The current men’s XCO mountain bike champion is deep into the final lap of the last round of the Nvidia XC World Cup event, held on a track in the far south of Chile. He’s engaged in a three-way battle for the race with the Vietnamese National Champion, and a 15 year old wunderkind from what remains of Tuvalu. As they hit the final climb of the race, the Vietnamese surges ahead, and a bead of sweat appears on the otherwise impassive face of our champion as he responds. His XXXL World Champions’ jersey is already sodden with the effort of the preceding hour and twenty minutes, the air conditioning and dehumidifier in his living room working overtime as he plays chess at 180 bpm with his quarries. It’s 9am in his local timezone, and the mercury is touching 44C, normal temperatures in September in central Sweden bringing a relief from the summer heat, but making it the case that the same effort outside would almost certainly land him in hospital. The virtual avatars are ten deep on the final stretch of the climb, before the track opens out into a ferocious descent to the finish line. An attack over the top shows his
