The Red Bulletin June 2013 – NZ

a beyond the ordinary magazine

June 2013

New Zealand Beatmaker

secretly sampling auckland Rugby League Special

up close with the warriors

Exclusive Valery rozov

my jump from everest

Today’s essential music makers tell the stories behind their beat: Fireside Chats on rbmaradio.com

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

June 30 high flyer

Valery Rozov is the first man to fly with the aid of a wingsuit from the north face of Mount Everest. No one has launched themselves from a higher point on Earth

Cover PhotoGraphy Thomas senf. Photography: Thomas Senf (2)

Welcome

The man in the baggy one-piece on the right there is Valery Rozov. He has done 9,000 BASE-jumps and wingsuit flights. His most recent, and perhaps most remarkable, achievement was to fly to earth in a wingsuit after leaping from Mount Everest. We have the full story, with amazing, exclusive pictures.

From the top of the world all the way Down Under: the British & Irish Lions take on Australia this month. A Lions series is a rare jewel in international sport, and, whether lining up for or against them, a crowning moment in a rugby player’s career.

Three leading Lions – Owen Farrell, George North, Jamie Roberts – met with The Red Bulletin to talk tours, tries and triumphs. Elsewhere, tennis world number three Victoria Azarenka showed us around her home town in Belarus in advance of her tilt at Wimbledon. All this, and much more. Enjoy. the red bulletin

“On landing I was so exhausted I barely felt anything. Emotions came later at base camp” 03

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

June at a glance Bullevard

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photos of the month news Sport and culture on the quick where’s your head at?

Star of World War Z Brad Pitt kit evolution TVs through time me & my body Josef Ajram winning formula Cycling uphill lucky numbers Superman in figures

Features

do the balkan

Only four paces from the sea to the dancefloor?

Welcome to Europe’s hottest party beach

30 On top of the world How one man BASE-jumped off Everest

42 Taking on Australia Three British & Irish Lions on what it takes to win rugby’s toughest tour

50 Mountain high

Sébastien Loeb’s new challenge

56 Spinning through time How B-Boys came to be

62 Christophe El’ Truento

24

80

me & my body

peak condition

Spanish triathlete Josef Ajram loves tattoos, never has a day off and knows his limits – or maybe not

Red Bull X-Alps is the world’s toughest adventure race: flying, running and climbing from Salzburg to Monte Carlo

The Aucklander uses the sounds of the world around him to build his music

64 A day with the Warriors Behind the scenes as the Auckland NRL side fight to reboot their season

72 Homeward bound

Belarusian tennis ace Victoria Azarenka takes The Red Bulletin back home

80 Red Bull X-Alps

Two weeks in the mountains

action

72 war and peace

At home with Victoria Azarenka, the most controversial player in women’s tennis. Can she win Wimbledon?

04

93 not plain sailing

America’s Cup-winning yachtsman James Spithill knows the blood, sweat and tears it takes to triumph on water

90 travel Ride a Russian MiG 91 g et the gear Kit for crossing the Alps 92 party The island of Pag, Croatia 93 t raining Fit like a pro yachtsman 94 m y city In Cape Town with DJ Haezer 95 Playlist DJ Branko recommends 96 save the date Events for your diary 98 time warp A tightrope walk in 1890

the red bulletin

Photography: Goran Telak, Sebas Romero/Red Bull Content Pool, Felix Woelk/Red Bull Content Pool, Greg Funnell, Olaf Pignataro/Red Bull Content Pool

08 15 19

20 24 26 28

contributors Who’s on board this issue The Red Bulletin New Zealand ISSN 2079-4274

The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH General Manager Wolfgang Winter

martin apolin

THomas SENF The German photographer was there with his camera when Valery Rozov jumped from Mount Everest. “Shutter speed: 1/2500s. I am hanging from a rope. Next to me, Valery in his wingsuit gets ready for his jump.

I’m not sure who’s breathing quicker. The margin of error for both of us is zero. Another attempt is not an option.” Senf is a skilled climber who specialises in mountain missions like this one. He moved to Switzerland so he could be closer to the clouds.

stefan wagner Minsk instead of Monaco, tower blocks instead of posh mansions, unheated training halls instead of courts under palms: tracing the heritage of Victoria Azarenka means foregoing life’s luxuries.

But our man was ready and willing for the challenge. He can turn his hand to many subjects, but since he’s a tennis expert (who still swings a mean backhand) his days with the world’s number three female tennis player were a love-game.

06

In his job as a teacher and physicist, the Austrian regularly achieves what many would consider impossible: he makes physics interesting.

Every month in The Red Bulletin, he unravels the mysteries of sport in Winning Formula. From powerboats to powerlifters, his plain-English insights will make you feel smarter just by reading them. This month, he reveals the science of cycling uphill.

Publisher Franz Renkin Editor-in-Chief Robert Sperl Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck Editor Paul Wilson Chief Sub-Editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-Editor Joe Curran Assistant Editors Ruth Morgan, Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Florian Obkircher, Arkadiusz Pia˛tek, Andreas Rottenschlager, Daniel Kudernatsch (app) Contributing Editor Stefan Wagner Production Editor Marion Wildmann Creative Director Erik Turek Art Director Kasimir Reimann Design Miles English (manager), Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz, Esther Straganz Chief Photo Editor Fritz Schuster Photo Editors Susie Forman (Creative Photo Editor), Ellen Haas, Catherine Shaw, Rudi Übelhör Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Head of Production Michael Bergmeister

tim white “After the match, in the changing room,” says the photographer, of his day behind the scenes with the New Zealand Warriors, “there was an intense atmosphere like I’d never experienced. Testosterone was palpable; almost frightening.

Blood, sweat and singing.” With Vogue and Time among the many entries on his CV, he has taken pictures of everything from the birth of a child to the Golden Shears contest in Masterton.

“I am hanging from a rope on Everest.

The margin of error is zero. Another attempt is not an option” Thomas Senf

Production Wolfgang Stecher (manager), Walter O Sádaba, Christian Graf-Simpson (app) Advertising Enquiries Brad Morgan, brad.morgan@nz.redbull.com Printed by PMP Print, 30 Birmingham Drive, Riccarton, 8024 Christchurch Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Barbara Kaiser (manager), Stefan Ebner, Stefan Hötschl, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Sara Varming Distribution Klaus Pleninger, Peter Schiffer Marketing Design Julia Schweikhardt, Peter Knethl Advertising Placement Sabrina Schneider O∞ce Management Manuela Gesslbauer, Anna Jankovic, Anna Schober

The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and USA Website www.redbulletin.com Head office Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 New Zealand office 13 Hargreaves St, St Marys Bay 1011 +64 (0) 9 378 4581 Austria office Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 (1) 90221 28800 Write to us: email letters@redbulletin.com

the red bulletin

Vi e n na , au str ia

Row of light It took 1,000 LEDs, 150m of cable, eight rowers and, of course, a boat to create this electric scene. Photographer Christoph Meissner captured the moment in honour of the Vienna Nightrow, an international eights regatta that will take place after dusk on June 29. The photoshoot was a good opportunity for the women in the shot to practise, since they will be competing at the event, but on the night their path will be lit with the rather more practical option of floodlights.

More light shed: www.vienna-nightrow.com Photography: Christoph Meissner

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Man pu pu n e r , Ru s s ia

High point One for the family album: Stefan Glowacz and Big Brother. Glowacz is the German climber who headed an expedition to climb the Seven Strong Men, a group of stone pillars high on a Siberian plateau about 1,500km north-east of Moscow.

Big Brother is the tallest of the Men, about 42m high. A documentary of Glowacz’s magnificent Seven trek, the first concurrent conquering of the pillars, will be released later this year.

Search for ‘7 Giants’ at www.redbull.com Photography: Klaus Fengler/Red Bull Content Pool

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Q u e e n stow n , N e w Z e al an D

downhill racer

With a top speed of 233.3kph (145mph), Mike Whiddett tackles the Crown Range Road, the highest highway in his homeland, which has a neck-muscle-taxing 47 bends along its 10.5km (6.5 miles). The drop in altitude from its high point to its low point is 1,080m (3,543ft).

The Auckland-based driver is an expert in drift racing, in which corners, and a few straights, are taken sideon with smoking tyres. His nickname: Mad Mike.

Driving insane: www.madmike.co.nz Photography: Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool

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Bullevard Sport and culture on the quick

Hard ball The FIFA Confederations Cup, a dry run for next year’s World Cup, ends in Rio de Janeiro on June 30. Meanwhile, elsewhere on Planet Football…

photography: Getty images, picturedesk.com (2), archie fergusson, Courtesy of Brian Dettmer & Packer Schopf Gallery

sepak takraw super series To Thailand, for round two of the part-soccer, part-volleyball, partmarshall arts sport’s international tournament (June 27-30).

Calcio Storico Every third week of June, the centre of Florence becomes a battlefield of ancient Italian sporting tradition.

off the page Take a leaf out of artist Brian Dettmer’s book: he’d do the same to you His tools are scalpel and tweezers. His materials: atlases, encyclopaedias and dictionaries. “Books no longer have the monopoly of conveying content,” says Brian Dettmer. “Which raises the question: what do we do with these forms now?” The 38-year-old Chicago-born artist has found a unique, and uniquely creative, answer. He transforms discarded old books into paper sculptures. With the skill and the precision of a surgeon, he drives his blade ever deeper into each volume, page by page, creating new contexts for old illustrations and text.

Dettmer, who has three exhibitions in 2013, doesn’t use glue or add any other materials. He spends five days working on a single book; a linked series can take up to five months. Does cutting up books fuel a guilty conscience? “In the beginning it did,” he says, “but it also made me question why we value them the way we do. This made me look at the actual book as a material to start to work with.” www.briandettmer.com

Swamp Soccer World cup Mud, sweat, tears, more mud and then more mud on top of that in Blairmore, Scotland (June 29-30).

Complete Guide, 2011,

by Brian Dettmer

phototicker

EVERY shot ON TARGET

Have you taken a picture with a Red Bull flavour? Email it to us at: phototicker@redbulletin.com RoboCup Androida Pirlo, Iron Giggs and Roboto Carlos take to the field in Eindhoven (June 26-30).

the red bulletin

Every month we print a selection, with our favourite pic awarded a limited-edition Sigg bottle. Tough, functional and well-suited to sport, it features The Red Bulletin logo.

Dubai Spain’s Maikel Melero soars through the night sky during round two of Red Bull X-Fighters 2013.

Daniel Grund 15

Tennis returns to its spiritual home of Wimbledon on June 24

A temporary street art gallery in the heart of Paris, including angelic work from France’s YZ

Hidden art In its 130 years of service to the French capital, Les Bains Douches has undergone plenty of changes. After its beginnings as a bathhouse favoured by the Parisian beau monde, in 1978 it began a run as the city’s coolest club, with regulars such as Mick Jagger, Kate Moss and Johnny Depp.

Three years ago, it closed after renovation works went awry. The plans are back on track, however, and the building is due to reopen as a luxury hotel in 2014. To make the most of Les Bains’ downtime, owner Jean-Pierre Marois handed the building over to 50 leading street artists from around the world. The likes of Vhils, Sten Lex, Space Invader and Future transformed the building into 2013’s most vital collection of urban art. This most modern museum, however, can never be seen by the public, due to health and safety reasons. Thankfully, the artists have set up a blog to document their work and display it to the rest of the world. www.lesbains-paris.com

Final ticket Dearest official ballot ticket for this year’s men’s final: £130.

In 2012, for FedererMurray, they were 20 times that on eBay.

strawberries Some 28 tonnes of the fruit were consumed last time, in 10-berry portions, plus slurp of cream, costing £2.50.

Prize money Financial crisis? Pah! Winner’s purses are 40 per cent greater than last year: both men’s and ladies’ champ will get £1.6m.

Electro Blues James Blake, feted wunderkind of electronica, talks about meeting his heroes, inflight inspirations and taking tea with Eno His debut album was the pop sensation of 2011: rumbling bass, fragile melodies and crackling electronics. In other words, blues for the 21st century. It sold half a million copies and turned Stevie Wonder and Brian Eno into Blake fans. Now the 24-yearold Brit is touring in support of his follow-up, Overgrown. the red bulletin: They say that the second album is the hardest. Is that true? james blake: Sure, after the first record, you could get fat off the success and just run around getting drunk. Instead I was touring constantly and meeting personal heroes like Joni Mitchell. My new songs are about what happened in the last two years.

Where do you find it easiest to write new material?

On the plane. It’s actually the noisiest place, but also the most remote. No one cares when you are just writing – and you’re less distracted. I enjoy that sort of creative straightjacket.

How did the collaboration with electronic legend Brian Eno happen?

In the middle of recording the album, I got to a point where I didn’t know how to continue.

So I asked him for advice; he invited me to go and see him at his recording studio. He kept giving me tea and encouraged me to stick to my ideas. We even recorded a track together – I put it on the album.

Overgrown is out now. Live show dates: www.jamesblakemusic.com

Keys to success: James Blake

WE HAVE A WINNER!

São Paulo

Neymar (l) and Kelvin Santos Silva, victor at soccer skill test Red Bull Principe da Vila.

Fabio Piva

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Doha

At Red Bull Fortress Challenge in Qatar: 150 mountain bikers, sand, treacherous terrain and heat.

Sharbel Najem

Bangkok

Hip-hop dance troupe Flying Steps turn the world on its head in Thailand’s capital.

