. But character really comes into play when you’re down.”

The documentary Ready To Race: KTM Goes MotoGP is available on demand at redbull.tv 67

“I’M TINDER FOR TECHNOLOGY” With each new album, Björk opens the door to the future.

Here, the last great pop innovator reveals why her hi-tech ideas are a result of her strong bond with nature, how trolls fuel creativity and why Mark Zuckerberg should clean up the oceans Words: Florian Obkircher Photography: Santiago Felipe

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T hroughout her career, Björk has been a few steps ahead of technological and musical trends. She regularly collaborates with electronic music visionaries to propel her art forward, she was the first musician to shoot a 360-degree music video, and with 2011’s Biophilia she made the world’s first app album, used in science classes at schools throughout Scandinavia.

When we sat down with the Icelandic icon at the Red Bull Music Academy in Montreal, where she presented a digital virtual reality exhibition, we wanted to find out just what it is that’s the motor behind her affinity with technology, only to find out that it all leads back to nature. And trolls, obviously. the red bulletin: You’ve performed in opera houses and small punk clubs.

Where do you enjoy singing the most? björk: I sing the best when I’m on the top of a mountain. That’s where I usually have the best ideas for songs.

Isn’t that unfortunate, as usually you don’t have an audience up there?

Usually I try to imitate the mountaintop experience when I’m back in my recording studio. But I would like to try to make a recording facility I can take with me on my hikes.

Does being outside fuel your creativity?

It just feels very natural for the body to sing in nature. When I’m indoors I feel like I’m holding my breath. It also might have to do with my childhood. Walking 40 minutes to school in any weather was normal for me. I would sing to kill time.

Also, in the mornings it could be a bit scary because it was really dark. So part of it was to sing to reassure myself.

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The idea of singing outside reminds us of The Sound of Music.

Have you ever ventured into the wild in Iceland?

Sadly, we haven’t.

I can understand that some urbanites associate nature with hugging trees and playing acoustic guitar by the campfire. But nature in Iceland is hardcore; there’s nothing romantic about it. We don’t have a lot of animals. We don’t really have trees, either. It’s pretty empty. It’s raw and brutal.

And yet, inspiring?

The emptiness is particularly inspiring. There’s a big animist tradition in Iceland. Animism is the belief that each object has a soul. So the cliffs and the rocks, they all have stories.

Where does that belief come from?

It’s because of the trolls.

Um… trolls?

Trolls are nocturnal creatures. If they don’t make it back to their cave before the sun comes up they turn into stone. So we believe that the mountains and rocks in Iceland are fossilised trolls.

And you get these rocks to tell you their stories?

Everybody makes up their own stories. One of my best friends used to make money during the summers by being a guide.

He used to make up these crazy tales for tourists. He would tell them that moss on bumpy lava was a flock of sheep that got caught in a volcanic eruption. It’s the emptiness and the space in Iceland that fuels creativity. It’s like a blank canvas for your imagination.

If you don’t live in Iceland among fossilised trolls, do you still think that a strong bond with nature can fuel creativity?

Absolutely. Brain scans show that after 45 minutes of hiking something happens to your body. There’s a certain rhythm to it that stimulates your thought process. I try to start each day with a walk, and usually after 45 minutes I feel this extreme relief.

It goes click, it’s all in sync, and all of a sudden problems don’t matter that much anymore.

What’s your advice for people who live in big cities?

It’s a problem I’ve faced a lot, travelling and being on tour.

That’s why I like being in cities by the sea. It’s not actually about the water itself, but if you walk by the ocean, you have 180 degrees of emptiness. For me, in order to reach that feeling of relief, it’s a lot about having space.

IT’S NOT BACK TO NATURE. IT’S FORWARD TO NATURE THE RED BULLETIN

It’s interesting that you’re such a fan of nature, considering that you’re always on the edge of new technology when it comes to music.

I’m actually much less of a technology buff than people think. I need to get help from my friends to clean up my laptop.

Says the artist who is dubbed pop music’s last great innovator, making app albums and shooting VR music videos.

I’m trying to build a bridge between technology and music. There are new tools constantly coming out that have an impact on your life, whether you like it or not. With my art I am trying to make sense of them. I’m like the Tinder for technology.

