Culture and Society
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In a beautiful blend of physics and human courage, freestyle motocross maestro Tom Pagès has combined motorbike riding with paragliding against the backdrop of the French Alps. The Red Bull athlete recently pulled off the stunt, called ”Ride & Fly”, near the resort of Les Portes du Soleil in Haute-Savoie, southeastern France.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.He began by rolling down a steep grassy hill on a motocross bike before seamlessly gliding over the mountainous terrain with a paraglide. After reaching airborne speeds of nearly 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour, the daredevil skillfully landed back on solid ground and continued to ride his motorbike, smooth as can be.
While Pagès is primarily a motocross rider, known for his inventive tricks and numerous gold medals, the latest stunt came from his dabbling with skydiving and BASE jumping.
Back in 2021, he combined his passions with the stunt “Flight Mode,” in which he charged off a 135-meter (442-foot) cliff in Avoriaz and did several motorbike flips, before releasing the vehicle mid-air and opening his parachute.
Hot off the tail of that project, he started working with fellow Red Bull athlete Valentin Delluc to develop a new stunt in which he could parachute with the motorbike.
The last venture took two and a half years of training, during which Pagès had to unite several different disciplines (all while avoiding any injuries). Now the latest challenge is done and dusted, he’s already thinking about what’s ahead.
“I did four disciplines at the same time to learn the aerology and the finer points of landing. I wanted to know how to do everything, and that really helped me because the landing was very complicated at the start. I don't live in the mountains, so I had to go back and forth a lot [to Morzine-Avoriaz], and sometimes the weather doesn't allow you to fly. It took a lot of time on-site to make a few flights, it wasn't an easy project, and it was very time-consuming,” Pagès said in an interview with Red Bull.
“Up until now, I've really been concentrating on Ride & Fly and doing nothing else. The last thing I wanted to do was break a wrist or something before I could finish it. In general, I always work like that, even when I was doing FMX. I'm very rigorous about not hurting myself. Now that my mind is a bit freer, I'll have to think about what's next,” he added.