Dean Treml the red bulletin

photography: Jerome Coton, reuters, Getty images, bulls, rex Features

Love & money

www.amazonsurf.co.nz like follow

Bullevard

Eve Gordon

High jinks

Shopping: NZ movie

Moving images The debut feature film by Wellington directors Louis Sutherland and Mark Albiston received rave reviews at film festivals this year, but they have more material goals for Shopping ahead of its nationwide release this month. “We’d like to make as much money as possible and get out of here,” jokes Sutherland. They hope their story of two brothers with an alcoholic father reaches as many people as possible. “Shopping is a heartfelt movie about a Samoan-Pakeha family,” says Sutherland. “It looks at our culture in a way that hasn’t been done before.” www.shoppingthemovie.co.nz

Jeddah It takes focus to perform well at the Red Bull BC One Cypher in Saudi Arabia.

Stefan Voitl

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Music maker: Sean James Donnelly

Elastic fantastic

The winner of the Taite Music Prize on music as dessert and why the album is far from a dead duck Sean James Donnelly has been making music as SJD since 1999 and the Auckland singer-songwriter is finally getting the recognition he deserves. His sixth album, Elastic Wasteland, won the Taite Music Prize for the best New Zealand album of 2012. The 45-year-old celebrated by going out for dumplings. the red bulletin: What does winning the Taite Prize mean to you?

SJD: It’s a fantastic award to win because it’s got a lot of credibility and it celebrates something that isn’t commercially celebrated anymore.

The album you mean?

Yes, we’re moving to more bite-sized chunks of music, but hopefully the pendulum will swing back the other way soon. The idea of an album as a 45-minute book you immerse yourself in is still a wonderful thing to aim for.

What story does Elastic Wasteland tell?

It’s about life, death and ageing. It has a wintry vibe, but then you’ve got the warm-sounding synth, so that makes it lukewarm. It’s my baked Alaska album.

What are your ambitions?

I’d like to be like Robert Wyatt or SJD (left) with Scott Walker, old fellas who still John Halvorsen make valid music late in their of The Gordons careers. I’ll be the crusty old guy making albums in my 60s. www.elasticwasteland.com

San Francisco Art meets acrobatics as the riders show their best tricks at Red Bull Ride + Style.

Garth Milan

Córdoba Sébastien Loeb flies to victory in

Argentina, round five of the World Rally Championship.

Marcelo Maragni the red bulletin

Photography: subzero group, georgina schofield

Much of Eve Gordon’s life is spent flying through the air with the greatest of ease, yet she’s found time to establish The Dust Palace, a circus theatre company.

Her trapeze skills were recognised at The Golden Carnie Awards, New Zealand’s only circus accolades.

Gordon performs the balance acrobatics known as adagio, aerial manoeuvres on silks and balancing on chairs. She also teaches circus skills to the public.

“The classes are about fun, fitness and confidence,” she says. Her latest show opens in Auckland this month. www.thedustpalace.co.nz

Bullevard

Where’s Your Head At?

brad pitt

He turns 50 this year, makes megamovies and proper grown-up cinema, and once hawked Mexican food dressed as a bird. But, aside from the wife and kids, what else makes this superstar tick?

Pitt Stop

Under The Feathers

His perfume ad caused a Pitt storm. “The world turns and we turn with it. Plans disappear.

Dreams take over. But wherever I go, there you are. My luck, my fate, my fortune. Chanel No. 5.

Inevitable,” he said, earning US$170,000 a word and much derision. Inevitable.

William Bradley Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA on December 18, 1963. Just before graduating, he drove to LA in Runaround Sue, his old Datsun. He worked as an extra, dressed as a chicken to sell burritos and was a driver/ DJ for strippers at parties.

Korma Karma

Monkey Do

After bit parts, Pitt’s career took off in 1991 with Thelma & Louise. In 1994, Legends of the Fall gave him his first lead. In 1995 came Se7en and an Oscar-nominated turn in 12 Monkeys – fitting, as Planet Of The Apes is one of his favourite movies.

What does an A-list couple do for surprise gifts? Frozen takeaway. While in the UK in April, Angie arranged for a Surrey curry house to make and freeze dishes Brad loved when the family lived nearby last year, and took them back to LA on the plane. That’s love.

Put On Weight

Nine years ago, Pitt scored a hat-trick of hits: Troy, Ocean’s Twelve, Mr & Mrs Smith. He has since favoured art over commerce: Babel, Burn After Reading, Moneyball. “What I’m lacking,” he stated, “is the weight of some of the actors I like, maybe I’ll focus on that.”

words: paul wilson. illustration: lie-ins and tigers

The First Rule

Becoming the maniacal Tyler Durden for Fight Club, in 1999, required a lot of cut-and-paste.

“I covered my trailer in porn, and a Bruce Lee photo,” he told acting students eager for tips.

Susan Sarandon visited the set “with her daughter and little Natalie Portman. So be careful.”

Undead Good

Six Pack

Pitt has six children with Angelina Jolie: three adopted, three biological. In 2008, they raised US$14 million for their charity selling pics of newborn twins Knox and Vivienne. Said Jolie: “We explain to our kids that people like to take photos of people who make movies.” the red bulletin

Released in June, World War Z is Brad Pitt versus zombies, but for sentimental reasons.

“I just wanted to do a film that my boys could see before they turned 18,” said Brad, “one that they would like, anyways.” No caring father would make them sit through Meet Joe Black. www.worldwarzmovie.com

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kit evolution

screen stars

What do the cutting-edge televisions of today and 60 years ago have in common? Apart from an audience of couch potatoes, very little

ON THE BUTTON

So simple: just five knobs (including one on the side) and six buttons for finetuning. The only form of remote control back then was the power cut.

TOP BOX SET

TVs were furniture, with room on top for knick-knacks, which may have included a light, thought to reduce the effect of harmful X-ray emissions from the cathode ray tube. There are no harmful X-ray emissions from cathode ray tubes.

Extra sound!

The former inner life of the television, with its coils, capacitors and resistors, was dirty and noisy. Every element seemed to hum, heat up and attract dust.

1960 Philips Regent Automatic Console Outside Japan and the USA, television was predominantly black and white in the early 1960s. After switching on the set, it could take up to two minutes for component parts to warm up. Tuning was a balancing act, not infrequently performed with an aerial up on the roof. Many countries had limited broadcasting times, with only a test pattern shown between. The set itself – this one has a 23in (58cm) screen – was considered aesthetically pleasing: something that was lost, but which today’s TV sets are reviving. www.radiomuseum.org

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In the early 1960s, there were about 200 million television sets worldwide…

the red bulletin

words: robert sperl & ulrich corazza

23"

Bullevard FUTURE PROOF

The ultra-high definition display is four times standard HD resolution: UHD broadcasts begin with the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The 3D is flicker-free – but you still need the glasses.

HOME CINEMA

With a screen diagonal of 84in (213cm), this set requires serious wall space and suitable viewing distance. Despite weighing about 80kg, it’s only 4cm wide.

LOSE THE REMOTE

photography: kurt keinrath, Getty images (2)

84"

Handset not to hand? No problem: with its Magic Remote Voice feature, this telly can be controlled with pointing, gestures and spoken commands.

2013 LG 84LM960V You can get a lot of cinema visits, or a mid-range car, for the low five-figure price of this television set, but that’s sort of the point. For your outlay, you get a multimedia console in the form of a most modern LED television. Of course it’s Wi-Fi ready, so of course it has a web browser, YouTube and Facebook as standard, with the options of video chat, and internet-based video and music on demand. Despite the size, this set can be wall-mounted or freestanding. The screen is about 15 times larger than the ’60s set. www.lg.com

the red bulletin

…and now there are about 1.5 billion, with every computer screen potentially TV-ready.

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illustration: dietmar kainrath

Bullevard

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the red bulletin

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Bullevard

me and my body

josef ajram

The 35-year-old Spanish triathlete loves tattoos, never has a day off and knows his limits… or maybe not

INK CAPACITY

3

I love tattoos. I’ve had 24 so far. I have logos from previous competitions and the name of my daughter.

My favourite tattoo is on my neck. It says: “I don’t know where the limit is, but I know where it is not.”

www.josefajram.es

DEPRECIATION

After thousands and thousands of kilometres on my bike and running, my strongest muscles are in my thighs. I train twice a day, even on Sundays and at Christmas. One thing I’ve learnt is that a weekly physiotherapy session is essential.

As a triathlete, it’s important to have a slender upper body and to be powerful, especially in the legs. I’m 190cm tall and I weigh about 81kg. During an Ironman triathlon [3.86km swim, 180km bike, 42.2km marathon] I can lose more than 3kg.

2 BLACK TOES

Because of the position we adopt riding the bike, it places a burden on the neck muscles and spine. Running affects the knees and ankles. Many runners who cover extreme distances, even in comfortable shoes, wind up with black toenails.

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water works

5

The greatest enemy of the endurance athlete is cramp.

Therefore it’s essential to drink regularly while competing, but never too much at once. I have a couple of sips every seven minutes. Over eight hours of an Ironman race, that adds up to 14 litres of water.

the red bulletin

words: ulrich corazza. photography: philipp forstner

1 DEC 25: TRAINING

4

Bullevard

HArd & FAST

Top performers and winning ways from around the globe By finishing in second place in the last race of the season in Las Vegas, USA, German KTM rider Ken Roczen won the AMA supercross championship in the 250cc class.

Mitch Evans in his Dallara GP2/11

Fast learner

Photography: Lat/GP2 Series (2), cudby S./ktm images, graig kolesky/Red bull content pool, bruno terena/red bull content Pool, getty images. illustration: dietmar Kainrath

Mitch Evans is making all the right moves in the GP2 series, the finishing school for F1 A few races into his debut GP2 season, Kiwi motorsport sensation Mitch Evans has already learned some valuable lessons. Lesson one: don’t eat calamari at the dinner buffet.

Lesson two: you can’t go far in a broken car.

Some dodgy squid threatened to scupper Evans’ first race weekend in GP2, but the 18-year-old from Auckland overcame a stomach bug to finish on the podium in Malaysia. His third-place finish impressed motorsport commentators, who praised his mature drive against seasoned GP2 racers (seasoned by GP2 standards; most of them are still in their early 20s).

“It was a massive surprise to be up where I was, but I was a very happy boy,” says Evans. “It was one of those weekends where everything fell into place.”

His next race in Bahrain couldn’t have been more different. “The car broke down in qualifying and that put us on the back foot all weekend,” he says. “Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.” A botched pitstop and an engine failure conspired to leave him out of the points and reassessing his goals.

“Finishing on the podium in Malaysia made me think about a championship win but then we had that double whammy in Bahrain. Hopefully, I can get a few more podium finishes this season, but I’m taking baby steps at the moment. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.” www.mitchevans.com the red bulletin

South African surfer Jordy Smith won a gold medal at X Games Real Surf, an new contest where prizes are awarded for the best 90-second videos of freesurf footage.

Brazilian driver Daniel Serra enjoyed a perfect weekend racing stock cars in Taruma near São Paulo. The Red Bull Racing star scored pole position, fastest lap and won the race.

British rider Shanaze Reade (centre) was in unbeatable form on home asphalt at the BMX Supercross World Cup race in Manchester, UK. She also triumphed three weeks later in Santiago del Estero, Argentina.

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Bullevard

winning formula

pedal power

in the lab “When faced with an incline, most bicycle riders resort to outof-saddle pedalling,” says Dr Martin Apolin, physicist, sports scientist and lecturer at the University of Vienna. “You stand on the pedals and work them, body and bicycle swaying from side to side as you pedal (Fig. 1). The body’s centre of gravity (BCG), increases a little during each stroke. Lifting power, PH = (mgh)/t where m is the mass of the rider, g is gravity and h is height, over t, time cycled, is required to achieve this. But it doesn’t translate directly into forward momentum, meaning that outof-saddle pedalling wastes effort. So how can it still be useful?

“First, let’s examine circular pedalling, or ‘normal’ in-saddle riding. In theory, the tangential force expended by pedalling should remain at a constant rate for the entire revolution. That means not just pushing down on the pedal, but also pulling and pushing to bring the pedal back around with the same force.

However, studies have shown that even world-class riders can’t achieve completely circular pedalling: greater effort is always concentrated on pushing the pedal down (Fig. 2). So the term ‘circular pedalling’ doesn’t refer to a constancy of tangential force, but to a steady, less staccato style of pedalling.

“Work is generally defined as force multiplied by distance: W = Fs. In our case, the distance in a crank rotation of the circumference, ie one full rotation of the pedal, is 2rπ and the force is the average tangential force, FT over a full rotation: W = FT2rπ. Power, on the other hand, is work per unit of time: P = W/t. The power of the cyclist is therefore P = FT(2rπ)/t, where t stands for the duration of a complete rotation. Assuming a constant rate of pedalling, power is therefore proportional to the average tangential force: P ~ FT .

“Which brings us to the disadvantage of circular pedalling.

The maximum tangential force is achieved in pressing downwards and cannot exceed the weight force of the rider, G = mg where m is the mass of the rider, and g is gravity (around 10m/s2), otherwise the rider would be lifted off the seat. That also means that the average tangential force cannot exceed the weight force, and so, the maximum achievable power for a given transmission and pedalling frequency is indirectly limited by the weight of the rider: P ~ FT < G. All of which brings us back to out-of-saddle pedalling.

“It’s useful, because when you lift off the saddle your arms push down on the bike handles. This exerts additional force on the pedals, leading to an increase in FT, which consequently increases power. It is this that makes out-of-saddle pedalling the right method for accelerating and sprinting, or indeed for uphill cycling.” on the bike “For training, I recommend sprinting up a hill,” says Tim Johnson, three-time US champion in cyclocross – cross-country cycling on racing bikes. “A perfect day on a bike always seems to involve a lot of out-of-saddle climbing.” His tip for uphill motivation? “Imagine you’re being chased by a vicious dog.”

