Simon Bosman, an avid mountain biker of Sedona’s trails since 1984, received a shock this year when a video of mountain biker Mike Kollbeck went viral, landing a spot on both the Huffington Post and Russia Today.

As of press time, the March 15 video of Kollbeck “Riding the White Line” has attracted over 2.5 million views on YouTube.

A drone operator captured the footage of the mountain biker navigating a stretch of bare rock defined by a white line of sandstone. He appears to be perched precariously as he rides, about to slip from the vertical face of the cliff. At the end of the trail, he descends a short stretch and turns just before a precipitous drop and returns back to his starting point.

According to the Huffington Post, when emailed, Kollbeck responded by saying the experience was “one of the scariest things I have done on a bike …. I was confident with my skills and knew I could execute it. The key was to block out the scary thoughts about the potential danger, so I just focused on the trail and not on the terrifying space around me.”

Russia Times reported, “The route that’s carved into the Arizona rock was traversed by Kollbeck flawlessly. Mistakes are not an option there, and even a slightly missed turn will, in all probability, result in a gory death …. Kollbeck had to adjust the air pressure in his tires for maximum grip, tuned the suspension and raised the saddle before giving it one final walk.”

It’s an impressive story, but for one detail — a detail only briefly mentioned in the Russia Times story: The White Line has been ridden many times in the exact way Kollbeck rode it.

According to Bosman, one of the first riders to tackle the route half a decade ago, “Riding the White Line is more of a mental thing. It’s relatively easy if you’re not afraid of heights and you are an advanced rider.”

A far more challenging ride above, along and below the White Line exists.

To read the full story, see the Friday, March 20, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.