What do you mean?

I’m a matchmaker app. Whenever there’s new technology coming out, I instantly have an idea for it. When I got my first laptop in 1999, I knew immediately that it would replace the THE RED BULLETIN

“Hate is an important tool in figuring out what you don’t want – it will lead you to what you do want in your career”

bjork.com

traditional recording studio to a certain extent. When the touchscreen came out, I realised very quickly that it would be a great pedagogic tool. I was like, ‘Wow, with this tool I can map out my vision of musicology.’ I was a quite difficult youth in my music school. The teachers made musicology seem so academic, whereas it’s actually quite visceral.

Björk was a rebellious music student?

Yes, and I am proud of it. I think that the arrogance of youth is important. I’m paraphrasing, but Stravinsky said in his book Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons something like, it’s great to hate.

When I was a teenager I couldn’t stand Bach and Beethoven. I was like, ‘They’re just dead German guys! Why should I care?’

Because they’re among the most important composers in history?

My point is that hate is an important tool in figuring out what you don’t want, because subsequently, it will lead you to the realisation of what you want in your career. So I’d encourage anybody to be furious, to hate things.

Has this ‘great to hate’ approach worked out for you?

Definitely. I’m guilty of slagging off strings in my teenager years, now I work with orchestral instruments a lot.

My teenage ignorance towards strings enabled me to approach them from a totally different angle and create something original.

Back to the earlier subject, how are nature and technology intertwined in your opinion?

I think this idea of nature as the past and technology being the future is nonsense.

That’s why I’ve been saying, it’s not back to nature; it’s forward to nature. In the future we will have to put the connection between the two in focus even more.

Just imagine a world where leading tech companies would properly invest in environmentalism. With the technology we have we could easily clean up the oceans.

Is that a call to arms?

Yes! With success comes responsibility.

Therefore, I think we should ask 10 companies such as Google, Facebook and Apple to put one billion dollars each into cleaning the oceans. I’m sure it could be done by 2020.

In case Mark Zuckerberg reads this piece, should he reach out?

Definitely! I’ll invite all of the tech billionaires to come to my little cabin in Iceland. I’ll make them drinks. Maybe I’ll also cook for them.

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INSIDE A DJâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HEAD THE RED BULLETIN

How much planning goes into the playlist of a top DJ? Do beats really help you conquer tiredness? And how do you keep 1,000 people dancing past 6am? A report from a marathon club night, live from the mind of Berlin techno star Alex.Do Words: Andreas Rottenschlager Photography: Yuki Lutz

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5:50am

I’m finally here. This has to be it: a building that looks like an old factory or shipyard.

There are people in thick winter jackets waiting at the barrier. Are they still in the mood? Slowly, the tension rises again.

I don’t feel tired at all.

EARLY SATURDAY

morning, mid-February: Alex.Do – a Berlin DJ with 10 years’ experience on the club scene – is on the motorway, being chauffeured in a Jaguar F-PACE SUV to his last stop of the night. The 27-year-old DJ is playing for the first time at Cologne club Bootshaus, a venue that scene bible DJ Mag regularly counts among the best clubs in the world. As well as the fact he’s due to make his Bootshaus debut, Alex.Do faces another challenge: he's been booked to play the closing set, which starts at 5am, but his car is way behind schedule.

5:35am

I don’t like it when the night doesn’t go according to plan… We’re poking along at 70kph through fresh snow… It’s hopeless.

There are 1,000 people waiting for me at Bootshaus and the set I’ve planned.

But I can forget that – I’ll be playing for a much shorter time, because I’m late.

The playlist I’ve prepared is useless.

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The Bootshaus gig is a double challenge for Alex.Do. Two top DJs have opened proceedings: German techno pioneer Chris Liebing and Rødhåd, poster boy of Alex.Do’s Berlin record label, Dystopian.

Alex.Do has just an hour to play his closing set – the set that will shape clubgoers’ memories of the night long after they have returned home.

5:55am

Yeah! People are still dancing. Which way to the decks? It’s pitch black. One step, then another. There’s Rødhåd, the consummate professional, taking it all in his stride. “So, you had to do some overtime?” He smirks.