Life on two wheels: twitter.com/timjohnsoncx

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Words: DR Martin Apolin. Photography: chris milliman/red bull content pool. illustration: Mandy fischer.

Why are we inclined to get out of the saddle when cycling uphill?

US cross-country champion Tim Johnson: “Just imagine you’re being chased by a dog”

Bullevard

lucky numbers

superman

He’s not a bird or a plane, but he is celebrating his 75th birthday with a new film. Here’s your cast-iron guide to the Man of Steel

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In 1932, US teenagers Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created a comicbook character, the bald villain Superman. He wasn’t well received by publishers, so the boys turned him into a good guy, with hair.

In 1938 they sold rights to the character for US$130. After subsequent legal battles, they were awarded a little more money.

Siegel’s estate was in court as recently as April.

Christopher Reeve

2,160,000 Superman made his debut in the first edition of Action Comics, June 1938. It cost 10 cents. In November 2011, one of the surviving 50 copies was sold at auction for a record US$2.16 million. The vendor was alleged to be comic-book fan and one-time possible movie Superman Nicolas Cage, from whom the comic was stolen in 2000, and found 11 years later in a storage locker.

1.9

The superhero also known as Clark Kent has been measured at 1.9m (6ft 3in) tall, weighing 102kg.

He is allergic to the alien element kryptonite, but has suffered far worse. In 1992 he died in a battle with his enemy Doomsday. It was a canny move by DC Comics: The Death of Superman was an instant bestseller – and a reinvigorated Superman returned soon after.

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The Death of Superman

Henry Cavill

The first Superman comic

George Reeves

Last November, as part of research for a scientifically accurate comic story, physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson searched for Superman’s home planet, Krypton. Using info gleaned from the comics, he arrived at the red dwarf star LHS 2520.

In the Corvus constellation, and about a quarter of the mass of our own sun, ‘Krypton’ is 27 light years from Earth.

Nicolas Cage

LHS 2520: planet Krypton?

Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

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Out in June, Man Of Steel, sees Henry Cavill become the fifth big-screen Superman, after Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh. Cavill, the first Brit, will be hoping to avoid the so-called Superman Curse, a legend rooted in Reeves’s suicide in 1959 and Reeve’s riding accident in 1995, which left him paralysed from the neck down until his death in 2004.

www.superman.com the red bulletin

words: florian obkircher. photography: picturedesk.com, warner bros., mptv/kobal collection, getty images (2), shutterstock, corbis

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During World War II, Superman became a propaganda instrument.

In a 1940 comic, he even dragged Hitler and Stalin before the League of Nations. The Nazis weren’t amused: propaganda minister Goebbels declared that Superman was Jewish, with “an overdeveloped body and an underdeveloped mind”, and banned the comics from Germany.

WINGS FoR EVERY TASTE.

CRANBERRY, LIME, BLUEBERRY. AND THE EFFECT oF RED BULL.

L a s t m o n t h Va l e r y Rozov became the first man to fly with the aid of a wingsuit from the north face of Mount Everest. No one has launched themselves from a higher point on Earth

High f ly e r words: werner jessner

p h o t o g r a p h y : Th o m a s S e n f & D e n i s K l e r o

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â&#x20AC;&#x153; E v e r e st h as fas c i n at e d me since I was a child. as a t ee n a g e r , I d e v o u r e d the stories of the heroes o n t h i s m o u n ta i n , t h e i r triumphs and tragedies.

So it was very special for me to wake up at the base camp of Mount Everest and actually see it in front of me. It moved me. Everest is like no other mountain in the worldâ&#x20AC;?

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A fter a month in the Himalayas, Valery Rozov, the adventure sportsman from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, has just returned to civilisation – or more precisely, to the Yak & Yeti Hotel in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu with its hot showers, soft beds, an internet connection and restaurants.

He set out from here exactly 30 days ago to fulfil a dream: the 48-year-old wanted to be the first man to fly from the northern face of Everest. Up to now, the father of three has made over 9,000 BASE jumps, exploring new territory and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. But even for him, Everest was something special.

“Not because it is the highest wingsuit flight, but because this mountain has so much history,” he says. “To do something fresh, that’s what attracted me.”

It took a full four years from the idea to the actual flight. “My good friend, the mountaineer Alex Abramov, has organised tours in the Himalayas for the last 12 years,” says Rozov. “We met in 2009, and he showed me pictures of Everest: ‘What do you say to jumping here?’ I couldn’t shake the idea. In the spring of 2011, I went to do a location check. Is it at all possible what I’m picturing in my head? Is it realistic?”

Three things had to be considered.

Firstly, there was finding suitable take-off point where the wall was steep enough.

Second: wearing a wingsuit in thin air, is it possible to shift from the free fall into forward motion? Third: locating 34

“ T h e b u s t r i p f r o m Kathmandu to the Chinese border took four days. The walk up to base camp alone took another five days” the ideal landing spot on the Rongbuk Glacier, which begins at the foot of the north face. The Rongbuk is, like many glaciers in the region, notorious for its crevasses.

Rozov put together an expedition and looked at some possible launching and

J u m p p o i n t: 7, 2 1 7 m a b o v e sea level.

This marks the h i g h e s t a lt i t u d e from which a person has launched a BASE - j u m p o r wingsuit flight

Va l e r y R o z o v ’s expedition involved 14 people, including four guides.

Safety was the absolute priority

“ u n f o r t u n a t e l y , t h e r e was no chance to enjoy the view in flight” landing points. The route soon came together. It would be best to ascend via the classic northern course, then turn right towards the highest point of the north face at 7,217m above sea level after reaching the North Col ridge, instead of heading left towards the Everest summit.

Taking the many variables into account, they came to the conclusion that the jump would be technically difficult – the first rock wall is not very high – but feasible.

A few unknowns remained. How would Rozov feel after the arduous climb in thin air? Would his flying instincts still be sound under these conditions? Also, how could he and his team optimise the

wingsuit to get away from the rock face quickly and out into the free air space?

This project turned the BASE-jumper into an even better climber than he already was. During the last two years, Rozov has spent many months at high altitude. “This helps tremendously, even though I’ll never be a professional high-altitude mountaineer,” he says.

Anyone who climbs the 6,000m of Mount Kilimanjaro just for training purposes is being modest in making such a statement.

For the project to succeed, a new kind of wingsuit was needed. In partnership with American wingsuit manufacturer, Tony Suits, a suitable model was developed that Rozov tested at trial jumps. In June 2012, he leapt from Shivling, a 6,543m mountain in the northern part of the Indian Himalayas. Like the Matterhorn – the northern flank of which Rozov jumped from last October, in preparation for the Everest assault – the Shivling features what Rozov calls a “short

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the red bulletin

O n e s t e p.

Five seconds of u n c e r t a i n t y Then the fall shifted into forward motion

“ o n l a n d i n g I w a s s o e x h a u s t e d I b a r e ly f e lt anything. Emotions came t w o d ays l at e r at b a s e c a m p ” 40

take-off ramp”, so he was able to get a feel for the conditions that awaited him at his Everest jump.

After that, the project took shape through a series of scientific experiments.

In the wind tunnel at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, Rozov and his team attempted to gather more data, but faced limitations in simulating the reality of a wingsuit flight. In November 2012, Rozov met with the wingsuit manufacturer once again to incorporate the findings into the final suit design.

On April 10, the expedition team flew to Kathmandu. They pinned their hopes on a decent weather window in the first week of May. As in all Everest expeditions, the procedure consisted of three days of checking equipment, the bus ride to the Chinese border, five days to the base camp, then a few days the red bulletin

acclimatising, which involved ascents up to 6,000m before quickly heading back down again. Finally, inspecting the landing zone and departing for North Col on May 1.

Unlike other visitors to base camp, Rozov’s team were not focused on the summit. “For me the summit is not a big motivation,” says Rozov.

“With enough oxygen and Sherpas, it’s not particularly difficult. With mountain climbing in particular, style is crucial. In this regard I’m a purist.”

It’s a rush hour on Everest during spring, and not everyone behaves the way you would expect of climbers on the way to the roof of the world. One inglorious highlight this year was a punch-up on the way to the summit that made headlines around the world. How wild can it really get, then?

“When we were at Everest base camp, there were approximately 200

to 250 climbers waiting for their chance to ascend the mountain,” explained Rozov. “Their fitness and experience levels varied dramatically.

It was amusing to watch.”

The wingsuit and parachute weigh just over 8kg. It was a matter of honour that Rozov schlepped them himself, step by step, rope length by rope length, up to the jump exit point.

The route from the base camp to the top took four days and was exhausting, even with oxygen support.

“We had to hurry because we only had a three-day weather window open for the jump,” says Rozov.

“At times there were winds with speeds of six to eight metres per second – that’s almost 30kph.”

Four mountain guides took part in the expedition – nothing would be left to chance during the ascent.

Safety was the absolute priority.

Mount everest photography: Corbis

Two routes lead to Qomolangma, the Tibetan name for the roof of the world.

O n M ay 2 9, 19 5 3, S i r E d mu nd H i l l a r y a n d S h e r p a Te n z i n g N o rg ay c l i m b e d the ‘third pole’ for the first time. They approached the summit from the south.

The ascent via the north route, the one Rozov also took, was first conquered in 1960 by a Chinese expedition. the red bulletin

A

fter reaching the top, Rozov put on his wingsuit and began going through safety and wind checks. He took a few final breaths from an oxygen bottle to clear his head, then finally took flight at 2.30pm local time.

“After the first four, five seconds I felt really happy when I realised that I’d cleared the wall and everything was going according to plan. That was great,” he says. “The rest of the flight, which lasted less than a minute, was pretty unspectacular. I controlled my body position and my flight path and listened to the commands from my team.

Unfortunately, there was no opportunity to enjoy the view. I opened the parachute relatively early, about 20 seconds before landing. My team had marked out the landing field at the foot of the north wall – a windsock was also in place.

Everything was professionally prepared.”

Rozov is a very cool customer. Few emotions, no racing pulse. “I trained hard for two years for this, so it felt almost logical,” he explains. “Of course it makes me proud, but the flight was the final step in a long chain. And in the air it makes no huge difference if you jump from 7,000m or from 2,000m above sea level. You don’t notice the speed and height. You only realise when you look at the videos how long it takes to get from falling to flying, but the difference is less significant than you’d expect, maybe 25 per cent.”

And the landing? “I was so exhausted that I barely felt anything. Of course, I was glad that I had landed and all went well, but the big, deep thrill, that satisfaction of having achieved something that no one else has done before, only welled up two days later at base camp.”

Rozov watches the video of his flight on a laptop back at the hotel in Kathmandu five days after the jump.

Everything still feels as if it has just happened. The wind, the air, the noise, the wall, Everest, the dark sky, the glaciers, the pioneering feat. Now he relives the various phases of the flight, frame by frame, with immense joy and satisfaction. But there is something else, too, which he knows can happen.

“The longer the time is between my last jump, the more often it happens that I think to myself: ‘Was that really me? Did I actually do that?’”

Some things are so powerful that they threaten to rewire the memory. www.redbull.com

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THREE LIONS Owen Farrell, George North and Jamie Roberts on what it‘s like to be a British & Irish Lion, and what it takes to win rugby‘s toughest tour

Credit:

WORDS: PAUL WILSON PHOTOGRAPHY: maria ziegelböck

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Credit:

george north

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winger, wales & Northampton

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additional photography: action images

aving toured Australia three times with the England cricket team, Arthur Shrewsbury saw the potential of representative sports tours. In 1888, he organised a rugby side, consisting of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, to visit Australia and New Zealand.

No Tests were played – and 19 games of Australian rules football were squeezed in along with 35 rugby matches – but that team started a tradition that, 125 years later, has evolved into one of international sport‘s most keenly fought and anticipated contests.

History is against the 2013 British & Irish Lions in Australia. They have won only four of the previous 12 Test series, going back to 1968 and including the only back-toback-victories (1971 and 1974) since the first three Test series were won in 1891, 1896 and 1899. And yet: they have won 15 of 20 Tests against this year’s host, and this year’s tourists have among them some of the best players in world rugby.

Ahead of the first Test on June 22, The Red Bulletin caught up with three of those players: Wales centre Jamie Roberts, his international team-mate on the wing, George North, and England fly-half Owen Farrell.

The Wales winger only turned 21 in April, but he is an established international player with 12 tries in 31 appearances for his country.

After scoring his 12th, against France in Paris, his father, David, left his seat in the crowd to join him on the pitch to celebrate. A recent move from Welsh club Scarlets to Northampton in England’s Premiership only increases his profile, as does his relationship with double cycling world champion Becky James (also Welsh and 21). the red bulletin: What does the Lions mean to you?

Growing up, you see the national teams more often, so for me it was all Wales, Wales, Wales. Then you start to understand what the Lions is all about, what it means to people, everything that goes with it. The accolade that comes with playing for the Lions, and being able to play alongside the other players who get picked. Players from four countries together to form a supersquad and »

the red bulletin

dion rem unt FARRELL ON NORTH qui alit dereriâ&#x20AC;&#x153;Brilliant bloke, and bus, solorescia fantastic player.

Any ent quo berchil team that wants to win et, odit apid matches needs a player quam harunt like him on their sideâ&#x20AC;? dolo ten

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OWEN FARRELL

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FLY-HALF, saracens & ENGLAND One of three 21-year-old Lions, along with Scotland’s Stuart Hogg, who turns 21 on tour, and George North.

