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Have You Seen This? Balancing a bike 650 feet in the air
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I'm not sure anything has ever made me as anxious as watching this video. - photo by John Clyde


INSANIVILLE Once in junior high I received my midterm report card and somehow I miraculously had a GPA of .32. That is not a typo, it was actually .32.

My anxiety level shot through the roof. The terror of seeing my parents, repeating classes, and my utter laziness stared back at me in the face. As anxious as that made me, it didn't come close to the anxiety I felt watching this video.

Biker Fabio Wibmer balanced his bike on a railing at the Koelnbreinsperre Dam in Austria. The railing is only as wide as his bike tire, and he rides it expertly 200 meters in the air. For those of us Yanks, that's 656 feet in the air.

I found myself yelling at my screen over and over again at Wibmer, "OK, you proved you can do it, now get off the railing. Why are you pushing your luck? You've made it far enough, call it. Get off! Get off the rail...."

That's when I blacked out because I couldn't handle it anymore. When I woke up, Wibmer was back on solid ground, and I was on the floor.

I do not condone anyone attempting this crazy stunt, but I am in awe of it, and I'm not totally sure I can bring myself to watch it again. Maybe I should lay down before I do it again so I don't pass out and hit the floor again.

For the record, I ended up on the honor roll by the end of that semester. I guess that terrifying midterm sparked something.
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