Markus 'Max' Stöckl (born in 1974) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

racing cyclist Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling spo ...

from

Oberndorf in Tirol Oberndorf () is a municipality in Kitzbühel district in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is located in the Leukental valley, on the Kitzbühler Ache stream, halfway between St. Johann in Tirol and Kitzbühel. The municipality consists of a main ...

, mainly occupied with

mountainbike A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling (''mountain biking''). Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in r ...

racing, who is known for establishing the world speed record descending on a serial production mountainbike, both on snow, when he reached 210 km/h in 2007, and on gravel, when he reached 164.95 km/h in 2011 on a 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 ...

, beating a previous record from

Éric Barone Éric Barone (born 4 November 1960 in Oyonnax, France) 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 ...

.Downhill moutainbiker Markus Stöckl sets new world speed record
/ref> In 2017 he set a new world record in the Atacama region of Chile with a speed of 167.6 km/h. He weighs 100 kg, stands 1.90 meters tall and his nickname is Hercules. He is currently director of the MS Racing team.

Biography

Markus started biking in 1992. In 1999 he could not afford an expensive bicycle prototype, so he rode in the series bike class and managed to set a world speed record in that category, descending at 187 km/h at

Les Arcs Les Arcs () is a ski resort located in Savoie, France, in the Tarentaise Valley town of Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Initially created by Robert Blanc and Roger Godino, it is a part of the huge Paradiski system which is under ownership by Compagnie ...

. On September 14, 2007, at the age of 33, Stöckl rode his Intense M6 mountainbike down the ski slope of La Parva,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. The slope is 1.6 kilometers long with a decline of 45 degrees. He reached the speed of 210.4 km/h, 23 km/h faster than his own old record from eight years earlier. The new record was attained on a conventional bicycle with

Shimano , originally and later , is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing company for cycling components, fishing tackle and rowing (sport), rowing equipment, which also produced golf supplies until 2005 and snowboarding gear ...

components, including a Saint crankset and rear

dérailleur Shimano 600 front derailleur (1980) A derailleur () is a variable-ratio bicycle gearing system consisting of a chain, multiple sprockets of different sizes, and a mechanism to move the chain from one sprocket to another. Modern front and rea ...

and the new Deore XT

disc brake A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the #Calipers, calipers to squeeze pairs of #Brake pads, pads against a disc (sometimes called a

rake Rake may refer to: Common meanings * Rake (tool), a horticultural implement, a long-handled tool with tines * Rake (stock character), a man habituated to immoral conduct * Rake (poker), the commission taken by the house when hosting a poker game ...

rotor) to create friction. There are two basic types of brake pad friction mechanisms: abrasive f ...

s with 203mm rotors that gave him the controllability and brake power to stop safely after each attempt. A lot of preparations went into the record attempt, but still some difficulties were met. South America's springtime weather had melted away much of the snow alongside the piste, shrinking it to a narrow strip set up between bare mountain cliffs which made the test runs difficult to carry out. His

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 ...

helmet fogged up while practicing, so Stöckl decided to hold his breath during his 40 seconds lasting record attempt. The top descending speeds have always been obtained on snow. Apart from that, the ashes and gravel of a volcano have been the other surface used. In 2011 Stöckl did break the world speed record descending on gravel, on a serial production bicycle, reaching 164,95 km/h on 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

, beating the previous record of 163 km/h reached by

in 2002. Stöckl has declared that he wishes to break the speed record for prototype bicycles, which is set at 222 km/h on snow, and at 172 km/h on gravel, by

. Beside his activities in high speed mountainbiking Markus Stöckl runs the international operating mountainbike race tea
"MS-RACING"
which he founded together with Lukas Haider in 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stockl, Markus Austrian male cyclists Living people Sportspeople from Kitzbühel Cyclists from Tyrol (federal state) 1974 births

Biography

See also

References