I slip off my jacket, take a swig of water and get a sense of where I am… Rødhåd plays deep, repetitive techno, perfect for this time of the morning… I have to build a seamless transition into my set.

6:15am

I’ve got to maintain the energy level Rødhåd has built up… Got to really go for it… No experimenting. First, I play hypnotic tunes to build up the energy, then tracks with more of a melody.

Alex.Do says that he has two strategies when it comes to playing closing sets.

The first approach is to keep the atmosphere at boiling point right up until the very end. The second is to get everyone’s adrenalin going and then forge a smooth transition in order to deliver the clubgoers into the cold light of day. The second option is the tougher of the two. Techno aesthete Alex.Do wants to pull it off in just 45 minutes.

6:01am

It’s in with the USB stick, 5,000 songs…

There are tracks on my playlist I definitely can’t play now: there’s not enough time, and the atmosphere is much too intense.

I’m going to have to improvise in front of 1,000 people. Rødhåd is already playing his last track… I’m scrolling… and scrolling… This one could get things going: Ricardo Garduno, Alteraciones de Amor.

It’s classic techno: repetitive, hypnotic…

And off we go!

6:20am

Anyone who’s still on the dancefloor at 6am is going to stick it out to the end.

They’re the hardcore, the people I need to reach. What are they feeling right at this moment? I’ve got to see it in their faces.

It only takes a fraction of a second and then it strikes me like a flash. There!

Those women closest to the decks are dancing with their eyes closed. They’re swaying. That’s a good sign.

THE RED BULLETIN

“Anyone who’s still on the dancefloor at 6am is going to stick it out to the end,” says Alex.Do of his audience. “They’re the hardcore”

The crucial part of the night is the transition into the lower-key section of the DJ set. A good DJ will “build bridges”, says Alex.Do

ALEX.DO’S NIGHT ENDS AT 7:30AM. NEXT STOP: ROTTERDAM

6:35am

It’s amazing how quickly you switch to autopilot; over the last 15 minutes, my choice of track has virtually picked itself.

Now I’m playing Lattice by Marcel Dettmann. I haven’t had this on my playlist for ages. It’s ultra-minimal: there are only three to four rhythm elements. We’ll see if it still works.

6:55am

OK, then… The very last track of the set has got to be almost chilled… I go for my remix of Howling’s still-unreleased track Phases, with the soul vocals… Slow it down… How are those women dancing?

6:59am

The whole place is flooded in an orange light. The person in charge knows what they’re doing; there’s nothing worse than strobe lighting right to the end.

Now I can see everyone… They slowly stop dancing…

6:38am

It does. The crowd are fully immersing themselves in the music.

7:01am

Some people still have their eyes closed – it’s crazy… There’s applause… Phew!

Mission accomplished.

According to Alex.Do, the crucial part of the night is the transition into the lower-key part of the set. A good DJ will “build bridges, pile one layer of atmosphere on top of another”, as he puts it.

Alex.Do pays very close attention to the crowd’s reaction as 7:30am he mixes one track Outside Bootshaus, Alex.Do breathes in into another. Has their the air of a winter morning in Cologne and buries his hands in his jacket pockets. dancing become less “I could collapse here right now,” he says. intense? Are the breaks “Once the adrenalin’s gone, fatigue hits you like that.” Later this evening he’ll in the songs working? play in Rotterdam. He checks his mobile Are there spontaneous and shrugs. “I can get five hours of sleep by midday,” he says. shouts of joy?

For more techno, go to dystopian.de.

6:50am

For more on the party, visit bootshaus.tv

It’s time for me to slowly start bringing people down a bit. I’ve got completely carried away by the music. I need more of a tune to end on. Drenched will work.

It’s one of my own tracks. It’s a bit more melodic, but still minimal…

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Android Wear and other marks are trademarks of Google Inc.

CONNER COFFIN

Ultra-Rugged 100 Meter / 10 ATM Water Resistant Smartwatch Customize yours on nixon.com

guide Get it. Do it. See it.

