On October 5, the 2014 China Changxing Downhill Mountain Bike International Invitational Tournament was held at the Chengshangou Downhill Mountain Bike Cultural Theme Park in Heping Town, Changxing County, Zhejiang Province. Seventy-eight athletes from France, Switzerland, Italy, China, and the Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan regions participated. The most thrilling and exciting segment of the competition — the Red Bull Jump Challenge — also crowned its champion that day. Jiang Sihan, a rider from the XDS Little Bear Bicycle Team of Chinese Taipei, secured the Red Bull "Jump" trophy with high scores from the judges in the third round by performing a high-difficulty move of taking both feet off the bike. He also won a 5,000-yuan individual prize.
Shao Yikai, an elite group rider and course designer from Chinese Taipei, said that the design of this downhill mountain bike race track referred to UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) standards in terms of elements such as berms, dirt jumps, and elevation drops. According to the introduction, the downhill mountain bike race track is approximately 2.1 kilometers long with an elevation drop of about 260 meters. It includes sections such as jungle downhill drop platforms, continuous S-curves, undulating terrain, jump platforms, and double S-curves. Riders must navigate through forests, tea plantations, high platforms, wooden bridges, bamboo groves, and staircases while avoiding obstacles like tree branches and rock clusters to reach the finish line as quickly as possible.
Jiang Shengshan, the elite group champion who is 20 years old this year, has about five or six years of downhill mountain biking experience. He said that the most challenging part of the course is the forested section near the elite group starting point. "The difficulty is tricky — the gaps between trees in the woods are very narrow, and in some places, the handlebars of the bike can barely squeeze through, so riders need to control their braking and speed well. Going too slow won’t build enough momentum, but going too fast can easily lead to a fall if you scrape something."
The most attractive event for riders and spectators at this international invitational tournament was the Red Bull Jump Extreme Downhill Performance Competition. In this event, riders leap from a 3.5-meter-high platform and perform aerial stunts, commonly known in the industry as "flying the bag." Shao Yikai, one of the designers of this competition’s course, explained that the difficulty of the event depends not only on the distance of the jump but also on the height, meaning how many meters the drop is. The Red Bull Jump performance platform is 3.5 meters high, with a horizontal gap of about 4 meters between the platform and the wooden ramp in front. Riders leap through roughly 8 meters of air from takeoff to landing. "This might currently be the farthest and highest in all of China, embodying the spirit of extreme downhill riding. At this height, even just jumping down would scare some people — let alone speeding down on a bike and performing stunts in mid-air," Shao Yikai said. Riders standing on this high platform can't even see where they’ll land, giving them a feeling of flying into the air. "The scary part is overcoming the psychological challenge. Actually, the landing slope and braking distance we’ve prepared below are more than sufficient."
Zhao Hang, the commentator at the Jump competition site, was also once a cyclist and has over a decade of experience as a cycling race judge. Zhao Hang believes that besides the difficulty posed by the height and span of the Jump track, the biggest challenge is that the platform is not straight — riders need to make a slight turn after takeoff to land on a diagonal curve. This tests whether riders can choose their trajectory in mid-air and achieve balance upon landing. Moreover, after landing and exiting the curve, there’s very little acceleration distance on the wooden ramp, and the wooden surface is loosely laid, making it easy for riders’ hips to slide off the saddle and lose control.
Considering the difficulty and danger of the competition, the organizers had intense debates over the judging criteria before the event. To ensure rider safety, only the top 10 from the elite group and the top 2 from the public group were allowed to register, and they could still choose to opt out. Many other riders, although eager to try, were persuaded to withdraw. In the end, five outstanding riders from the elite group of the international downhill invitational decided to take on the challenge. They were Jiang Shengshan, Jiang Sihan, and Fan Zhizong from Chinese Taipei, and Xue Weihao and Jiang Siyuan from China. The Jump performance judges consisted of five representatives, including officials, Red Bull China, and public judges. Each rider was allowed up to two practice jumps, with the third counting toward their score. The highest possible score was 5 points — a stable landing earned 3 points, with an additional 0.5 points for each impressive stunt. Riders could also choose to use any one of their jumps as their final scored attempt.
"For safety reasons, we don’t encourage riders to attempt risky moves — landing safely is the priority," Shao Yikai said. "But we can’t stop those passionate downhill riders. Some aerial stunts may appear during the competition, such as leveling the bike horizontally, tail whips, or handlebar tucks — some big moves."
Even before the competition began, several riders preparing to take on the challenge were already at the edge of the platform, measuring the distance with their hands and mentally calculating their flight paths and possible mid-air maneuvers. The nearby earthen slopes and vegetable fields were packed with riders and local villagers eager to witness the extreme leaps. Even before the event started, the atmosphere was already electric.