Farrell, a fly-half, who can also play centre, has won England’s premiership with Saracens, for whom he made his debut at 17. He made his England debut aged 20, having only played rugby league until he was 13. At Saracens, he came close to playing alongside his father, Andy, the England defensive coach who will be performing a similar role on the Lions tour.

When did you first think you might play for the Lions?

I know that every player will say, ‘I just focus on the next game’, but we say it so much because it’s true. You can’t think about the Lions if all your focus is going into playing well for your club and your country. And if you don’t focus on playing well for those, you’re not going to get picked for the Lions. So until the squad was announced, I wasn’t thinking about it at all.

All that mattered to me before that was the games I had to play. But it is the biggest honour you can have as a rugby player.

So did selection ruin your summer holiday plans?

As a rugby player, you can’t book a holiday until after the season’s finished, anyway. You never know what you’ll have to do

off-season – a tour like this, if you’re lucky, maybe recovering from injury if you’re not.

What about off-field pressure of touring?

Doing a lot of media: that’s when you have to keep your focus. I’ve not had media training as such. Someone has a quick word with you, usually, before interviews.

We had a little thing about how to use Twitter, but that’s just common sense really, isn’t it? I don’t Tweet what I’m doing at all times of the day. I’m not the type to tell everyone I’m going to bed.

I don’t think there are too many rugby players like that.

Are you hard on yourself?

You have to be, to get better.

You want to pick up on everything that you do, good or bad, and strive for a perfect game, even though that will never come. You need to understand why you made this decision, or why you didn’t make that decision.

Going into a game, I don’t think you can do enough preparation, on yourself and on the opposition. The balance between playing what you expect, and what you end up with in front of you, is crucial.

What is the northernsouthern hemisphere rivalry really like?

The three southern hemisphere teams are the best in the rankings. Players from this part of the world want to go there and do well, to show what we’re made of. With the Lions, we get another chance to do that. the red bulletin

additional photography: getty images (2)

a superteam, and it’s always a trip to the other side of the world to play the best that is out there. Just an amazing honour to be a part of that. are you out for revenge in australia?

Last summer we went with Wales, and it didn’t go well.

We lost a series we might have won, which is absolutely gutting [Wales lost three Tests by eight, two and one points respectively]. You work hard, go to the other side of the world and lose like that – just horrible, really. So there will definitely be a push from the Welsh contingent to show what we really can do – which I know will be the attitude of all the players from the other three countries, too.

Are you a good tourist?

The early part of the tour will involve a two- or threeday turnaround between each game. The perfect idea would be to play and be able to recover in that short space of time. The mental side of things, staying focused, will be as tough as it always is playing at this level, but on top of that you’re trying to stay match-fit for longer than you’re used to.

I’m ready for that challenge.

Are wingers under more pressure than players in other positions?

If you’re not scoring tries, then it will be said you’ve had a poor game – even in the modern game, with the winger’s role changed dramatically. Now we go looking for the ball, support the line, hit rucks – but a lot of people still think it’s tries or nothing. We do so much work off the ball. They call it the unseen stuff because most people don’t see it.

Is your dad coming to watch?

He’s planning on coming on out. If he does, then he’ll be chained to his seat, or we’ll sit him right at the back of the stands. Just put him in the top corner.

ROBERTS ON FARRELL “Top fella, no doubt.

Hopefully we can kick off together on the pitch and be successful in the Lions shirt”

NORTH ON ROBERTS “He’s a tremendous guy, he works hard and he’s a great player. We‘ve played together for Wales a lot, and it would be amazing to play with him for the Lions”

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jamie Roberts

john smit interview: steve smith. additional photography: imago, getty images

centre, wales & Racing metro In March this year, two days after he helped Wales beat England to win the Six Nations Championship, the 26-year-old sat his final written exam in his medical degree. The newly qualified Dr Roberts will be playing club rugby in France for Racing Metro in Paris from August. Before that, however, he will be a central figure for the Lions in Australia, on his second tour. In 2009 he was part of the side pipped 2-1 by South Africa, and was voted Lions Player of the Tour.

How does it feel to be a senior Lion?

I’m coming at it from a different perspective. Last time, in 2009, I was one of the juniors. Just a little fresh face. On this tour, I’m among a select group who’ve been more than once. Not many players get to do that. It’s Brian O’Driscoll’s fourth, Gethin Jenkins and Paul O’Connell, they’ve been three times. A handful of us will be on our second tour. We’ve got to set the standards, be the people who look after the guys on the first tour. What I really like is to learn new things with new players, new coaches. That’s very exciting.

Is the atmosphere at a Lions match really so special?

It only happens every 12 years for the opposing players and fans. We have it every four years; they have to wait a

the red bulletin

dozen, so the anticipation is increased. There will be great players in Australia and New Zealand and South Africa who don’t get to play the Lions because the timing is wrong. So it is an international match as such, but the occasion is more than that.

What is it like to be on tour for so long?

It’s a bit of a throwback to the amateur era. Even though we are professionals now and this is our job, there is something about the idea and execution of a Lions tour that reminds me of the old days, and it’s something I massively enjoy. Everything is organised to the last button, of course, but training with players from other countries, having a few beers after the games with them – it feels to me like exactly what happened on Lions tours of old.

Does that include sharing a room?

Yes, we’re not allowed to room with players from our countries [15 of this year’s 37 Lions are Welsh, with 10 English, nine Irish and three Scots].

The names are drawn out of a hat. I think I’m a good roommate: have a chat, keep the place nice.

I like to go out and about, explore, especially in Australia. I can stay in and watch TV when I’m at home. There will be golf.

We played in South Africa, I remember it well. Nothing I do is out of the ordinary – I am just a normal bloke.

What are you going to do to fill your time now you’re not studying medicine?

I’m going to start learning French.

HOW TO BEAT THE LIONS

John Smit, who captained South Africa to victory over the Lions in 2009, on planning and pulling off the ultimate home victory

“The 2009 series was something our squad immediately looked forward to after winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The beautiful thing about the Lions is that it only comes around every 12 years for us, and we had spent our youth watching replays of Matt Dawson’s dummy and Jeremy Guscott’s drop goal [pivotal moments in the Lions’ 2-1 series win] to have the responsibility to win this next series was a huge privilege and one we took very seriously.

“I think the brand of rugby a team plays depends on the coach, but being a UK team they typically play a game based on territory, a good kicking game, defence, and a very physical pack. They are a difficult team to analyse as they only exist every four years, so we tried to the best of our ability to understand who would be their frontline players, and from there we focused massively on ourselves and our preparation for the three-Test series.

“In the first Test there were a few standout moments: the scrums, the red crowds at Kings Park stadium who brought an amazing atmosphere to what is usually a great stadium vibe anyway, and of course, who could ever forget that last kick in the second Test by Morné Steyn to win the series. What a moment!

“Sadly, we didn’t get to meet the Lions until after the third Test, which I found disappointing.

We extended an invitation to them before they arrived to join us for a cold one in the changing room after each of the Tests, but they declined.”

Between 2000-2011, John Smit won 111 caps for South Africa, 83 of them as captain – both national records.

He ended his playing career in May, at Saracens, a club-mate of Owen Farrell, to return to South African rugby as the chief executive of Sharks in Durban.

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mountain high words: Christophe couvrat

had a brand-new peugeot developed f o r h i m t o h o p e f u l ly win this year’s race.

Af ter 156 wrists a pp i n g h a i r p i n bends, over a 19km course, drivers

r e a c h t h e summi t, about 4,300m high.

Loeb and his team reckon he’ll get to the top of the hill in under 10 minutes: “ i t ’ s l i k e r a l ly i n g on a racetrack”

photography: Duhamel Flavien

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is a road race for mad men and their cars. nine-times world r a l ly c h a m p i o n Sébastien loeb has

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mechanical going-over. The tension around this Batmobile is palpable.

Peugeot is playing a trump card here. The company and Pikes Peak have a symbiotic relationship fuelled by adrenalin. The manufacturer has won both the World Rally Championship drivers’ and constructors’ challenge numerous times, as well as scoring victories in the Dakar Rally. This year is the 100th anniversary of Peugeot’s first win at the Indianapolis 500 – the manufacturer took home the trophy in 1913, 1916 and 1919. “Not a lot of people know that Peugeot have won the Indianapolis 500 three times.

Not a lot of people know that we’ve even won it once,” says Bruno Famin, the director of Peugeot Sport.

And at some point the idea of Pikes Peak sounded sweet to the ears of the

“pikes peak is important to us. we still dream of when we won the race” the red bulletin

photography: Duhamel Flavien (2), thomas butler

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Far off in the forest somewhere there is a roar, the guttural cry of a wild beast. At first, the animal sounds as if it’s moving around in the distance – and then suddenly it appears on four wheels. The sleepy village of La Ferté-Vidame and its 14th-century castle, about 100 miles from Paris, have barely roused from their slumber this Thursday morning in April.

Welcome to the huge, ultra-secretive Peugeot site where all the French car maker’s latest models are tested.

The monster is the 875hp 208 T16 Pikes Peak, a machine which has been developed and perfected by Peugeot Sport especially for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, a famous race in which petrolheads scale a mountain in Colorado, USA, as fast as they can.

Today will be devoted to the traditional ironing-out of any niggles, a serious

Driver Sébastien Loeb’s central position allows for better weight-power distribution. Below: face on, the 208 T16 Pikes Peak with its diffuser and optional splitter. Above left: the 208 T16 Pikes Peak was conceived and developed at the Peugeot Sport workshops near Paris

company’s directors. Peugeot entered a 700bhp 405 T16 and came away from Colorado with two wins: one at the hands of the relentless Finnish rally driver Ari Vatanen in 1988, the other a year later thanks to American Robby Unser. The effect was enormous, the subconscious impact unexpected.

After the company’s decision last year to discontinue the 908 endurance line of cars, which competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, there was a sense of urgency in remobilising dispirited troops. Should it stake everything on a one-off gamble, easy to organise, but with an international impact?

Should it revisit Pikes Peak?

“Pikes Peak is an important part of Peugeot’s past,” says Famin, 51.

“In our factories we displayed the Pikes Peak 205 T16s 1 and 2 and the red bulletin

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Besides his involvement in the World Rally Championship – in which he has won the drivers’ championship nine times in a row – Frenchman Sébastien Loeb is involved in endurance testing with his Sébastien Loeb Racing team, which aims to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2014. But even with that kind of schedule, he was free on June 30 this year to tackle Pikes behind the wheel of the 208 T16 Pikes Peak.

The Red Bulletin: Why did you agree to this challenge?

Sébastien Loeb : Pikes Peak is first and foremost the stuff of legend. It’s one hell of a challenge. In some places it’s like rallying, in others it’s like being on a racetrack.

What did you think of the 208 T16 Pikes Peak?

It has bite and it’s merciless.

I was amazed at every gear change on my first run, but you soon get used to it. The downforce and brakes are impressive. It’s like a plane.

It feels different to anything I’ve driven before. It’s more like an F1 car than a rally car.

How are you going to manage your schedule?

As well as I can. I have a heavy schedule, but June is fairly quiet, so this has come at a good time. I’m going to focus on each of my goals. I’m not worried.

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the 405 T16s. They were what everyone dreamed of for years.”

Famin joined Peugeot in late 1989, a few weeks before its last win on the Dakar, and is very much the brains behind this surprise return to the highest hill race on Earth. “Quite a lot of people were left in the lurch when the endurance programme ended,” he says. “We said to ourselves, ‘What can we pull off here?’

We had to show that Peugeot was still competitive. There was soon debate as to what form the car should take. I wanted it to look like a standard car. I asked the product and marketing people. Time passed and I didn’t get an answer. So I opted for the 208 T16.”

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Last September, Maxime Picat was appointed managing director for the Peugeot brand. Bogged down in an economic and social conflict, the new boss was immediately taken with the idea of giving Peugeot Sport its lustre back via Pikes Peak. “It’s a legendary race which

would bring together all the teams,” he says. “It’s also the kind of challenge that leaves no room for mistakes – the type of challenge that Peugeot loves.”

“He was into the idea straight away and gave the go-ahead at the start of November,” says Famin of Picot.

The countdown began. It was then seven months until Pikes Peak, which will run on June 30 – and that is a ludicrously short period of time in motorsport to develop a car from scratch. They would have to be quick – very quick – in getting an engine, a car, a driver and inspiring the crew. In other words, one hell of a ride. “If it hadn’t been for Pikes Peak, some people would have left,” says Famin in a whisper.

The tech specs are impressive. The engine is a 24 Hours of Le Mans V6, the rationale being that if it can last 24 hours, a 10-minute mountain ascent shouldn’t be a problem. “We’d thought about the HDi V8, but it would have been complicated to get it into a 208,” says Jean-Christophe Pallier, 54, the project manager and Famin’s right-hand man. “An older engine gave us more legroom when it came to power. And it was more compact.”

There have been changes to the course. It’s no longer a dusty, Wild West the red bulletin

photography: Duhamel Flavien (3), getty images

Rare Air For Séb Loeb

The Unlimited category means engineers can have a field day. Below: Loeb compares the 208 T16 Pikes Peak to an F1 racing car

Above: the 208 T16 Pikes Peak goes from 0 to 100kph in 1.8 seconds

“He’ll just throw up at the finish line“ the red bulletin

experience. The road to the summit of Pikes Peak has been completely resurfaced since last year’s race, and it’s choking red earth has gone. It is now a location for a real speed race, one with fewer wild-card variables bestowed upon it by nature.

French driver Romain Dumas was second overall last year at Pikes Peak, after a stylish show of force in a Porsche,

all the more impressive given the final stretch took place on compressed dirt.

