Whether plummeting down from an Alpine pass in the Tour de France, or this week descending the Adelaide hills in the Tour Down Under (TDU), travelling at over 100 kilometres per hour with just a few millimetres of rubber on the road remains one of the sport’s most compelling, ultimate tests.

“There’s a certain moment where you do suddenly realise how quick you’re going, and I think it’s the moment as you hit 100 kph,” says Robbie McEwen, whose stellar career encompassed 12 Tour de France appearances and three green jersey wins.

“There’s a certain moment, where you think, ‘Wooooh, I can’t afford for anything to happen now because there’s no coming back from it’.

“You get this adrenalin rush and there’s a moment where if you’re not fully confident you can tighten up. You’re not as loose and flowing, nothing’s as smooth and when you’re not smooth, you’re not far away from making a big mistake.

“Cause I mean, one mistake, a blowout of a tyre, a lock-up at the wrong moment, coming in on the wrong line, you could be off the edge of a cliff and it could be 500 metres … to death.”