Dawid Godziek, the 2024 Slopestyle World Champion, has upped the ante and proved us all correct that you can ride a bike on a moving train.
It’s straight up epic: 10 carriages at a speed of 23 km/h while sending some of the sport’s most electrifying tricks – all captured in a spectacular “freeze frame” effect.
The vision was clear – build the world’s first MTB track on a moving train. Turning this ambitious idea into reality, the Polish rider conquered the challenging course. With a 2.7-meter-wide track, potential wind gusts, and limited reference points, the technical demands were immense, but Godziek’s champion-level skills made the seemingly impossible, possible.
At first, I practised riding on the track while the train was parked. Once I felt confident, we set the train in motion and gradually increased the speed. 23 kilometres per hour was the right moving speed to match my riding speed to create the feeling of riding in one position. That impression of a frozen background is very strange. Navigating this course smoothly was much more challenging than it looked,”
Dawid Godziek.
We are dealing with the principle of Galilean relativity here. When a train moves in one direction at a constant speed, and Dawid riding in the opposite direction maintains a similar speed, a camera positioned on the side keeps the rider in a static frame the entire time. It’s a bit like in old-school computer games where the background scrolls, and the player always stays in the central part of the screen,”
Dawid Myśliwiec, the creator of popular science videos.
The Red Bull Bike Express course was an engineering marvel, built on 10 train cars provided by Grupa Azoty Koltar. It featured 8 jumps, a roller, and a stair drop, all navigated on Godziek’s custom Specialized bike equipped with Continental tyres. Filming took place in Upper Silesia with support from PKP Polish State Railways S.A., marking the first Polish sports project produced in collaboration with Prada Linea Rossa: the champion was equipped with clothes that allowed freedom of movement, bringing together comfort and high-performance function, in an ongoing partnership with Red Bull that supports demanding challenges and the athletes who dare to take them on.