Videos: Smoking cyclists, crazy cliff rides & #BackWheelBeer

The cycling video round-up is here to see you through that last working afternoon of the week. We've got some videos to raise the pulse, some videos not to be believed, and some sweet, sweet justice for you today.

Starting in the States we watch a couple of very brave mountain bikers take on the Gold Bar Rim in Utah - a trail that looks stunning, but makes us sweat - even with thousands of miles between us and that drop.

We hop over the the pond for our first of two stops in Italy on today's video round-up. This one takes us to see some smoking cyclists in the fictional film world of Toto al giro d'Italia; an Italian film which follows an intrepid cyclist on his quest to win - or avoid winning - Italy's biggest race.

We've then got the best beer bottle opening we've ever seen, a preview of this year's ill-fated Red Hook bike race in Brooklyn New York, a great little clip of the most hipster firefighter we've ever seen - also in New York - some sweet bike thief justice, a closer look at the new East-West Cycle Superhighway in London, and GCN's Giro d'Italia preview.

Enjoy!

Crazy cliff ride

If your palms are sweating watching this video, cliff-side bike rides probably aren't for you.

We're in the same boat, which is a bit of a shame because that trail looks absolutely stunning. We wouldn't want to be a video round-up writer down here at road.cc though, so we're going to have to pass.

If you're up for the challenge and the risk, this particular trail's over in Utah, USA. It's called Gold Bar Rim and the cliff to the left is a 400ft drop.

The video caption sensibly advises us not to try this trail on a windy day. Urgh.

Pre-Giro smoke - skip to 42:00

Now, a number of us were mystified when Team Sky came along and dominated the Tour de France with both Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome. What were they doing differently, especially if they weren't doping - like they said they weren't?

Well, maybe they watched Toto al giro d'Italia, this Italian language film from the '40s which sees a professor make a deal with the devil to win all of the great cycle races in exchange for his soul.

We're not entirely sure why all of the riders are seen smoking before the big race, though.

Despite YouTube's excellent closed caption auto translate feature, which is as close as this writer could get to an Italian translation at such short notice, we're still none the wiser.

We don't think it has anything to do with the last line of the previous scene, which goes "do not say it in mind the long lunch now and a half months."

Mystifying.

#BackWheelBeer

From one pass time that's inadvisable to cyclists to another which, while inadvisable, is a habit we partake in and largely support - drinking beer.

We had an interesting derailleur bottle opener on the video round-up a few weeks ago, but this one's better.

If any of you can replicate this, and can send in a video of you achieving the explosive coolness, there'll be a pair of road.cc socks in it for you!

Red Hook preview

We're sure you caught the catastrophic crash caused by a stalling motorbike at last week's Red Hook Crit bike race in Brooklyn, NYC.

If not, there's a link to our coverage of it below.

- Watch more: Nasty pile-up at NYC's Red Hook Crit

The race itself is known for its high intensity and its crashes, but the severity of this year's crash was something else.

In this video we see a kit designer trying to capture the power and intensity of the race as well as the spirit of Brooklyn and to reflect it in the personalised Specialized kit. 

A fixie-riding firefighter shows us around NYC

We're staying in New York for this video.

In association with cycling apparel comapny Chrome Industries, this video feataures pro skateboarder turned firefighter Mike Hernandez flying around the city on his beloved Bianchi track bike.

He's got fantastic bike handling skills, but also talks about why he loves cycling, the city, and his job. 

It's a good watch.

Star Wars stolen bike recovery

It was Star Wars day this week, did you notice?

May the 4th be with you, and all that. Well the fourth was certainly with Randall Dietel, San Francisco resident and YouTuber on May the 4th.

There's quite the bike theft problem in San Fran at the moment, apparently, and Randall managed to channel the fourth, or the force, or simply his sense of citizenship, to reprimand a bike thief, recover a bike, and get it returned to his owner.

The video's got a Star Wars-y feel to it, and we like it.

We imagine Randall felt a little like this on his ride home after his heroics:

How good is the East-West Cycle Superhighway?

There's a question on plenty of Londoners' lips at the moment.

The new East to West Cycle Superhighway has just opened to much fanfare, but how good is it?

Londonist Ltd took a look, and came back with some answers.

As expected the concensus was, segregated cycle lanes are good, but the Superhighway is far from perfect?

What will we call them when they're really super highways?

GCN give us the Giro low-down

Finally, the Giro starts in a few days, and if you're not all clued up about where, when, what, and who's happening over the next three weeks in Italy, then here's your chance.

The guys at GCN have once again put together a quick and concise package to bring you up to speed.