“Romain Dumas was a potential target [to be our driver]. We would have gone for him if Pikes Peak was still run on dirt roads,” Pallier admits. In the end, the task was given to renowned rally driver Sébastien Loeb (see sidebar).

From last autumn, everyone in the Peugeot Sport workshops in Vélizy, especially former rally driver Attila Bocsi, has focused on the 208. Bocsi is the chief designer of the 208 T16 Pikes Peak, and with Loeb behind the wheel, aims to smash the unlimited category Pikes Peak record of 9 minutes, 46.164 seconds.

“Everyone knows about my passion for design. I’ve been at Peugeot since 2001. I’ve designed quite a few cars.

I was pretty proud that they asked me.

I got a little bit stylish with the wings,” he says. Weighing in at just under 1 tonne, the car generates 875bhp and has four-wheel drive, a six-speed manual transmission and a 3.2-litre petrol engine.

Famin has thought of everything for Loeb, the best rally driver in history.

“We’ll definitely have oxygen for him,” says Famin. “Then he can go berserk for a few minutes. It won’t do him any harm.

He’ll just throw up at the finish line.”

Climb every mountain: www.ppihc.com

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SPI N WHIRLING DERVISH O R I G I N S : KO N YA , T U R K E Y, 1 3 T H C E N T U R Y

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N IT

The whirling dervish and the B-Boy,seven centuries and 5,000 miles apart, are inextricably linked by a joy in movement and the continuous search for perfection W O R D S : B ar l as H una l p & Pau l W i l son P H O T O G R A P H Y: J O R K W E I S M A N N

B -B OY O R I G I N S : N E W YO R K C I T Y, U S A , 2 0 T H C E N T U R Y

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A

t a block party in the Bronx in the mid1970s, and a bustling Turkish market in the mid-1270s, the same thing happened.

The rhythm of the streets – a hip-hop sound system, the hammering of goldbeaters working their precious metal – was picked up like a radio signal and used to develop a new way of movement.

The New York hip-hop kids started the B-Boy movement with their spins and breakdances. Seven hundred years before them, Rumi, a teacher of Sufi, a mystic branch of Islam, heard the goldbeaters bang, along with the religious chants they used to keep time, and began to whirl around the marketplace in the city of Konya. His was a more overtly religious experience, but, in those moments when the ground was broken for breakdancing and the sema, the dance made famous by the whirling dervishes, something spiritually uplifting occurred.

Rumi’s followers established a Sufi order, the Mevlevi, in his honour.

Their ritual performance of the sema dance earned them the label of the whirling dervishes. The religious order was outlawed in 1925, but it survives today, preserving the dance as a predominantly cultural form and touring the world with sema shows.

B-Boying became an integral part of hip-hop culture, and was never tainted by the regular moral panics that seek to blame hip-hop for gun crime. Now, the red bulletin

“When you abandon all your thoughts, that’s the moment you are ready to find out who you really are.

T h at ’s t h e m o m e nt yo u are ready to listen to the rhythm. It’s the rhythm that connects me to myself – my only opponent. It inspires my moves as it comes alive” Mounir

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“It was impossible not to be excited by the energy in the room. When I stepped onto the stage to begin my sema, I felt something I would define as the gathering of two different souls. The rhythm creates balance, and that b o u n d u s to g et h e r, united us as one” Ceyhun Varisli

every street dancer, backing dancer and happy-footed pop star has B-Boy moves in his or her repertoire.

“It’s important to see the common points in different cultures,” says Murat Demirhan, a Turkish B-Boy known as Joker. “B-Boys have a master-apprentice system. So do Mevlevis. Both are communities where newcomers respect experience, and the community itself.

In my crew it was like that.”

Joker hosted a Red Bull BC One cypher at the Sirkeci railway terminal in Istanbul, Turkey’s national qualifying event ahead of the world finals of the B-Boy tournament in Seoul, South Korea in November. This, and the 10th anniversary of Red Bull BC One, brought together French B-Boy Mounir Biba, the reigning world champion, and Ceyhun Varisli of the Mevlevi order.

After hundreds of years in parallel, a whirling dervish and a B-Boy performed on the same stage for the first time. www.redbullbcone.com

Watch B-Boy Mounir and whirling dervish Ceyhun Varisli perform together in the free Red Bulletin tablet edition

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the red bulletin

christophe el’ truento

Crafting the beats Solo or in a group, the Aucklander uses the sounds of the world around him to build his singularly splendid music

pot and draw from a lifetime of close The textures layered through What Onstage at Nectar, an intimate venue in listening. “My brothers had the Salvation We Used To Know include raindrops and Auckland, the audience jostles for space Army down the road for records, whereas thunderstorms, leaves underfoot, a at the release party for the album Girl my generation had the internet. If you’re boiling kettle, the heartbeat of Truento’s Songs, by the hip-hop collective @Peace. making beats, it’s good to have a catalogue unborn son and jingling car keys. Using In time-honoured tradition, MC Tom of music in your head and a knowledge music sequencing software, Truento set Scott introduces the individual members of artists and labels. It was only natural about, as he puts it, “messing up” the of the group. Last on the roll call is the to get schooled up on a few things.” recordings to achieve a meditative feel. group’s beatmaker, Christoph El’ Truento.

An insatiable hunger for new sounds “I’m the type of person who keeps my “We’ve got the brains of the whole has caused him to draw from every genre house tidy, and I’m the same with my operation right here,” Scott announces, of music. While samples from old records beats,” he says. “Then I mess them up, to huge cheers from the fans who know and digital archives are the mainstay because I feel like I’ve overcooked them. that @Peace benefit enormously from My beats start with sharp edges, Truento’s intricate beat science. then I round them off – a lot of the The music Truento produces – rich ‘mess’ comes in post-production.” compositions built from samples, Perfection, however, is not the sounds he records himself from his aim. He’ll “throw off” elements of a surroundings, and an instrument beat, or change the drums so they’re or two – can be heard on tracks “a bit more wonky”. It frees him up by other New Zealand artists in the same way that musicians of including Hollie Smith & Mara TK, 50, 60 and 70 years ago experimented Home Brew and Funkcommunity. with groove and rhythm.

His experimental solo material “I guess it’s like a jazz thing,” has recently found a home on he says. “Think of a drummer, who boutique Japanese record label keeps a rhythm and then has another Wonderful Noise Productions. revolving around it. It’s something Truento began experimenting beatmakers have started to adapt.” with music by digging through his If What We Used To Know marks brothers’ record collection. It taught Beats in action: El’ Truento (right) with Dandruff Dicky of @Peace the point at which Christoph El’ him the basics of hip-hop, which of his music, his vast audio library is Truento began listening to his world grounds his work today. “I was just trying not just a source to be cut-and-pasted. differently, it also points to where he to make beats like Pete Rock,” he tells “You can take anything from a song: plans to take his music. With this album, the The Red Bulletin the day after the @Peace an idea, or a recording technique,” he sounds were recorded only in his domestic album launch, referring to the rapper explains. “It’s all sampling, but you don’t surroundings. Its follow-up will feature and producer who has worked with have to take a chunk out of the music.” samples from anywhere he goes, thanks Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest Truento expanded his sampling to a newly purchased digital recorder. and the Wu-Tang Clan. horizons when he began digging closer “I need to carry recording gear with At high school, he was given the to home for his new solo LP. What We me all the time now,” says Truento, nickname Truant by Auckland DJ Manuel Used To Know throws unusual textures before realising he has forgotten his Bundy, a veteran of local beat culture. into the mix, a strategy he attributes recording gear. “But I can take my laptop Christopher Martin James, as he was then, to two Californian dons of beat music. out and record stuff, if I need to.” would cut class to host a radio show at “I was listening to Teebs and Flying That man over there, holding his Auckland’s Base FM; the moniker stuck, Lotus, who don’t make straightforward computer next to a gurgling stormwater and has been adapted for his stage name. stuff,” he says. “They crunch up paper drain? He’s making music.

Truento’s instrumentals throw christoph-el-truento.bandcamp.com and make rhythms from found sounds.” everything but the kitchen sink into the 62

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Photography: amanda ratcliffe, nic staveley

Words: Sam Wicks

The line-up Christoph El’ Truento – producer, beatmaker Discography What We Used To Know (album, 2013) Sunflower (EP, 2012) EP01 (EP, 2011) with @Peace Girl Songs (album, 2013) @Peace (album, 2011) On the side Truento forms one-quarter of beats’n’pieces supergroup Some Other Planets, with Riki Gooch, Parks and Julien Dyne. He is also a member of the Young, Gifted and Broke collective, home to Home Brew, Tourettes and Raiza Biza. Next up: studio time for on the next @Peace record.

WORDS: ROBERT TIGHE PHOTOGRAPHY: tim white

A Day With The

Warriors

The Auckland team have endured one of their worst starts to a New Zealand rugby league season. The Red Bulletin goes behind the scenes at Mt Smart Stadium as they fight to turn things around

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Clockwise from above: Warriors warm-down; Todd Lowrie refuels post-match; the Mt Smart Stadium

07.03 The sun rises over Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium on Sunday, May 5 and despite the weather forecast predicting showers, thunderstorms and gale-force winds, it’s a bright, clear autumn morning as the first staff arrive at the ground. A TV crew is unloading truckloads of gear to broadcast the game between the Warriors and the Gold Coast Titans. The Warriors are bottom of the 2013 National Rugby League ladder, having lost six of their opening seven matches, and won just one of their last 15 games. Today’s game is a must-win if they don’t want their season to be over before it’s really started.

07.45 Phil Briars, facilities manager at Mt Smart, clocks in. Briars is responsible for security, ambulance and medical staff, police, catering staff, groundsmen and the clean-up after the game. This morning, he’s concerned by two small patches of the pitch that took some punishment from a training session the day before.

“As you can imagine, 20 big boys running up and down the same patch of the field does some damage,” he says.

08.04 Out on the field, Don Philip, the grounds manager, is using a roller trying to repair the damage. “It was like a bomb site earlier in the week, real ankle-twister stuff. Then we had that big thunderstorm yesterday, but this pitch drains well and the weather is looking OK right now,” says Philip, pointing at the sky. “It’s supposed to turn to crap later this afternoon,” says Briars. “Winds of 130kph the weather forecast says.”

“Hopefully it hangs in there,” says Philip.

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“Rugby league is a big part of my life.

I can’t get away from it” 08.45 Alan Morris, assistant groundsman, is walking around the field with a garden fork. “I’m checking for divots,” he says.

“These guys seem to go over on their ankles as easy as you like.” Morris, 62, has worked at Mt Smart for 32 years and has that good-natured grumbling-oldman persona down pat. He doesn’t usually watch the games. “I sit up in the smoko room and read hot rod magazines,” he says. “It’s just a bunch of big blokes running up and down a paddock after a ball and crashing into each other. It doesn’t do much for me.”

09.35 Not all game day staff are as blasé about the Warriors as Morris. Nadene Conlon is the event manager for the Warriors and she’s worked in rugby league for the last 14 years. For 11 of those she played for the women’s’ national team. “Rugby league is a big part of my life,” she says. “I can’t get away from it.” On game day Conlon’s chief concern is timing. She works closely with Sky TV to make sure that everyone – the teams, referees, cheerleaders – are in the right place at the right time.

11.35 As the clock ticks closer to the 2.05pm kick-off, team physio Hamish Craighead is about to begin his pre-game routine in the dressing room, which involves strapping and taping the players to offer protection from the battering they’re about to take. Today he also has to put winger Manu Vatuvei, aka The Beast, through a fitness test. “He’s got a bad knee and it flared up again this week,” says Craighead. “He hyperextended the red bulletin

Warriors hooker Nathan Friend assesses the damage to a niggling shoulder injury in the dressing room after the game

“That is one of the most bizarre games of rugby I’ve ever seen” it a few years ago and he’s got no posterior cruciate ligament. In layman’s terms, he’s a big man who runs fast so he needs both knees, and he’s busted one.”

12.20 In the corporate lounge, club members and sponsors are being wined, dined and entertained by Andrew Voss, a member of the Sky TV commentary team. The Australian travels to Auckland for Warriors home games and is passionate about the club and the match day experience at Mt Smart. “Despite the elements today you’ve still got over 9,000 fans turning up,” says Voss. “It rains here a lot, but I like the cold, I like the wet.

It reminds me of that movie Any Given Sunday. It’s sporting theatre at its finest.”

12.50 The rain has arrived. It’s bucketing down, but at least there’s no sign of the forecast storms or gale-force winds.

13.34 The Warriors take the field for their warm-up – including Vatuvei, who passed his fitness test. He’s the club’s all-time leading try scorer and while he has his critics, having the Beast on the field is a welcome boost. “Come on guys, Big D today,” urges Ruben Wiki, a former Warriors great and now a strength and conditioning coach at the club. It’s understood by all that ‘D’ is for defence.

A security guard patrols the sideline in front of the East Stand, keeping one eye on the field and one eye on the rain-sodden punters, most of whom are wearing black bin bags and blue ponchos, fighting a losing battle against the rain.

“I look after this rabble,” she says with a laugh, pointing at the stands, “but they’re well behaved. It’s a real family crowd.”

14.05 As the game kicks off, Phil George takes up his seat at the front of the East Stand. George works as a manager in a call centre during the week, but for every Warriors home game he paints his face, pulls on a red cape and transforms himself into the Mt Smart Joker. “They’re my team,” says George. “I’m from Otara in South Auckland. I went to school with Ruben Wiki and my brother grew up with 68

Manu. I should be out there, but I wasn’t good enough. This is the next best thing.”

