Cornish Mountain biker lands giant leap with flip

A mountain biker from Cornwall has landed a massive jump while completing a mid-air flip.

Tom Isted, 20, from Liskeard, rose to the challenge during an event in South Africa in April.

He completed a 120ft (37m) jump on a mountain bike, and did a full mid-air somersault during Darkfest near Stellenbosch.

He said was was "stoked", adding "it is scary but it is just my job".

Mr Isted started his career as a BMX rider, but later switched to mountain bikes.

He accepts there is a risk to the job, and lists a broken back among his injuries.

"You know you are going to get hurt, but if it wasn't dangerous it wouldn't be fun," he told the BBC's Balls and All podcast.

"The thing people don't see is the last 20 years of me riding a bike. They just see what has just happened and ask 'how do you do that?'.

"But I started on a 1ft jump, and now I am doing 120ft. Its not like you instantly go straight to that. It is built up so it becomes second nature."

The Darkfest event in South Africa brings elite riders together to take on the world's biggest jumps each year.

After Mr Isted successfully, and repeatedly, did flips on the biggest 90ft (27m) jump last year, the organisers built a new one that was 110ft (34m).

"I was the first guy to jump that one so I guinea-pigged that, which is the scariest thing because you don't know what the speed is going to be, you don't know if the lip is going to work. You just go off your judgement of how fast you are going to go and how much you need to pull up etcetera.

"I managed to jump first and flipped it the next day.

"So I did 106ft on the second day, next day I did 107ft, and on the third day I had a really strong tail wind and I managed to go 120ft."

Discussing his future ambitions, he said he was "just going to keep having fun".

Training involves riding five hours a day, five days a week, jumping into a giant airbag "so if I get something wrong I can get rid of the bike and land on a big pillow basically."

He said: "It is quite intense... and I do quite a lot of gym work as well, and cross fit, to keep my body active and not getting stiff because I am getting older.

"It is a young guys' sport".

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