Hey everyone, I'm Chris Hall and this is the downtime podcast where we're going to be taking

you deeper than ever into the gravity-based side of mountain biking. Before we get stuck into this

week's episode, just a quick thank you to our support and partner IXS who also have a giveaway for

you. IXS have long made awesome mountain bike clothing and protection, but they also do some really

important work for the sport that we all love. If you follow downhill racing, you'll no doubt

have heard of the IXS downhill cup. Running for over 20 years, the IXS Cup has provided quality

racing for thousands of riders and a crucial stepping stone to World Cup level competition.

You only need to look at the list of athletes that have cut their teeth at the IXS to know how important it's been, with riders like Valley Hole and Jackson Goldstone amongst the list. The IXS Downhill Cup has also provided much needed European racing experience for many races from further afield, helping to propel them into competing at the very highest level. So it's awesome that brands like IXSS are supporting downhill racing in such a major way, enabling up-and-coming talent to find their feet and get ready to race at World Cup level. If you want to find out more or have a go yourself, you can head to IXSdownhillCup.com, and you can see their clothing and protection range at IexS.com for slash MTB. The good news for you is that we have a full head-to-toe set of I-XS kit to give away. One lucky winner will win themselves, a trigger-evo jersey and pants, a downhill helmet, carve gloves, trigger goggles and carve race knee pads. All you need to do is to comment on my Instagram post from Monday the 12th of June and name one world-class rider who kickstarted their racing career at the IXSDH Cup. You've got until Friday the 23rd of June to enter, so head over to Instagram and look for at downtime podcast. If you find the podcast provides you with some value, maybe you've learned something that's helped you riding or your fitness fitness, maybe it's got you stoke to go riding or come back from an injury,

or maybe it's just a little something to pass the time when you can't be riding your bike, then it would be amazing if you're able to do a little something in return to help the podcast continue and to improve by setting up a small regular donation via my Patreon over at patreon.com 4 slash downtime podcast.

That's Patreon spelt P-A-T-R-E-O-N.

Big thank you to Nicholas Coun. over at patreon.com for slash downtime podcast. That's Patreon spelled P-A-T-R-E-O-N.

Big thank you to Nicholas Council. We join that lovely list of patrons this week. Also, if you want

to represent the podcast, then there's downtime t-shirt, sweatshirts and hoodies available over at

downtimepodcast.com for slash shop. If you want a bit more downtime in your life, you can join my

newsletter where I'll provide you with a bit of behind the scenes info on the podcast, interesting bits and pieces from around the mountain bike world, some many reviews of products I've been using and like and partner offers and more. You can do that over at downtimepodcast.com for slash newsletter. Otherwise, don't forget to follow the podcast, make sure you never miss an episode.

You can do that by hitting the follow button in your podcast app now or there's buttons for

all the major platforms over at downtimepodcast.com for slash follow. All the links for all of that

are in the show notes for this episode on downtimepodcast.com. All right, Tom Walker came to my attention

when 50 to 1 posted a video about his Pemberton

train gap crash back in 2020.

For anyone who's seen this gap in videos or photos or in person, he'll know it's not

something you want to fall off of, which is exactly what Tom did.

...