Red Bull.com

Dan Doron (25), one of the three leading Israeli down hill riders, has joined Red Bull’s leading athlete team in 2007.
In the course of the last years Dan managed to conquer the Israeli and global downhill tracks!

Towards the end of 2008 Dan Doron went on a unique, one of its kind world wide, and perhaps his career’s most challenging activity: downhill riding the steep and winding snake path (in Mazada). He headed out on the mountainous dangerous road at first dawn, crossing it in 5 minutes’ time, during which he reached an extremely high speed of over 60 KP/h.
As a young competitor Dan began his way at cross-country races, but shortly after he decided to adopt another riding style. At the age of 15 he made his first acquaintance with downhill riding. It was love at first sight, which opened up a new road for the young athlete, leader to be of a whole community of riders and the setter of new riding standards. At 17 he participated in his first downhill competition (Hanita 2003), taking the first place. Ever since, Dan has participated in almost every race that took place in Israel, always making his sure way to the podium.
Last year Dan took on a particularly challenging task: downhill riding two opposite Israeli peaks – one on the cliffs of Eilat’s unspoiled mountain range, and the other in the snow peaked Hermon mountain – both within 24 hours!
For Dan Doron, the extreme bicycle riding, the complex maneuvers, the overcoming of obstacles and the satisfaction that comes along with new records at the end of the race, are what drive him to continue taking on new challenges and urge him to excel in every new task. “I have got the will to succeed, to become better and better”, he says, “That’s the goal that stands before my eyes and drives me onwards”. Injuries have become an every day matter in the course of his career. Not once did he finish a race in pieces – be it broken fingers, a fractured ankle or even a dislocated collarbone. But he says the passion for biking dismisses any feeling of pain.
The mission he set himself for the next year is to enter, for the first time in his career, the qualifying matches for the world downhill cup, and with Red Bull right behind him, he is surer than ever in his ability to do so. About Red Bull’s support he says: “It’s hard to describe how such sponsorship can help an athlete by letting him feel that he’s got such a supporting back. There’s a group of people whose only goal is to help you, cheer you up and make things easier. It’s a significant upgrade!”