14.16 Ten minutes into the game and Vatuvei scores the Warriors’ first try.

14.47 On the stroke of half-time, Warriors full-back Kevin Locke slides along the grass to secure possession and deny the Titans a try-scoring opportunity. Half-time score: Warriors 16-6 Titans.

15.05 The Titans are hitting hard at the start of the second half and there’s a bit of biff, bang, wallop. The referee breaks things up and a few minutes later, Shaun Johnson scores the Warriors’ fourth try.

15.34 With no other player near him, Kevin Locke falls to the ground like he’s been shot. “It was a sniper,” jokes one of the Warriors backroom staff. [It later turns out to be nothing more serious than a soft tissue injury to his back.] As Locke is taken off, former Warriors great and now the club’s development officer Jerry Seuseu brings everyone’s attention back to the game. “Come on Warriors,” he urges. They lead 23-12 but there’s 15 minutes left.

15.39 Pita Godinet, who replaced the injured Locke at full-back, drops a high kick, allowing the Titans’ Jamal Idris to score a try. An eerie gloom descends on Mt Smart – the Warriors’ lead is down to just six points.

15.47 The home side absorbs intense pressure from the Titans. Godinet makes

Above: the Warriors contest a scrum on the halfway line Above right: the Sky City cheerleaders get the crowd going the red bulletin

a great interception on his own goal line before skipping a few tackles and eventually losing possession.

The Titans are back on the attack.

15.50 A Titans knock-on relieves the pressure and Johnson drops a goal to give the Warriors an eight-point lead with two minutes left. There are no enthusiastic celebrations in the corporate box, just relief, and a whispered “you beauty” from one of the backroom staff. the red bulletin

15.52 The Titans end the game with a try but lose by a single point, meaning the Warriors have registered a much-needed win. “That is one of the most bizarre games I’ve seen,” says Seuseu, shaking his head. Final score: Warriors 25-24 Titans.

16.04 More head-shaking down in the dressing room, accompanied by rueful smiles. After Warriors coach Matt Elliott thanks the team for their efforts, the players and staff break into an emotional and heartfelt rendition of the team song:

“We’ve got the power, we’ve got the speed, we’ve got the will, that’s all we fucking need. Stand up and shout it, sing it to the end, we are the mighty Warriors, one hundred per cent.”

“That’s a song I’d like to sing a lot more often,” says Elliott. After a round of hugs, high-fives and full-body handshakes, rehab and speed coach Dayne Norton cuts short the celebrations. “When you’re ready, boys, have a stretch,” he says, before helping Nathan Friend pull his soaking wet jersey over his head. Friend 69

Manu Vatuvei celebrates the Warriors opening try of the game

“Our season was on the line, but this win will give us confidence” looks like he’s walked away from a car crash, totally drained. Given the number of cuts and bruises and ice packs on centre Jerome Ropati’s body, you’d think he’d been cage fighting. Other Warriors players appear remarkably fresh, unmarked and unfazed by their efforts. Lock Feleti Mateo and halfback Shaun Johnson look like they’re ready to hit the town.

16.15 As the Warriors players make their way to the end of the gym for their warmdown, they pass the 18th man, winger Ngani Laumape, who is suffering at the hands of Ruben Wiki and what’s become known as the Wiki Blitz. The 18th man is a back-up to the official 17-man squad.

He gets called up if one of the squad gets injured or ill before the start of the game.

If that doesn’t happen, Wiki makes sure he still gets a workout. The Wiki Blitz is a set of reps on the rowing machine followed by squat thrusts, barbell lifts and barbell chest lifts. It’s 20 minutes of physical hell. “They’d much rather be playing than have to do the Blitz,” says Wiki. Like everyone else at the club, Wiki is more relieved than ecstatic about the win. “Our execution at crucial times has cost us the last three weeks and it was the same today, but we got away with it. the red bulletin

Clockwise from top: winners are grinners in the home dressing room; one fans salutes his heroes; the boots of a Warrior

Our season was on the line but this win will give us confidence.” The win lifts the Warriors from 16th and last on the ladder to 14th. They’re still a way off the top eight and a place in the end of season play-offs in September, but it’s a step in the right direction.

16.20 Warriors prop Sam Rapira is nursing a wrist injury that forced him from the field in the first half. Coach Elliott asks how he’s doing. “It can’t be broken Sam,” he says. “We’ve got a game next week.” Elliott is just back from the press conference and is still analysing the game. “Our decision-making at key times let us down. Not by any one player but by a lot of players… by the bloke that

came on and played full-back for example. I could have killed him,” teases Elliott as Pita Godinet walks past him.“I was just testing your faith, coach,” says Godinet.

“I knew our next win was going to be difficult,” says Elliott, “but the scoreline didn’t reflect our dominance.

There is some stuff we need to sort out but for now we’ll enjoy this moment. It’s been a long time coming.”

16.45 In the stands the clean-up is underway. The end of the day is the morning in reverse, with the TV crew packing away as the sun sets on Mt Smart Stadium. www.warriors.co.nz

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Homecoming: Azarenka in the Belarusian national tennis centre in Minsk. Aged seven she hit her first balls here

Loved, hated, feared: VICTORIA AZARENKA is the most controversial womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tennis player in the world.

At home with the ace who came in from the cold Words: Stefan Wagner Photography: Greg Funnell

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Above: Victoria Azarenka has supported Ekaterina and Ulyana Grib for four years.

Right: the Azarenka family lived in an apartment on the sixth floor of this block.

Below: Minsk Tennis Centre

he moment which reveals the most about Victoria Azarenka – over US$20 million prize money, loudest scream in professional sport, girlfriend of bizarre entertainer Redfoo – is this: late Sunday morning, two bumpy hours by car outside the capital Minsk, in a holiday home which looks like a UFO damaged on crash-landing in the Belarusian forest, Victoria Azarenka is shuffling across the lobby, leading an older lady by the hand.

This is her grandmother. For more than 50 years she worked as a kindergarten teacher, starting work at five o’clock in the morning; these days she comes here twice a year for three weeks’ rest.

She only found out yesterday that her granddaughter was coming to visit, and she hurried to get hold of grapes and white chocolate. The old lady walks with a stoop. “Slowly, Babushka, slowly,” her granddaughter is saying. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”

Victoria Azarenka’s racquet is indistinguishable from those used on the men’s circuit: grip size four, wrapped in a sweat-absorbing band, it handles like 74

a birch sapling. Wilson delivers her racquets with a cup per Grand Slam title engraved on the inner rim. The racquets have been adorned with two cups since January, when Azarenka defended her Australian Open title and reclaimed the top spot in women’s tennis, ahead of Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.

The roles in the three-way bout for number one are evenly distributed.

There’s Williams, who transformed women’s tennis into a power sport, has 15 Grand Slam titles to her name and recently turned 31 – she’s the grande dame of world tennis. Then there’s Sharapova, who transformed the women’s circuit into a catwalk and has been the best-paid female sporting star in the world for the last eight years.

And Victoria Azarenka? Victoria Azarenka wins. Has won, in fact, 19 out of 21 matches since the beginning of the year; injury forced her to miss two matches.

Victoria Azarenka; Victoria as in ‘victory’, a name her parents consciously chose in 1989. Back then Belarus was still part of the Soviet Union. “There were six of us living in a small apartment, my brother and I, parents, grandparents.

My father had two jobs, my grandmother would go to work at five o’clock in the morning, my mother worked until late at night – all so I could have the opportunity to play tennis.”

“My father had two jobs, my Grandmother would go to work at five o’clock in the morning, my mother worked until late at night – all to allow me to play tennis”

Victoria Azarenka was nine when her first trainer set her children’s tennis group the challenge of hitting a ball 1,000 times perfectly against the wall.

The number was utterly unrealistic; the trainer simply wanted to know how her junior charges handled impossible tasks.

Victoria hit the ball 1,460 times.

At 13 she won her first tournament in Uzbekistan, on the international under18s circuit; there were no opponents left to conquer in Belarus. A year later, when she was already training in a camp in Marbella, Spain, she broke through to the women’s circuit. Kristin HaiderMaurer, an ex-pro who played against the 14-year-old at a minor tournament in Croatia, recalls a “complete beast who didn’t surrender a single ball, extremely ambitious, tenacious”. The more

experienced Haider-Maurer was leading 3-0; Azarenka cried when they swapped sides. Then she emitted a scream of pure rage and ceded just one more game to her opponent, four years her senior: 6-4, 6-0.

Sam Sumyk, a Frenchman possessed of an imperturbable serenity, has been Azarenka’s trainer for the last three years.

When asked what it is that makes Azarenka number one in the world – her backhand perhaps? – he shakes his head. “It’s her professionalism which makes the difference. It’s fascinating how determined she is to sacrifice everything to success.”

At the Australian Open they measured the volume of her screams whenever she hit the ball. It was just over 100 decibels. The threshold of pain for the human ear is 110 decibels.

Some journalists are calling for a change 75

in the regulations to stop female tennis players screaming. Azarenka and Sharapova come in for particularly harsh criticism.

“It’s unfair,” says one of Azarenka’s main rivals, Poland’s Agniezka Radwanska. “It ruins the game,” says tennis legend Martina Navratilova. But for Azarenka: “It’s part of my game.”

It’s early April and winter still has Minsk in its grip. Victoria Azarenka shouldn’t be here at all right now, but rather in Miami, where the world’s fifth-largest tennis tournament is taking place. Or in Arizona, where she moved at age 15 to live with the family of Russian NHL goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, who financed her training in the US. Or at least in Monte Carlo, where she has an apartment. But after she sustained an injury in Indian Wells she decided she wanted to recuperate at home, “and home will always be Minsk”.

Convalescence combined with a family visit and training camp: even when you spare an ankle, there are plenty of body parts left to torture.

As Azarenka relaxes with some yoga in a gym in Belarus’s National Tennis Centre, her coach, Sam Sumyk, agent Meilen Tu, physiotherapist Per Bastholt and fitness trainer Mike Guevara sip coffee outside the door. The top-flight entourage of a multi-million-dollar star – two Americans, a Dane and a Frenchman – present a striking contrast to the surroundings: greenish neon light, worn floor, shabby ceiling panels and faded black and white photos of Soviet tennis pioneers on the walls.

Some parts of the National Tennis Centre have been refurbished in the last 15 years; modern courts have been laid and windows insulated so you no

Above: Sasha Skrypko grew up with Azarenka. “To become number one was Vika’s destiny.

I have never seen anyone who wanted something so badly.” Below: Sam Sumyk, Azarenka’s coach

Does Victoria Azarenka still have her first Racquet? “No. I was a crazy kid. I’m sure I smashed it up out of anger”

longer have to scratch frost from the inside. But the changing rooms, the corridors, the gyms – they still look the same as they did when the seven-year-old Vika encountered them for the first time.

Her mother, Alla, had just started a new job, sitting at a glass booth in the reception area from eight o’clock in the morning to 10 o’clock at night.

On her first day at work Alla handed little Vika a racquet. (Azarenka recalls an early Prince aluminium racquet, a model which even some adults have difficulty handling. Does she still have her first racquet? “No. I was a crazy kid. I’m sure I smashed it up out of anger.”) Vika discovered a kind of gymnasium in the basement, with horizontal stripes on the walls and colourful lines on the floor. And for two years, day after day after day, she would hit tennis balls at that wall until her mother came to pick her up shortly after 10pm.

No sooner has international star Victoria Azarenka finished yoga than Mike Guevara is expecting her for an endurance session on the ergometer.

To ensure they remain undisturbed, Guevara has dragged the ergometer to a somewhat dingy room at the end of a dark corridor. Victoria Azarenka laughs as she enters the room. She points to the wall: “That was my net.” And indicating a few coloured lines on the floor, she says, “That was my centre court.”

The charms of Victoria Azarenka’s homeland are slow to reveal themselves to the visitor. Belarus is located between Poland and Russia, between the Baltic states and Ukraine, and has just under 9.5 million inhabitants. The political power structures are just a little too entrenched to duck the description ‘dictatorial’: 2014 will mark President Lukashenko’s 20th year in power. The country’s favoured foreign partners are Russia, Iran and Venezuela.

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Above: Yoga for relaxation.

Left: Victoria Azarenka is Belarus’s national heroine. “I want to give my country self-confidence,” she says

The soldiers you see around Minsk all wear comically outsized caps, and you almost feel that it is the effort of keeping the enormous things on their heads that gives these officers their slightly swaying, officious gait. It’s a cheerful image that stands in contrast to the kind of relations between authority figures and average citizens that ordinarily prevail here, which are rarely distinguished by humour. You can recognise an experienced Belarusian driver, for instance, by the webcam positioned behind the windscreen and pointed in the direction of travel; it is put there to document excessively arbitrary exercises of power, if not prevent them altogether.

At intersections, large billboards depict a man lying in bed smoking, the image struck through with a thick red line: drunkenly smoking in bed is the red bulletin

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what their dream was, they were shy and hesitant at first. And then they said: ‘Please don’t get mad, but we want to be better than you.’ That’s when I knew: I want to help these girls.”

a popular cause of death in Minsk. The billboard is rendered in the kind of rudimentary pictograms used to denote Olympic sports, as if drunkenly smoking in bed were a Belarusian Olympic discipline.

Belarusians generally avoid subjects like politics and social issues – call it postSoviet fatalism. But they love talking about their land, the people, the traditions, the culture. Belarusian patriotism is proud, peppy and omnipresent.

Victoria Azarenka, for example, loves talking about fellow Belarusian athletes. Natalia Zvereva, for instance, who represented the Soviet Union at the 1988 French Open and made it to the final; Max Mirnyi, a world-class doubles player; as well as world champion biathlete Darya Domracheva (“she’s incredible”).

