Richie Rude isn't just the current Enduro World Series champion. He's also one of the fastest, fittest and strongest mountain bikers ever.

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When we heard he was coming over to the UK, we decided to throw down the gauntlet in a series of challenges that included uphill sprinting, downhill racing, a high jump and whip-off, arm wrestling and beer drinking. (We might not have much hope on most of those, but we were pretty confident on the last one at least!)

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You can see how we got on in issue 345 of MBUK, which is on sale now. In the meantime, check out our head cam video of the day, when Staff Writer Ed tried to hang onto Richie's back wheel on a top-to-bottom run down BikePark Wales, including one of the newest additions to its trail network – Surfin' Bird.

Authors

Ed ThomsettContributor

Former Mountain Biking UK features editor Ed Thomsett is a downhiller at heart but has been riding bikes of all types since a young age. He's raced both nationally and internationally in downhill and enduro, and has spent several summers living in the Alps and Canada, riding, roadtripping and living the dirtbag lifestyle. Now Ed calls upon his years of experience riding bikes to the limit as a writer and reviewer for MBUK and BikeRadar. He's also an avid trail builder and has scraped out numerous steep and technical lines in the woodlands of his native North Yorkshire. These days Ed will happily turn his hand to any discipline and believes the sign of a good week is when every bike in his shed ends up muddy by the end of it.

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