7 GARTH MILAN/WINGS FOR LIFE WORLD RUN

May 2017

STAY ONE STEP AHEAD

At this unique global running event, participants compete not just against each other, but against a Catcher Car thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chasing them. Find out more about the Wings for Life World Run on page 82.

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GUIDE

See it Poo Bear, left, faces up to a life-changing six months

PLENTY OF MAGIC MOMENTS

There’s something for everyone on Red Bull TV this month – from fans of music and motorsport, to illusions and skateboarding

WATCH RED BULL TV ANYWHERE Red Bull TV is a global digital entertainment destination featuring programming that is beyond the ordinary and is available any time, anywhere.

Go online at redbull.tv, download the app, or connect via your Smart TV. To find out more, visit redbull.tv

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Poo Bear collaborator Robin Thicke: “We really think alike”

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April/May

29 THE RED BULLETIN

April

ORIGINAL PROGRAMME

POO BEAR – AFRAID OF FOREVER

Hitmaker Poo Bear is on a mission to make his next big record. But in a cut-throat industry, can he find the success he needs to stay relevant in the game? And can he face down the scars of his childhood as he gets ready to marry his fiancée?

DUSTIN DOWNING/ALBERTO POLO/JAANUS REE/RYAN TAYLOR/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

11 28 13

May

SERIES

THE ROAD TRICK

Discover new sides of Europe and Morocco in the company of one of America's hottest new magicians, Adam Trent. In 10 episodes, he travels across 13 countries, breaks through cultural barriers and gets to know the locals through the wonder of magic.

to 30 April

LIVE

WRC ARGENTINA

First run in 1980, Rally Argentina features a mix of surfaces.

Watch the cars tackle the fast, sandy roads of the Santa Rosa de Calamuchita valley, with its spectacular water splashes, and the narrow, rocky tracks of the moonlike Traslasierra Mountains.

May

LIVE

RED BULL HART LINES

The biggest names in skateboarding return to Detroit's Hart Plaza for the third edition of Red Bull Hart Lines. Contest visionary Ryan Sheckler and an elite roster of invited pros take on the unique twolane course and put their skills on the line in front of a packed crowd.

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GUIDE

Do it

May Free app Run where you like

Get close to the action Red Bull TV live stream

Can’t make it to any of the 24 cities where the Wings for Life World Run will be held? Not a problem. Just download the app and run your own route against a virtual Catcher Car and other app runners. For more information, go to: wingsforlifeworldrun.com

The Red Bull TV live stream brings the most spectacular images from the runs all over the world straight to your living room. See Catcher Car action, statistics and celebrity interviews, plus interactive features. redbull.tv

7 WINGS FOR LIFE May

WORLD RUN

At this global run – the proceeds of which go to help find a cure for spinal cord injury – both amateur and pro runners outdo themselves.

But why? Psychologist Dr Rhonda Cohen has the answer: “The Catcher Car is a huge motivating factor. Playing on the fear of being caught releases strengths you never knew you had.” The 2017 British leg of the Wings for Life World Run starts at 12pm in Cambridge.

Robbie Britton

be a negative thing. It’s like seeing the finish line, and everyone pushes harder when they see that.”

Team GB Ultrarunner Robbie Britton will be among those running for those who can’t. Here are his top tips for keeping the catcher car at bay

3 Understand the way you feel

GOING THE DISTANCE 1 Establish your own comfort zone “The thing with ultra-marathons is it’s not about going quick, it’s being efficient.

You have to make sure you understand what is a comfortable effort for you.”

2 Don’t look back

Robbie Britton says distance running is “just about moving”

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“I would love to say that when I’m racing I never look back, but in reality I’ve done races where I’m turning around all the time because I know someone’s chasing me. You can’t avoid that, but you can minimise the effect. The more you look forward, the harder it is for the people behind you. Having said that, seeing the Catcher Car doesn’t have to

“Having a target is a good thing, but you don’t want to overstretch yourself.

Conditions can vary. There might be a strong headwind, it might be raining; anything could upset your target. So it’s about understanding how you feel and knowing what’s left in the tank.”

4 Keep your head up and smile When you feel like you’re hitting that wall, keep your head up, interact with the crowd, smile, share that moment.

