Annabel Hughes meets a man who's a self-confessed adrenaline junkie.
Imagine hurtling down a mountain on two wheels, negotiating boulders, bends and ravines - and all the time battling to beat the clock. Welcome to the daredevil world of competitive downhill mountainbiking.
It's a young sport which attracts adrenaline junkies from all over the globe.
One competitor, Steve Jones, who lives at The Narth near Monmouth and nowadays writes about and photographs the sport for the aptly-titled Dirt magazine, admits that 'waiting on the starting line isn't a comfortable experience!'. "There's a buzz in discovering how far you can push yourself - finding the very edge of control. Invariably when you're careering through a pile of rocks at 60mph you'll fall off! Over the years I've broken quite a few bones...'
He says the appeal of the sport was 'that bloke thing about going out and getting dirty!' although nowadays it attracts its fair share of women too.
Steve started tearing around on bikes when he was four years old, in the fields and woods near his home in West Wales.
He took up mountain biking in the mid 80s but didn't start competing until he was 30. "I moved back to Wales from London at a point when the sport was really beginning to take off. It was an exciting time and I made a lot of new friends. "To begin with it was all non-competitive stuff around the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley.
But the only way you can tell how good you are is if you take part in competitions. "I wouldn't describe them as 'fun' exactly, but they're a big challenge. "I used to train every day before and after work. In winter you put in the long distance training but as the competition season gets closer you start working on sprints. At least 50 per cent of the training is done on roads."
Along the way Steve's won several titles and competed in events as far afield as the USA, Canada, Italy and Spain. "It's quite a solitary sport in many ways five minutes trying to beat the hill, attempting to get from top to bottom as if someone is chasing you and your life depends on it! "I don't compete so much now but I enjoy riding my bike much more. When I do race, funnily enough, I get better results, probably because I used to over-train."
As deputy editor of Dirt magazine he's in the enviable position of being paid to follow his favourite sport all over the world, without risking life and limb. "There's a lot of pressure on me to get the right pictures but, as a competitor myself, I know the best places on the course for spectacular shots. "Hopefully I'll be in New Zealand for the next World Championships but before that I'm off to Taiwan. "Away from organised competition though, there's a cult of downhill mountainbiking which involves people who like taking things to the very edge. I've seen guys reach speeds of up to 120kph, hurtle down cliffs and jump 100ft through the air!"
In Europe and North America winter ski resorts use downhill mountainbiking as an additional source of income out of season.
There are lots of mountain biking facilities in Wales. Cwmcarn, for example, has a big track and was the venue for a national event in May.
It's a very sociable sport, if not for the faint-hearted. For more information log onto www.dirtmag.co.uk.
With the race season over Steve says he's looking forward to the winter months riding off-road in the mud... Boys will be boys!
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article