The early hours of July 13 saw Maddison become the first rider in history to take on Tower Bridge on a motorbike. The Australian used the famous London landmark as a take-off and landing ramp as he cleared the gap above the Thames after the iconic bridge had been raised. With an approach speed of approximately 40 mph, Maddison took off from the north side of the bridge, performed a no-handed backflip, and held his landing in front of the south tower of one of the World’s most famous sights.
Maddison joined forces with Red Bull once again to make his UK dream a reality, having already chalked up the world’s longest ever motorbike jump (106.9m), and the highest ever vertical ‘step up’ at the replica Arc de Triomphe in Las Vegas on New Year’s Eve 2008 (25.9m).
Maddison said: “The whole experience was awesome. Since the jumps in Las Vegas I’ve been set on doing something special here in London, so the Red Bull team and I have been secretly scoping out Tower Bridge for months. We had a matter of minutes on the bridge and had to time everything to the second, there were so many factors to get right, but we pulled it off.
People say I’m crazy, but I just want to push the boundaries of my sport and my body to the limit and I love taking on these huge challenges. It was an incredible feeling to fly between the two towers and over the Thames.”
ABOUT ROBBIE MADDISON
Maddison – Motocross (FMX) rider - was born in Kiama, grew South Wales and now lives in the US. He has won numerous contests and seized the Planet-X Summer Games Gold Medal in 2004. This summer he also won the Red Bull X-Fighters event in Canada, competing against the world’s best FMX riders.
In 2007, Maddison broke the world motorcycle jumping record by travelling 98 metres through the air over a football field. The following year, he smashed his own record twice, setting a final distance of 106.9 metres in Melbourne.
On New Year’s Eve 2008, Maddison hit the headlines once again with a gravity-defying leap off a ramp onto a life-size replica of the Arc de Triomphe in glitzy Las Vegas. He ended the stunt by riding off the monument and dropping 12 metres onto a second ramp, before returning to the ground – complete with a badly gashed hand.
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