If there are runners around you, help them. As much as it sounds selfless, picking someone up and helping them can be entirely selfish because you’re distracting yourself from your own pain.”

THE RED BULLETIN

ANDREAS LANGREITER FOR WINGS FOR LIFE WORLD RUN

To register, go to: wingsforlifeworldrun.com

p: Tim Zimmerman

BRANDON REIS 154 OG SKATE BANANA lib-tech.com

GUIDE Edited by Gisbert L Brunner

Get It

FOSSIL Q GRANT

Future classic

If digital displays don’t appeal, this hybrid might. Combining the physical dial of a classic watch with the connected innards of a smartwatch, it tracks activity, receives notifications, and even controls your smartphone’s music player and camera. fossil.com

The updated TAG Heuer Connected: mightier than the sum of its parts

FAST FORWARD Swiss watchmaker Heuer merged with TAG (‘Techniques d’Avant Garde’), a maker of high-tech motorsport parts, in 1985. Heuer had long been an innovator: in 1886, it patented the oscillating pinion, a stopwatch component that’s still used in mechanical chronographs. But an even better example of Heuer’s vision was 1975’s Chronosplit, a double-display LED and LCD watch so futuristic that US TV show Gemini Man used it as the device that made the hero invisible. Only 200 were made, so, much like the protagonist, it too soon vanished.

2017 TAG HEUER CONNECTED

Smarter than the rest

In 2015, TAG Heuer showed it wasn’t afraid of another seismic shift in the timepiece landscape by releasing its own smartwatch, the Connected, a rugged Android Wear beast based on its Carrera model. If there was a hint of nervousness, it came from the promise that after three years owners could part-exchange it for a mechanical Carrera. Two years later, perhaps they’d rather upgrade to the new Connected with its GPS, contactless Android Pay, and superhigh-res AMOLED screen. In addition to interchangeable bracelets and buckles, it comes with a mechanical module – yes, it becomes an oldschool watch. But the best feature is the Swiss-made seal of approval – proof it’s been accepted by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry as one of its own. tagheuer.com

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ALPINA SEASTRONG HOROLOGICAL SMARTWATCH

Ruling in the deep A diving watch that connects to your smartphone to deliver activity and sleep tracking, and call notification via its analogue dial. Whether you’ll get a signal at a depth of 100m is another matter. alpinawatches.com

CASIO PRO TREK SMART WSD-F20

Go high-trek

An outdoor smartwatch that keeps your eyes off your phone so you can appreciate your surroundings.

Energy-saving GPS and colour maps work offline, and location memory leaves a digital trail of breadcrumbs to help find your way home again. casio.com

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THE RED BULLETIN BEYOND THE ORDINARY

12 copies for £12 – only £1 per issue

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GUIDE

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8

to 9 May WWE Raw and Smackdown Question 1: Is wrestling action real? Find out for yourself with two nights of grappling from the professional pinnacle of piledriving entertainment. Question 2: Raw or Smackdown? The difference primarily comes down to which wrestlers you want to see – each night features a different roster of fighters, but whichever you pick, it won’t be you who loses. The O2 arena, London; theo2.co.uk

12

to 14 May Spin Cycling Festival You don't need a bicycle to enjoy this one. Hell, you might even walk away with a new one from over 150 stands or have one custom built by the best in the business at the frame lab.

Otherwise, bring your ride and get it tuned up, then try it out on the test track. Or just sip on artisanal coffee or craft beer while checking out the cycle art gallery, BMX competitors, or the Giro d'Italia showing live on the big screen. Olympia, London; spinldn.com

18

May to 20 May The Great Escape With festival season in full swing, it’s time to pull out the big guns. For three days, Brighton will host over 400 artists at 35 venues across the city. Rag'n'Bone Man headlines and Slaves are taking over the pier, with tickets granting you tokens to the rides at the endof-pier fairground. Brighton; greatescapefestival.com

18 to 28 May

BURLESQUE FESTIVAL

Shaking off its inhibitions and just enough garments to tease, London becomes the international centre of glitz, glamour, music and sexy showmanship. By day there are workshops in dance and striptease, and by night expect a host of cabarets built around rock ‘n’ roll, body art and even geek culture with the Nerdlesque.

