Éric Barone (born 4 November 1960 in

Oyonnax Oyonnax () is the second most populated commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. Oyonnax lies in a valley of the Jura Mountains in the far north of Ain. It is near the Parc naturel régional du Hau ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) is a French cyclist. He holds the world downhill speed record for bicycle, on both snow and gravel. On snow, his downhill speed record is achieved on 18 March 2017, on the speed snow track at Vars, France while on gravel his downhill speed record is , achieved at the Cerro Negro volcano, in

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

. His French nickname is "Baron Rouge", which means Red Baron.

Early career highlights

After some initial jobs, including acting as

stunt double In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes for another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt ...

of actors

Sylvester Stallone Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone (; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. In a Sylvester Stallone filmography, film career spanning more than fifty years, Stallone has received List of awards and nominations received by Syl ...

Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian martial artist and actor. Born and raised in Brussels, his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate schoo ...

and

Adrian Paul Adrian Paul Hewett (born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, martial artist and director best known for the title role of Duncan MacLeod on the television series '' Highlander: The Series''. In 1997, he founded the Peace Fund charitable organis ...

, at 34 he started trying to achieve speed records on a bicycle. Barone achieved the downhill record on snow in 1994, beating the previous record by Christian Taillefer. He broke the record again in 1999 and on 21 April 2000, when he reached at Les Arcs ski resort,

, using an

aerodynamic Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...

prototype bicycle, helmet and clothing. In 1999 he reached on gravel in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. After that, his goal was to show he could be faster on gravel. He discovered the

Cerro Negro Cerro Negro is an active volcano in the Cordillera de los Maribios mountain range in Nicaragua, about from the village of Malpaisillo. It is a very new volcano, the youngest in Central America, having first appeared in April 1850. It consist ...

volcano in

. Its clean slopes and soft volcanic ash were ideal.

Record setting

In November 2001, he descended that volcano at , beating his previous record achieved in Hawaii. Barone believed he could do more, and decided to try again some time later. On 12 May 2002, he reached on his first attempt, on a serial production bicycle. A few minutes later, he descended again, on a prototype bicycle. He rode , and just after the computers had registered , the bike sharply entered a section of the hill with a lower

gradient In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar-valued differentiable function f of several variables is the vector field (or vector-valued function) \nabla f whose value at a point p gives the direction and the rate of fastest increase. The g ...

, causing the front bicycle fork to break off, and the bicycle and rider to crash hard and tumble down the hill at high speed. The helmet saved his life, but he had several broken ribs and other injuries. Barone said he would never descend again at the

, but announced he was willing to beat again the record on snow in the future. The record using a serial production bicycle on gravel was beaten in 2011, when Markus Stöckl reached on a volcano in Nicaragua.Downhill moutainbiker Markus Stöckl sets new world speed record
/ref> The prototype bicycle record, on gravel, still belongs to Barone. During his career, Barone has descended the slopes of

Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano located on the Japanese island of Honshu, with a summit elevation of . It is the highest mountain in Japan, the second-highest volcano on any Asian island (after Mount Kerinci on the Indonesian island of Sumatra), a ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Mauna Kea Mauna Kea (, ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant Shield volcano, shield volcano on the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the List of U.S. states by elevation, highest point in Hawaii a ...

and Kilauea in

, Etna and

Stromboli Stromboli ( , ; ) is an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily, containing Mount Stromboli, one of the four active volcanoes in Italy. It is one of the seven Aeolian Islands, a volcanic arc north of Sicily, and the mytho ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, the

Nevado de Toluca Nevado de Toluca () is a stratovolcano in central Mexico, located about west of Mexico City near the city of Toluca. It is the fourth highest of Mexico's peaks, after Pico de Orizaba, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. The volcano and the area ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and 20 volcanoes in

.Volcano route website
/ref>

Other work

After his records, Barone has worked attracting tourists who want to discover the Volcano route and other sites in

.Camino Voyage website
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barone, Eric 1960 births Living people Sportspeople from Oyonnax Cyclists from Ain French male cyclists 20th-century French sportsmen

Early career highlights

Record setting

Other work

See also

References