Victoria Azarenka is also happy to discuss her role as a national heroine, a role which she interprets in a very straightforward manner. When she drives through Minsk in her burgundy Porsche Cayenne, for instance, she isn’t saying: I’m better than you. Rather she’s saying: I am one of you. Look at what I’ve achieved – and you can do it too.

“I would like to help raise the selfconfidence of people here,” she says.

And she’s particularly keen to talk about Ulyana Grib, 13, and Ekaterina Grib, who’s 12. They train in the same tennis centre in which Azarenka grew up.

“They could be very, very good,” says Azarenka. When she received a bonus for winning Olympic medals in London – bronze in singles, gold in the doubles along with Mirnyi – she sent the money to the young girls to help cover travel costs.

She also trains with them, checks in on their progress by text, encourages them, cautions them, shares tips with them.

How good is very, very good? “They have something which is extremely rare,” answers Azarenka. “When I asked them 78

“You can’t understand Belarusians unless you understand our rules. The most

important

is respect for your elders”

Above: Azarenka loves karaoke and she’s pretty good at it, too. Below: Valentina Rzhanih was Azarenka’s first trainer, from when she was seven to 11 years old. “When I told her she had to switch to another coach because I couldn’t teach her anything more, she cried.” Azarenka still keeps in touch with Rzhanih

“In Belarusian culture,” says Victoria Azarenka, “there are three basic rules.

You can’t understand us until you understand our rules. Number one: your family is sacred. Number two: do everything for the children. And the most important rule: respect your elders.”

In spring 2011, after Victoria Azarenka had already slugged her way to a spot on the fringes of the world elite, she lost her passion for tennis. “Training, torturing myself to fight for a tennis ball like I was fighting for my life, I didn’t want it anymore.

I wanted to do something different. I asked my grandmother for advice. She listened to me, nodded, smiled and said, ‘You have to find the thing which makes you happy. And then you have to keep doing that thing even when you’re just not in the mood.” That’s all she said.

I went home, gave it some thought, and the next day I started training again.”

Nine months later, Victoria Azarenka won the Australian Open and reached number one in the world rankings.

Sunday afternoon back in the careworn UFO deep in the Belarusian forest. Inside the small holiday flat Victoria Azarenka sits next to her grandmother on the sofa; on the table in front of them are grapes, white chocolate and Tolstoy’s War and Peace – grandmother’s holiday reading.

War and peace: which one is the real Victoria Azarenka?

“There’s only one. She has two sides. If you want to win you must fight. Don’t show weakness, don’t go soft, don’t be sensitive.

the red bulletin

Above: Azarenka with grandmother Nina.

When Azarenka considered ending her career in 2011, she took her grandmother’s advice – and became number one

Otherwise your opponent will use it to her advantage. During a match I’m a warrior.”

How does one switch between war and peace?

“It’s natural, like the lioness who goes out and fights. She will kill if she has to, but to her offspring she is the most loving mother imaginable. That’s life.”

It’s Sunday afternoon and Victoria Azarenka is eating grapes and stroking her grandmother’s hand. As soon as her ankle will support her, she’ll go back out, scream to the threshold of pain with every stroke, and run down the tennis ball as if it were a matter of life and death.

Join Victoria Azarenka as she tours her hometown of Minsk in the Red Bulletin tablet edition. the red bulletin

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Over the Tre Cime massif in the Sexten Dolomites, Red Bull X-Alps 2011

peak

Photography: felix woelk/red bull content pool

condition The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s toughest two-discipline race starts in Salzburg and finishes in Monte Carlo, with Germany, italy Switzerland and france en route. On foot and in flight, hiking and paragliding across the Alps, in a punishing adventure event that breaks conventional sporting limits. This is Red Bull X-Alps words: Arek Piatek

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“My strategy?

Lots of flying, maximum running and enjoying the torture” MAx mittmann Team Ger 3

Photography: oliver laugero (2), chris hoerner/red bull content pool, vitek ludvik/red bull content pool

In Red Bull X-Alps, athletes choose to run or paraglide across five countries.

Clockwise from top left: Thomas de Dorlodot of Belgium takes off from Tre Cime; Chamonix, at the foot of Mont Blanc, on the 2013 race route; two-time race winner Chrigel Maurer en route to his next take-off; Portugalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nuno Virgilio on Dachstein mountain

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Alpine endurance What you must be made of to tackle Red Bull X-Alps To assess the severity of a challenge, look at the skills of those who would attempt it. Rifling through the CVs of the 32 athletes taking part in Red Bull X-Alps, you quickly appreciate the unique demands of the race.

Take Antoine Girard. He is one of France’s leading paraglider pilots, as well as a top long-distance runner and a veteran of several mountaineering expeditions to the Himalayas.

Then there’s Austrian test pilot Mike Küng. In 2004, he was the first person to paraglide at an altitude of 10,000m. His record remains unbroken. Küng regularly takes part in mountain runs and climbs, averaging about 6,000m vertically each week.

ger

Start

Salzburg Gaisberg Zugspitze 424m

Fr

1,287m

2,962m

Aut

Dachstein Interlaken 568m

Mont Blanc 4,810m

ch

Matterhorn 4,478m

Wildkogel

2,995m

2,224m

Ortler 1,906m

St Hilaire 995m

finish Monaco

Peille 600m

It

0m

On July 7, 2013, 32 athletes from 21 countries will tackle the Salzburg-Monaco route via 10 turning points. Distance: 1,031km as the crow flies. Those who make it to the finish have generally covered around double that distance. Red Bull X-Alps champion Chrigel Maurer: “The route doesn’t go along the valleys but across them. It’s as if someone had deliberately chosen the most difficult method of crossing the Alps.”

Switzerland’s Christian ‘Chrigel’ Maurer, the reigning double Red Bull X-Alps champion of 2009 and 2011, is an exception among paraglider pilots. He holds two world records as well as the European record, of 323km, for the longest paraglide.

These men will need everything in their power just to complete Red Bull X-Alps. The race is brutal, and brutally simple: get from Salzburg to Monaco in the shortest time possible. The distance as the crow flies is 1,031km, mainly across the Alps (see map). By either hiking, running or paragliding – individual tactics will determine what happens when – the athletes will cover an actual distance closer to 1,800km.

There are no rest days during the race, which has a cut-off point of 14 days. No external assistance is allowed, apart from a support team of one or two supplying food, words of comfort and a temporary sleeping place at night. The athletes can compete between 5am and 10.30pm, with one all-night pass, for the first time, in the 2013 race.

Red Bull X-Alps is an expedition to the limits of physical and mental endurance. The race is only run every two years to give athletes the chance to prepare fully. In 2011, only two of the 30 contestants reached the finish line. A typical day can consist of a march of 100km, a glacier trek and paraglider flights at altitudes of 4,000m. The toll exerted by fluctuating pressure and temperature, capricious weather conditions and physical strain, leads to pain, exhaustion and accidents. In 2011, Mike Küng withdrew due to pneumonia, Vincent Sprüngli of France was forced to retire after drowsily brushing a cable-car cable with his paraglider. Meanwhile, five other athletes succumbed because they were too slow, as Red Bull X-Alps rules state that every 48 hours, the competitor in last place is automatically disqualified.

Follow the race in real time: www.redbullxalps.com

Photography: oliver laugero, vitek ludvik/red bull content pool, felix woelk/red bull content pool

the new grand tour

“Paragliding is always a risk. You can’t just get off when you run into a problem” Chrigel Maurer Team Sui1

The goal: Monaco on the Mediterranean coast. The race finishes 48 hours after the first athlete has crossed the line

Christian Maurer The two-time Red Bull X-Alps champion on mental tricks, rugged routes and the dangers of fatigue

Christian ‘Chrigel’ Maurer is a genius in the air and is the dominant force in Red Bull X-Alps, which has been held biannually since 2003. When he won in 2009 and 2011, he flew 70 per cent of the route – a higher percentage than any other competitor.

Photography: felix woelk/red bull content pool (2), hugo silva/red bull content pool, oliver laugero/red bull content pool

× Extreme flying

“In principle, the race is simple: you go uphill on foot, downhill by paraglider, following the most rugged route. The flying is incredibly difficult, with tricky take-off points, often poor weather and constantly unfamiliar terrain.”

Zermatt from the athletes’ perspective.

Below: Chrigel Maurer celebrates a successful title defence in a time of 11 days, four hours and 52 minutes

× The science of training

“In the 2011 race, I ran almost 500km. To prepare for 2013, I calculated the optimal stride length, heart rate and calorie consumption that will deliver peak performance.”

× danger zone

“The greatest risk factor is fatigue. If a glider wing collapses and you’re plunging towards Earth, you have to react fast otherwise it’s pretty hairy.”

× calorie-burner

“In this race you’re running or flying for about 16 hours a day. My daily energy requirement is 10,000 calories, in the form of pasta, power bars and carbohydrate powder.”

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Why boxing is a big hit in sailor James Spithill’s fitness regime Training, page 93

Where to go and what to do

ac t i o n !

T r a v e l / G e a r / T r a i n i n g / N i g h t l i f e / M U S I C / p a r t i e s / c i t i e s / c l u b s / E v e n ts

MIGs over Moscow Forget city centre copter trips: a ride in a mig-29 is the best tourist flight on earth – and almost in space

photography: Incredible Adventures, shutterstock

Travel, over the page

MIG deal: the ride of your life

the red bulletin

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Action!

travel

And anoth er thing Antaspeliae molorib eaquias reped que vita dolo volum et facitatiis mo intiiss imendi occusaesti cum Make the most ipicidi tiumquiat

Space invader: the supersonic Russian MiG-29 is the preferred fighter jet of 26 military forces worldwide

of Moscow

The adrenalin comedown Quell post-flight aches at Moscow’s opulent bathhouse, the Sandunovsky Banya. Have a sauna, steam, then plunge into ice water. www.sanduny.ru

Mach in the USSR ride a MiG-29 it comes with a memorable price tag, but it will take you as close to space as possible without using a rocket

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For a true taste of the USSR, eat classic Soviet-era dishes in surroundings that hark back to Stalinist Russia at this popular retro-kitsch venue. www.club-petrovich.ru

Advice from the inside Crunch time

“Core strength is important,” says Cusma. “Your abs will tense up tight for about an hour under extreme pressure, so diaphragm work in a yoga class or core work beforehand will be an advantage.”

Tough customer

The Russian staple No visit to Moscow would be complete without sampling the local vodka.

An apt post-flight venue is the beautiful Stariki Bar, a former observatory. www.starikibar.ru

With hundreds of online resellers offering Russian MiG-29 flights, it can be a consumer minefield.

While many sell on another company’s behalf and up the price, US company Incredible Adventures and Swiss MiGFlug are two companies that deal directly with the Sokol airbase in Russia. www.incredible-adventures.com www.migflug.com

the red bulletin

words: ruth morgan. photography: Giel Sweertvaegher, Incredible Adventures, shutterstock (2)

It doesn’t get much more intense than a ride in a MiG-29 fighter jet. It’s a beautiful brute that climbs at 20,000m per minute, breaking the sound barrier and then some, imparting up to 9Gs during aerobatic manoeuvres and leaving the atmosphere to reveal the earth’s curvature. In its Russian homeland, civilians can take the lead in a dual-control plane for part of an hour-long flight with one of the country’s best test pilots.

In 1993 a US company struck a deal with a Russian airbase to sell the flights. Since then, business has been brisk, with would-be pilots queuing to fulfil their fighter-jet fantasy. cost “There’s nothing else like Around US$21,000 it,” says American Wall Street for a subsonic flight employee Paul Cusma, who flew with aerobatics. with Incredible Adventures. “I Around US$26,000 felt like I was in a movie, it was for supersonic flight incredibly intense. It’s like the to the edge of space feeling of free fall you get from plus aerobatics. a skydive, but for an hour. When Availability we broke the sound barrier Various dates I couldn’t hear the sonic boom. available, must be You don’t feel it, because the jet’s booked around six months in advance. so fast – it’s like a knife through butter. When I landed I was Location exhausted and drenched in sweat, Sokol airbase, but the first thing I thought was, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia ‘I want to do that again!’”

The Soviet throwback

Action!

get the gear

Tough stuff Alp-conquering essentials Striking “Driving pegs and pitons into the rock face? The other side of the pick makes it easy.”

Bite “The sharp end, for ramming into steep ice passages. The teeth ensure a firm grip that means the pick can take the weight of a climber plus kit.”

Christian ‘Chrigel’ Maurer: reigning Red Bull X-Alps champion

X-bionic underwear Leverage “The curve of the aluminium shaft makes climbing in steep terrain easier.”

Pick of the bunch

Photography: Hugo Silva/Red Bull Content Pool, kurt keinrath (2), GLOBALFINDER, GLORYFY, X-BIONIC ENERGY

Red Bull X-Alps To win the hardest adventure race of them all, Switzerland’s Chrigel Maurer needs kit that will keep him alive An average day during the fortnight or so of Red Bull X-Alps (see feature earlier in this issue) is 17 hours of speed hiking, climbing glaciers and paragliding across the mountains, in snow, wind, rain and sun. It’s a gruelling endurance test, not just for the competitors, but their kit as well. “I carry about 10kg of equipment when I race,” says 2009 and 2011 Red Bull X-Alps champion Christian Maurer, “so my gear has to be robust, highly reliable and above all, light.” The Swiss athlete picks apart his Alpine racing tool kit.