Around London; londonburlesquefest.com

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to 28 May MCM London Comic Con All those outdoor music festivals serving up too much sunlight for your pasty, indoordwelling geek skin? Then this is the event for you. Among all the epic cosplayers taking selfies, look out for some genuine pop culture icons taking to the stage, including original Star Trek Uhura Nichelle Nichols, 1980’s Flash Gordon himself, Sam Jones, and the original Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno.

Excel, London; mcmcomiccon.com

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THE RED BULLETIN PROMOTION

ADVERTISING Canyon Factory Downhill Team leader Fabien Barel draws the line

F ST TRAC FA A K AC To p r i d e r s, exc e p t i o n a l b i ke: m ee t t h e C a n yo n Fa c to r y Dow n h i l l Te a m

After years of hard work and development, the Canyon Factory Downhill Team has arrived. The goal: to equip the world’s best riders with the best set-up, and provide them with a team and support system unlike any other on the scene. Troy Brosnan, Ruaridh Cunningham and Mark Wallace will be the first to ride Canyon’s flagship downhill bike – the Sender CF – at World Cup level, and the whole project is led by multiple World Champion Fabien Barel, who plans to sneak in a few races himself. Alongside the World Cup and the World Championships, the team will also line up at all four Crankworx events. Stay tuned…

Above: (left to right) Ruaridh Cunningham, Fabien Barel, Troy Brosnan and Mark Wallace. Below: the Canyon Sender CF

MY RIDE THE PRO RIDER Matt Jones, freestyle mountain biker I follow my own rules “I started out riding a mountain bike in the woods, and that turned into racing.

It was a few years before I discovered dirt-jumping and freestyle riding. I was hooked. Freeride is what it says on the tin: just being yourself. As someone who grew up riding a skatepark, I bring my own skills to the sport. It’s amazing how you can come from so many backgrounds and end up in the same competition series.”

Top 10 is the goal “This is my third year as a Red Bull athlete. In 2016, I got a wild card into Red Bull Joyride in Whistler, and that unlocked the Diamond Series for me this year. I’m competing in four Crankworx stops and another Diamond event – the highest-level freeride mountain-bike contests. They only invite the top 18 in the world. I’m 12th, but it would be amazing to finish in the top 10.”

Knowing how to land is crucial “As soon as you leave a ramp, you know whether things are going perfectly, or if you’ve managed to fluff it up. Practice isn’t only about landing tricks; it’s also about damage control for when you get them wrong. I did gymnastics when I was young, and when I started riding bikes I discovered that I was able to land on my feet. It’s almost instinctive now.”

THE RED BULLETIN MOUNTAIN BIKE GUIDE 2017

Four men and their mountain bikes: mechanical steeds that are an extension of their unchained spirit Words: Tom Guise Photography: James Pearson-Howes 88

I made this bike “This is the first time I’ve got together with Marin Bikes to design a new dirt-jump bike. Short but stable is beneficial in a 720, so mine’s got a short rear-end, making it good to throw about. When you’re spinning a bike around, every gram counts, and carbon-fibre cranks from Race Face save almost 400g. I’ve been riding with wheels and tyres from Halo for 10 years, and then there’s the ODI grips and Gusset Nitro pedals – everything you feel comes through these, so they’re some of the most important components.

It’s a huge benefit having input into the frame I’m competing on.” facebook.com/matt_jonesmtb; marinbikes.com

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GUIDE

“This is a huge year for me,” says Jones.

“To be up there competing against my idols – that's always been my dream”

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Gusset S2 handlebar Pro riders such as Matt Jones trust this equipment, because they designed it. gussetcomponents.com

THE ENTHUSIAST Phil Stephenson, Marketing Manager, Scott Sports SA

Spot Gen3 satellite tracker SOS tracking and messaging, no matter how off-track you go. findmespot.com

Dirtsuit Core Edition

Halo Vapour 35 wheels

An all-terrain onesie for the harshest of conditions. Three layers mean you can confidently go commando. dirtlej.com

Tubeless-ready, these don't so much reinvent the trail wheel as redefine its capabilities. halowheels.com

It’s more than just a job “I call what I do a ‘hobby job’, because the people I used to read about in magazines, and who I dreamt of being one day, are people I now know personally and work with. Although it’s my job, I’m still a fan.”

