Prototype bike downhill on snow (unpaced)

What to remember

On 18 March 2017, on the snow speed track at Vars, France, Éric Barone was clocked at 227.72 km/h (141.50 mph) on a bicycle, flat out downhill. No vehicle was breaking the wind for him: the record is in the unpaced category.

The bike, however, was a prototype rather than a production model, which puts the run in its own record category. Most marks come under special conditions, and a downhill run is exactly the kind of terrain that favours speed.

Born in Oyonnax, Barone is a French mountain bike racer and film stuntman whose nickname, Baron Rouge, means Red Baron. He also set a downhill record on gravel, at 172 km/h, on the Cerro Negro volcano in Nicaragua.