At the pre-competition athlete briefing, judges repeatedly emphasized that the most important aspect of this event was safety — only stable landings would earn scores. But nothing could dampen the downhill riders’ passion for self-challenge. In the first round of practice jumps, all five riders began showcasing high-difficulty stunts.
In the first round of practice jumps, Fan Zhizong from Chinese Taipei was the first to go. He pedaled, launched off the platform, took off, and performed a one-handed stunt in mid-air, drawing applause from the crowd. As a sport that requires excellent balance, riders usually keep both hands on the handlebars when airborne for maximum stability. Releasing one hand suddenly risks losing balance instantly — that’s the crux of this stunt. By pulling off a one-handed move on his first jump, Fan not only set the tone for pushing the limits of the entire competition but also put pressure on the riders who followed.
Indeed, Jiang Sihan from the XDS Little Bear Bicycle Team went next. He pedaled, launched, and flew, then leveled the bike horizontally in mid-air. Jiang’s graceful and smooth execution of this stylish maneuver ended with a stable landing. Next up was Jiang Siyuan, known by many cyclists as the "Hangzhou Cycling God." During the elite downhill race, he had skillfully pulled his bike back on track after nearly going off-course through S-curves in a bamboo and tea plantation. However, his first practice jump was relatively conservative — he took off with the bike, holding the handlebars high. Although the move had a lower difficulty level and smaller body movement, considering it wasn’t a straight slope jump but involved a curve, it still demonstrated the rider’s control over the bike.
The fourth to jump was 18-year-old Xue Weihao, who had already won several championships this year. His signature look included a small elephant on his helmet. In his first practice jump, he performed a tail whip — swinging the rear of the bike to one side using his waist. This was the first tail whip of the competition.
Finally, Jiang Shengshan from the Giant Bicycle Team, who had already won the elite downhill championship, appeared relaxed. He executed a smooth horizontal flight in mid-air and landed perfectly into the front curve. Amid the gasps of the spectators on the hillside, all five riders landed stably after their first jumps.
The second round of jumps then began. Fan Zhizong once again led off with the one-handed stunt. Compared to the first round, his second attempt was bolder. At the peak of his jump, he fully relaxed his left arm, pressing it vertically against his left leg, and guided the bike along a parabolic arc into the front ramp — the move was completed cleanly and effortlessly.
Jiang Sihan, who followed him, seemed determined to compete. Performing the same one-handed stunt, Jiang kept his arm level with his shoulder, fingers pointing to the sky, and coolly executed a variation of the same type of stunt with a different style — smooth and relaxed.
Jiang Shengshan jumped third, leaning forward and lowering his body to tilt the bike more horizontally than in his first attempt. This time, he chose to count this move as his official score.
Xue Weihao was fourth again. With experience from his first jump, his second tail whip was much wider, using his waist strength to trace a beautiful arc before landing steadily.
As the first four riders showed clear improvement, luck didn’t favor Jiang Siyuan. Perhaps because he doesn’t usually practice stunt moves as a downhill rider, Jiang made a mistake on his second takeoff attempt — he failed to lift the handlebars, and landed close to the edge of the wooden ramp, causing the audience to gasp. Fortunately, it ended without incident.
Except for Jiang Sihan and Fan Zhizong, the other riders used their second-round scores as their final results. Thanks to superior leap height and action stability, Jiang Shengshan temporarily led the standings after the first two rounds.
The third round of challenges was left to Fan Zhizong and Jiang Sihan. Fan went first. After leaping, he released one hand in mid-air, leaned forward, and attempted to touch the front wheel but missed before landing. This move requires the rider to shift their center of gravity forward and maintain strong control over the bike. Even without touching the wheel, the move’s difficulty level is already very high.
Jiang Sihan followed as the final performer. Just as the commentator said, "We wonder if Jiang Sihan will pull off a new move at the last moment," Jiang took off with the bike, kicked his legs outward mid-air, left the pedals, and gripped the handlebars with both hands alone — executing the high-difficulty "both-feet-off" stunt. Amid cheers from riders and spectators, Jiang Sihan won the Red Bull Jump trophy and 5,000 yuan in cash with this daring move.
After the competition, Jiang Sihan said, "Jiang Shengshan was still leading after the first two rounds. I thought if I didn’t pull off a big move, I might not have a chance to win this award." In fact, it was only the fourth time he’d performed this move, as it’s not used in regular downhill riding. When it came to the final jump, he felt "the atmosphere was right" and decided to "go for it." Regarding this perfect move in the competition, Zhao Hang commented, "We can imagine how hard it is for a bike to fly — then to let go of both feet in mid-air, relying only on your hands for balance. It completely depends on using the upward force of the jump to find that balance point in the air. This shows Jiang Sihan has excellent overall ability. His three jumps tested one-handed stunts, horizontal flight, and both-feet-off techniques, demonstrating his outstanding hand and leg control and balance on the bike."