I caught the bug early “It was my passion as a child to tinker, so it was the engineering side that got me into bikes; I must have been eight or nine when I got my first one. Later, my interest strayed and I had a break from biking, but I eventually fell back in love with it, and I was utterly engrossed when Dirt magazine had MTB legend Steve Peat on the cover. People like him set the fashion for mountain biking; the industry has a lot to thank them for.”

Mountain bikes saved my career “Eight years ago, I was an engineer on oil rigs. The oil industry always goes through ups and downs; unfortunately, after I joined, it took a dip. However it just so happened that Scott Sports was right on my doorstep in Northumberland. Scott has so many different brands and disciplines now.

It employed 12 people when I first joined; now there are 31. The way this company has grown is phenomenal.”

This is my ride “I ride a 2017 Scott Spark 700 Ultimate with 120mm of suspension travel and my ideal spec and geometry. It has carbonfibre Syncros components and Brendan Fairclough’s signature DMR ‘Death Grips’. It’s an incredibly light bike you can do everything on, and all the stock – except the brakes – is provided by Hope Tech, one of my favourite brands as a kid. We have a good working relationship, working with their teams and co-sponsoring athletes.”

Marin Hawk Hill All that Marin County heritage in a fullsuspension trail bike that you won't have to move mountains to afford. marinbikes.com

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What I put it through “I go adventure riding in the mountains of the Lake District or in the Scottish Highlands, with a bit of hike-a-bike thrown in for good measure. It’s an opportunity to spend time with friends, but there’s also a lot to be said for riding alone, giving yourself breathing space and time to reflect. At the end of the day, it’s about fun – and freedom.” scott-sports.com

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GUIDE

“Getting to play with expensive toys is a perk of the job, and it's a good one,” says Stephenson.

“It’s more of a hobby job, and I’m a fan”

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THE ENGINEER Ed Haythornthwaite, CEO and co-founder, Robot Bike Co

Cube Stereo Hybrid 160 A Bosch motor and battery help power this e-beast to 40kph before your leg muscles even need to kick in. cube.eu

Cannondale Jekyll 1 Like the personality-switching doctor it’s named after, few would want to face off against this enduro monster. cannondale.com

Mountain bikes are my life “I’ve always been into them. I got my first when I was at primary school – if you could describe it as a mountain bike: it was some cheap, horrible thing. I grew up on Dartmoor and have always worked in the bike industry. I’ve been a mechanic both in shops and for the Athertons on the World Cup circuit, and I was Technical Editor at Dirt magazine for 10 years.”

Reinventing the wheel “Three of the four of us co-founders were best mates at uni. We all studied engineering and material science and dreamt of making mountain bikes together. We thought it was crazy that the high-end models only came in a couple of sizes – the ultimate bike should fit your requirements. You need to change the angles and lengths, and that’s where 3D printing comes in. We custom-make the joints or lugs on the frame for each customer, using a titanium powder fused with a laser in thousands of layers, which takes 50 hours. Carbon bikes tend to fail where the material is not ideal, so we only use it in straight tubes. All the complex areas, like the pivots, are titanium, which is ideally suited to high loads.”

Bespoke frames take time “Building the original prototype took a couple of years; today, the quickest is about eight weeks. Each one is made differently, so we’re not constrained: we can evolve the design as we go. If a new standard comes out – someone makes a new set of cranks or a new wheel size – we can react to that. We’ve saved some weight through ‘topology optimisation’.

There’s also aesthetics, although it’s very much form follows function.”

Saracen Ariel Elite A no-nonsense downhill demon built with the fastest, steepest and most technical trails in mind. saracen.co.uk

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No request is too ridiculous “Here [pictured right], I’m making the front end of an R-160 frame, bonding the tubes into the lugs. Because we custom-build each one, we can cater for crazy tastes. We’ve had requests for really extreme geometry, like the long, slack frames that have become a trend.

And we’ve had some tall customers – one was 6ft 9in and wanted a bike to fit.

