Australian stuntman Robbie Maddison rode into the new year with a gravity-defying feat in Las Vegas.
Speeding down the strip outside Paris Las Vegas casino at 90kmh, he launched his Yamaha motocross bike up a giant ramp, flew 37 metres through the air and landed on top of a replica of the Arc de Triomphe.
The stunt was equivalent to jumping on a 10-storey apartment building.
After landing safely, the 27-year-old showman from the Kiama in NSW performed one last death-defying stunt, dropping off the Arc de Triomphe and free-falling to a landing ramp below.
It was a flawless stunt watched by tens of million TV and internet viewers around the world.
“It’s definitely a milestone in my life to overcome the fear I had,” a jubilant Maddison, whose left hand was dripping with blood after the freefall impact, said.
“The hand kills. I think I broke it.”
Maddison has become a fixture in Las Vegas on the biggest party night of the year after performing a world record jump last New Year’s Eve by clearing 98 metres, the length of a gridiron football field, at an event televised live by ESPN at Vegas’ Rio Casino.
The Australian dedicated last year’s stunt to his idol, legendary American stuntman Evel Knievel who died in 2007.
Maddison, however, feels little warmth for Knievel’s son, Robbie Knievel.
Knievel performed a rival stunt, jumping 61 metres over a man-made volcano outside the Mirage Casino at the same time Maddison jumped the Arc de Triomphe.
The Australian called Knievel “a joke”, claiming the American’s jump was inferior and was an attempt to steal his thunder.
It was an Australasian double bill in Vegas with Kiwi Rick Millen, a member of Maddison’s Red Bull stunt team, attempting to become the first person to complete and land a backflip in an off-road truck.
Millen’s 1300 kilogram truck appeared to execute the flip perfectly but when it landed on the dirt ramp it rolled once, robbing him of the record.
Millen broke his back a year ago attempting to perform the stunt, but walked away on Wednesday unscathed physically but with his pride bruised.
