SAO PAULO (Brazil) ? They are just as much a part of the megacity?s streetscape as the myriad of rampant high-rise buildings, the chaos and the crime: the Motoboys. They are the daredevil artistes on two wheels who seem to be constantly in close contact with bumpers and side-view members as they go about making their daily transport deliveries. Australia?s freestyle motocross star Robbie Maddison accompanied some of the estimated 250,000 ?Motoboys? for a TV documentary.

Maddison has done maneuvers on his Yamaha YZ450F that take your breath away. A backflip over the Tower Bridge in London when the drawbridge was open (2009), the jump up onto the 30-meter high Arc de Triomphe in Las Vegas (2008) and the jump back down, a world record distance jump across an American football field (2007) and a jump of 90 meters across the Corinth Canal in Greece (2010).

But after spending a day with the Motoboys the 29-year-old extreme sport star is flabbergasted. ?What these guys do with their indefinable bikes in this traffic is just indescribable,? said a visibly exhausted ?Maddo? after an eventful day in traffic. The Australian was instantly on the same wave length as his newfound counterpart Karlos Maxwell (BRA/29). ?Karlos does things with pure intuition and it?s the same for me with FMX,? Maddison said. It took his breath away at times watching Karlos snake his way through the traffic chaos.

?The way Karlos seemed to be able to instinctively anticipate what the cars were going to do and was always ready with the right reaction reminded me a lot about what I?ve internalized on my bike,? said Maddison, who after his adventure in the big city jungle flew to the second stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour. The spectacle takes place on Saturday in the capital Brasilia.

Pictures available free of charge for editorial use: Stefan Stau for Red Bull X-Fighters