Handy substitute “For gentler gradients, the pick functions as a hiking stick. The steel tip at the bottom helps to get purchase in hard snow.”

“Breathable material that ensures constant body temperature, whether I’m flying in cold weather, hiking in the rain or running in the hot sun.” www.x-bionic.com

BLACK DIAMOND VENOM ice pick

“The whole thing weighs just 500g, including the detachable blade. This model has fewer teeth than other picks, which makes it more useful on flat, firm climbing routes.”

Pieps globalfinder “A pocket-sized life-saver. This communications tool helps me determine my position, sends and receives text messages, and provides weather data.” www.pieps.com

Comfort zone “Double-rubber handle, which means two layers of material to absorb impact, and therefore this goes easy on the arm.”

Gloryfy sunglasses “For protection from the sun, or better vision in foggy weather. I have three pairs of these unbreakable sunglasses.” www.gloryfy.com

the red bulletin

91

Action!

party

Let the sunshine in: party in the open air at Aquarius

C HEERS !

RAKIA, a croatian national tipple like the plum brandy slivovitz, has many forms.

Here are two

THE SAVIOUR travarica A herb-infused grappa-like drink known as ‘The Doctor’ because of its alleged healing properties. It does contain rosemary, which some people say can help liver function. Equally ironic for fruity firewater, this one is said to increase male potency.

Do the Balkan! pag, croatia Only four paces FROM THE SEA TO THE DANCE FLOOR? WELCOME TO EUROPE’S HOTTEST PARTY BEACH

shore thing pag’s seafront hits

Papaya Zrce Beach’s largest and oldest club celebrates its 11th anniversary this year. www.papaya.com.hr

Aquarius A restaurant, two pools and two dancefloors under one roof – but it’s open-air. www.aquarius.hr

Noa The beach club that isn’t a club on the beach: it’s built over the sea on a pier.

the destroyer medica Light and sweet on the tongue, but with a fierce afterkick: that’s why they call this honey liqueur a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. Heed the locals’ warning: when you feel medica start to take effect, it’s already too late...

www.noa-beach.com

festival

sk y fall If you look out from Pag and see these clouds above the mountains, a storm’s a-brewin’: the notorious ‘Bora’.

Hideout July 3-5 Over 100 DJs mixing up house and techno over three days. Do everything you can to get tickets for the sought-after boat parties; friendliness to club staff is a wise opening gambit. www.hideoutfestival.com

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the red bulletin

Words: Florian obkircher. Photography: Goran Telak, goran persin (2), mario pavlovic

In July and August, the biggest house and trance DJs in the world can be found playing the open-air clubs on an island in the Adriatic Sea. The glorious, pebbly stretch of Zrce Beach is a beautiful spot in Croatia – a country not short of beautiful spots – and a fastrising must-visit for sun-seeking partygoers. Not as oversubscribed as Ibiza or the other Euro seaside rave zones, Pag has a full-on all-night vibe that feels superclub without being supersized.

Action!

training

Spithill’s training schedule isn’t plain sailing: he needs stamina and strength

“ We push… it’s like driving a racing car”

Water workout: sailing four times a week is a vital part of the programme

photography: Olaf Pignataro/Red Bull Content Pool, cameron Baird/red Bull Content Pool, shutterstock. illustration: heri irawan

sailing yachtsman James Spithill, 33, knows the blood, sweat and tears it takes to win on water The America’s Cup has been likened to Formula One on water, the ultimate high-speed test of design, tactics and physical stamina. Australian Spithill, who became the youngest-ever winner of the competition with his Oracle Racing Team USA in 2010, trains constantly to keep up.

“The way we push these boats, it’s like driving a racing car,” he says. “It’s a different game these days. The athletic side of it is paramount. We train on the water for a few hours at least four days a week, constantly consuming energy bars and drinks to replace what it takes out of us. We spend a lot of time in the gym for weight training, core exercise, and doing CrossFit Workouts – a daily high-intensity circuit – with a trainer. He calls it ‘The Finisher’, and he’s not joking.”

box clever

d o t r y t h i s at h o m e “In sailing, hand speed, co-ordination and grip are everyday essentials, so I make sure I do burpee pull-ups as part of my routine. They improve all of these things and are great for overall fitness.”

1

2

Then start with a burpee, or squat thrust as it’s also known.

You will need a horizontal chin-up bar. Take a few deep breaths before starting.

4

3

5

Make sure your core is tight and engaged in the press-up position, to keep your shape strong.

6

exercise that packs a punch

Getting in the ring keeps Spithill fighting fit “I’ve been boxing ever since I was a kid,” says Spithill. “I love the competitive element to it, but it’s also some of the best training you can do. It’s a great full-body cardiovascular workout, and improves your co-ordination a lot. It also boosts your reaction times, which is vital when you’re sailing boats like ours.”

the red bulletin

Use power from your hips to spring up to your feet, to give you the momentum you need.

Smoothly go straight into the pull-up, with your hands shoulder-width apart.

Make sure that your chin goes above the bar each time – repeat until failure.

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Action!

my city

Helen Suzman Blvd

THREE ANCHOR BAY

TRY TH IS

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great ways to get your kicks de waterkant

sea point

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Capetown, South Africa

High Level Rd

Signal Hill Rd

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The Company Gardens

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th e w a l k my favourite places to go

Home town boy: Haezer loves coming back to Cape Town

“This is my hood” cape town BETWEEN THE AUSTRALIAN and EUROPEAN LEGS OF HIS 2013 TOUR, SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTRO DJ and PRODUCER haezer takes time to recommend SOME OF his home town’s OUTSTANDING SPOTS Sitting on the balcony of his studio apartment, nine floors above Cape Town’s city centre, Haezer looks a little shattered. It’s what a 30-hour journey from Australia to South Africa can do to you, especially when a large part of it was a middle-seat long-haul flight, sandwiched between two meaty gents. Back in the sanctuary of the Mother City before embarking on a gruelling two-month European tour, the man known as Ebenhaezer Smal talks proudly of his favourite city hang-outs. “There’s no better city to come home to and it’s a beautiful, chilled-out African city to visit. If you’re heading here, you should definitely take in these places.”

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your way up Lion’s Head (below).

It’s not a heavy walk up, there will be plenty of people so it’s safe and the atmosphere and view are fantastic once you get to the top.”

1 Aces & Spades

62 Hout Street “A great bar across the road from my apartment. My two favourite artists are Nick Cave and Tom Waits and the owner of Aces & Spades (above) is a big Tom Waits fan. He even looks a bit like him.”

4 Fiction

227 Long Street “If you’re keen to hit the clubs, the best thing to do is check local blogs for upcoming shows.

But there’s always a party at Fiction (below), a legendary venue. It has an intimate vibe and a big balcony to hang out with mates.”

2 Bombay Bicycle Club

156 Kloof Street “This is a fantastical little restaurant (above) in Kloof Street.

It has a theatrical atmosphere with beautifully eclectic décor.

Pretty much everything on their menu is super-tasty.”

3 Lion’s Head

next to Table Mountain “If you happen to be here on a full moon, make sure to make

5 The Roundhouse

Roundhouse Road, The Glen, Camps Bay “The perfect restaurant in which to indulge in a five-course meal paired with great South African wines, with a beautiful view of Camps Bay.”

as much time to do it as he used to, but Haezer is a passionate skater.

With no skateparks in Cape Town, a little street style is your only option.

The big parking lot at Salesians on Somerset Road in Green Point is a great spot. They have street-style ramps, transitions and platforms for kick-flips, ollies and grinds. Best of all, it’s free to use.

Urban downhill challenge It’s a route used by the annual Urban Assault downhill, but if you’re looking for mountain bike thrills, you can find them here any day of the week. It starts from the tar road on Signal Hill, descends down a jeep track, some walking paths, down some steps and side roads before bottoming out on Buitengracht Road.

with no skateparks, skaters must take to the streets

the red bulletin

photography: haezer

hL ev el

Rd

Cape town, South Africa

Action!

music

1 Branko, DJ and mastermind of Buraka Som Sistema

Around the world in 80 beats playlist Angolan house, Afro-london vocals, TECHNO FROM VENEZUELA: one musicmaker has the broadest range of influences on earth

Words: Florian Obkircher. Photography: Nian Canard

João Barbosa, alias Branko, is the Vasco da Gama of the DJ scene.

He travels the world with his record box, sniffing out musical subcultures, which he then imports into the clubs and his own material. He gave the African house genre kuduro truly global exposure, thanks to the success of his electro band Buraka Som Sistema, with whom he received an MTV Europe Music Award in 2008. Here, the 31-year-old from Portugal reveals the fruits of his recent cross-planet adventures.

let th e ryth m m ove yo u

no Ticket?

Tuki Love

Pocz & Pacheko

“I recently went to Venezuela to find out more about a music movement called tuki, which all the kids there are into. It sounds like tropical techno-hardcore – electronic and fast. It began years ago when two local DJs attempted to copy Technotronic’s classic track Pump Up The Jam, and instead they accidentally invented this new genre.”

2 Afro House DJ Havaiana

“In South Africa right now it’s all about deep house from artists like Black Coffee, but further north in Angola, young producers imitate the style with versions that sound a lot rougher, more intricate. This is my favourite track, because it’s got the best lead synth in the world and it shares its name with the genre: afro house.”

3 Waves

Branko feat. Roses Gabor

“This track is on my new mixtape, Drums Slums And Hums, which you can download from my website [www.enchufada.com/ branko]. Most people hear my music in clubs, but with my mixtapes, I want to do songs which would also work in headphones. This one also introduces one of London’s most talented singers, Roses Gabor.”

4 Zouk Flute

Buraka Som Sistema

“Zouk is a style of music from the Antilles that turned up in Europe in the ’80s, but is now all but forgotten in the current underground club scene. The rhythmic patterns are very interesting, the dragging tempo is so hypnotic. With Buraka Som Sistema, we’re doing a new take on zouk and beefing it up with bass-heavy sounds.”

a new way to feel the music

Subpac

Feel the bass without incurring the wrath of your neighbours (and your ear doctor). This vibrating chair pad thumps and throbs to music and video games. www.thesubpac.com

the red bulletin

5 The Blow Yadi

“Yadi is one of the best vocalists in music right now – she’s going to be huge. On the one hand, she’s a young Londoner whose sounds very pop, but on the other she gathers all these weird instruments and influences from Algeria, where her father is from. We’re currently working on a song with her, which is very exciting.”

if YOUR FAVOURITE FESTIVAL IS SOLD OUT, tHERE ARE solutions TO the no-entry PROBLEM

the Oldschoolup’n’over

A festival fence isn’t an impregnable fortress*.

Get a ladder (or a shovel) and sneak your way into the site at night. *It might be.

The I’m-s0desparatei’ll-do-it

Find a camp site with festivalgoers, pick up the loose ends of their wristbands and fashion them together to make a ‘new’ one.

The thisactuallymight-work

Sign up as a festival volunteer.

Then, when your favourite band comes on, just go for a long toilet break. No manager can argue when you say the loo queue was two hours long: you’re at a festival!

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Action!

save the date

don’t miss ink these dates in your diary

14 june Green screen Oscar-nominated documentary If A Tree Falls receives its NZ premiere at the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival in Palmerston North this month. The festival runs until June 22. www.reel earth.org.nz

22 june ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett’s late charge for the D1NZ National Drifting Championship goes down to the wire at the Grand Final weekend in Taupo. Whiddett is in striking distance of leader, ‘Fanga Dan’ Woolhouse. www.d1nz.com

JUNE 11-16

Viva la Revolución

Inspired by the music of artists like Beyoncé, Shakira and Prince, Ballet Revolución combines ballet and street dance with hip-hop and pop rhythms from Latin America to deliver a “ballet with attitude”. The 19-strong troupe of dancers from Cuba is backed by an eight-piece band of Cuban musicians and British singers. The show makes its New Zealand debut with a six-night run at the ASB Theatre at the Aotea Centre in Auckland. www.balletrevolucion.com JUNE 8 JUNE 22

Get rhythm

JUNE 25

Rap royalty American rapper/producer A$AP Rocky makes his live NZ debut, playing the Logan Campbell Centre in Auckland with his A$AP Mob. www.asapmob.com

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The best B-Boys from around the country will do battle in Auckland at the Red Bull BC One Cypher regional qualifying event, with a trip to Tokyo for the Asia Pacific Qualifier in October up for grabs. The 2011 world champion Roxrite (right) is one of the judges. www.redbull.co.nz

Snap happy ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ (above) was the title of the winning image in last year’s Auckland Photo Day and it’s good advice for those entering this year’s competition. From midnight to midnight, amateur and pro photographers are invited to make an image that reflects their Auckland. It’s all part of the Auckland Festival of Photography, which runs until June 21. www.photographyfestival.org.nz

4 july TV thrills Red Bull Chronicles, the show that gives you ringside seats to the best action sports events and athletes from around the world, returns to Sky TV for a fourth season. www.redbull. co.nz/chronicles

the red bulletin

words: Robert tighes. photography: getty images, Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool, Lee Copas

Drift decider

Ballet Revolución comes to NZ for the first time

/redbulletin

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O BEYOND THE

RDINARY

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Photography: Time & life Pictures/Getty Images

Time warp

Down to the wire

Under his own name, Samuel J Dixon worked as a photographer in Toronto.

In his spare time, he stepped in front of the lens as Daring Dixon, seen here crossing the Niagara River on September 6, 1890. The 38-year-old took 12 minutes to walk a cable about 280m long and 2cm wide, in front of a 5,000-strong crowd. His stunt made the papers as far away as Australia.

the next issue of the Red bulletin is out on July 2 98

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