There’s nothing off-the-shelf like that.” robotbike.co

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GUIDE

“We’ve still got the first bike we built,” says Haythornthwaite.

“It’s just a frame now, disassembled, with bits robbed off it”

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GUIDE

Days before this shoot, Wallace broke a rib during a match.

“Someone tackled me and another player levelled me in the back.

There were no subs left, so I had to crack on”

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THE SPORTSMAN Luke Wallace, flanker, Harlequins rugby team How I found my sport “I played everything at school. I was better at hockey, but preferred rugby, so I joined a club. I was big for school, but here it was like, ‘I’m pretty small, really.’ It took off quickly from there – I joined the Harlequins straight out of school and did my A-levels in pre-season. Now I’m in my eighth year.

Four years ago, we won the LV Cup and I captained the side. I’d still love to play for England – I’ve got a specific skill set that could help – but I have to play consistently well here first.”

Cycling is my release “I started mountain biking when I was 12, with a guy called Sam Shucksmith who’s now on the world enduro circuit.

I still ride with him, but usually I get out in the Surrey hills by myself, take my dog, have some fun. I stay well within my limits – it’s not for the adrenalin; it’s to get away from everything. I just love being out in the woods.”

This is my ride “Sam rides for Whyte, so he got me a Whyte G-160. It’s an enduro race bike, but I use it for everything. Being a bigger guy, the 160mm travel helps.

I like a supportive suspension, so I’ve got three bottomless tokens in the pipe up front and the same for the air chamber at the back. I had a break from mountain biking when I started rugby. When I began riding again, the dropper post [it allows you to adjust the seat height on the fly] was new to me. It’s now my favourite thing.”

Sports I’m not allowed to do “Everyone [in rugby] avoids skiing, because it’s so hazardous. I used to ski as a kid, and I’ll definitely do it again when I stop playing rugby. I wish I’d given competition cycling a crack when I was younger. We do a lot of wattbike training – it’s a stationary exercise bike with really accurate watt outputs – and I get decent numbers. But I don’t do jumps on my mountain bike any more – it’s about not getting injured, which I haven’t done, touch wood. I surf, because it helps me unwind. I get away as often as I can. I was in Morocco three weeks ago. Pretty epic waves.” quins.co.uk

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Exposure Six Pack MK7 lamp A wide, deep, 4,500-lumen beam ensures you can see every hazard with plenty of warning. exposurelights.com

Mons Royale Redwood V top Long-sleeved coverage woven from the wool of the hardiest of sheep: the merino. monsroyale.com

Electric Stacker shades Protection from UV, glare, scratches, dust, fingerprints… and mockery. electriccalifornia.com

Gusset R-Series saddle

Scott Centric Plus helmet

Perch your derrière on this proapproved throne of kings. gussetcomponents.com

From some of the greatest brains in MTB, to protect the greatest brains in MTB. scott-sports.com

Identiti Mettle Purple symbolises power, ambition, creativity, and now serious enduro racing. identitibikes.com

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Editor Andreas Rottenschlager

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The Red Bulletin is available in eight countries. Above is the cover of this month’s German edition, featuring actor Wotan Wilke Möhring.

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GUIDE

Action highlight

For motorists this garage in Hollywood is simply a place to park, but for freerunner Gabriel Nunez it's the ideal playground to practise new and potentially risky moves. The stuntman and one of the founding fathers of the Tempest Freerunning Academy likes to push the limits, and goes by the appropriate nickname of ‘Jaywalker’. tempestfreerunning.com

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“Treat fear like a friend, rather than a foe” Freerunner Gabriel ‘Jaywalker’ Nunez is not scared of failing occasionally

DAN KRAUSS

Hollywood, California

Makes you fly

The next issue of The Red Bulletin is out on May 9

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ADVENTURE ISN’T A REHEARSAL. PREPARE ACCORDINGLY. FindMeSPOT.com/RB

YOUR MOMENT OF A LIFETIME IS WAITING. Challenge a hill. Conquer a trail. Or get as far off the beaten path as you want. The SPOT GEN3TM will keep you connected with family, friends and emergency assistance when you’re outside cellular coverage. Even share your location via GPS in real time.

Start your adventure at FindMeSPOT.com/RB.