'I don’t deconstruct what I do. It’s just something that has come naturally over many years': The world's fastest descender on cornering at 70kph

I meet Safa Brian at a London bike show, where he is promoting his latest video Trust: Descending the Dolomites. The LA-based South African is best known for his work behind the camera, having gone viral in 2020 with videos of himself careering down Californian canyons. He is easy to spot among the cycling celebs. Tall and rangy, dressed in a herringbone sweater and jeans, his golden-blonde dyed short, wavy hair contrasting with his natural dark stubble, he cuts a relaxed figure. Softly spoken and calm, the 38-year-old’s laid-back demeanor belies his heart-in-your-mouth antics. “I don’t consider myself to be a downhill bike rider, I just enjoy riding my bike,” he says. “There are photos of me playing on bikes as a little kid. I’ve dedicated my life to cycling, and it’s always taken care of me.”

His real name is Brian Wagner, but everyone refers to him as Safa Brian – so we’ll follow suit. “It’s a full-time, 24/7 job,” he says of his work. “I do everything: plan, produce, direct, edit, create, manage the channel, sign the contracts with sponsors, make decks, and propose ideas and projects. Still, it’s a pretty awesome job, so I’m not complaining.” Growing up in southern Africa, Brian started out riding mountain bikes. After moving to Australia in 2002, he became a bike messenger, subsequently working stints in London, Glasgow and New York.

He settled in Mexico City in 2012 and over the next six years became a successful racer in the Cycle Messenger World Championships and Red Hook crits. By 2018, he was ready to explore new options. “I just wanted to get out of the city. I was burned out with all the cars and the noise and pollution. Mexico City is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, so I started exploring.”

Brian relocated to California in 2019 and began riding the local canyons around Malibu. It was here that he discovered his descending prowess. “On Strava, I saw that every time I went down my local climbs I was getting closer to the top of these leader boards, which were full of WorldTour pros. I thought, I must be kinda good at this.” He realised descending was an arena in which he could be competitive. “I met up with other riders in Malibu who were fast descenders and we started pushing each other’s times in a friendly way.”

He had not planned to start filming fast descents – as with other events in his life, it just happened. “I just started filming things that I thought were cool. My wife was like, ‘Why are you obsessed with filming these descents?’ I didn’t have a good answer. They were just beautiful.” Nor was it in the plan to go viral. “First, we would watch the films on a phone among ourselves in the coffee shop after a ride. Then I put one up online and it got a million views, so I was like, ‘I guess other people think this is cool too’.” Brian’s obsessive nature pushed him to do more filming, and his notoriety grew.

Intuition over analysis

Just as he had as a bike racer and messenger, Brian pushed his new-found hobby as far as he could. In the Los Angeles area, Tuna Canyon held the most bragging rights. After meticulous planning, and over 70 rides there, Brian claimed that title. What better way to celebrate this legendary descent with its 50 hairpins than to ride it with one of the best descenders in the professional peloton, Tom Pidcock? Brian has ridden in the LA area with the likes of Matteo Jorgenson and Fabian Cancellara, and met Pidcock there in the autumn of 2022. While on a group ride together, Brian got chatting to the Brit and suggested they do a filmed descent together (see below).

Amid his content creation work, Brian squeezes in 15 hours of training with about 7,000m of climbing a week. “I don’t do structured training. I just try and stay pretty fit all year round.” When it comes to descending, he is meticulous in his preparation, scouting the road, checking the wind direction and practising scores of times. “You can’t just take two weeks off and then go full-gas down a hill,” he says. “That’s a recipe for disaster.” The pace is increased gradually, working out how to go faster while remaining within acceptably safe limits. “Each scouting run is fast, but not full gas. You’ve got to see what’s around the corner, and take the kind of lines you’d want to take when you’re going at full speed.”

Hitting speeds of up to 100kph (62mph) and cornering at over 70kph (44mph) requires total focus. “You put your weight on the outside pedal and you’re constantly looking at the braking points, watching for the spot you want to hit and start turning in, aiming to stay on the line you’re trying to take and the parts of the road you’re trying to clip,” Brian explains.

What’s his advice to riders who want to become expert descenders? “Enjoy climbing because you’re going to have to repeat the descents quite a few times. Following someone who’s got more experience helps a lot too.” When I attempt to dig deeper into Brian’s technique, he hesitates. “I don’t deconstruct what I do. I’m a little superstitious because I’ve never thought about it. It’s just something that has come naturally over many, many years.” It is as though he wants to protect a natural instinct for fast descending. “I feel like if I try to break it down, I’m going to overthink it and things might start to go a little off.”

The star of Descent Disciples and Pray for Speed admits to getting slight jitters in the run-up to filming. “Knowing that if anything goes wrong, the crew – friends and coworkers – have to deal with it, that makes me nervous,” he says. “But as soon as I clip into both cleats, I flick a switch and begin to enjoy it.”

Dealing with danger

Still buzzing from his latest Trust: Descending the Dolomites project, a collaboration with cycling helmet brand Kask, Brian enthuses about Italian descents. “My favourite pass was the Passo di Sella. It’s amazing. Other passes have quite a lot of switchbacks… [but] the Sella is not like that. I was going through corners at 70kph – that’s when you really have to be a skilled rider.” The Passo Fedaia was even faster. “It’s straighter and steeper, so we could have hit 120kph [75mph], but we caught a car and had to slow down.”

Given the consequences were something to go wrong at these speeds, how does he put the danger out of his mind? “It’s real focus,” says Brian, with a steely look in his eye. “When it’s about life and death or serious injury, you have to be perfect, or close to it.” He seems to find enjoyment in this total immersion. “With so much noise in the modern world, it’s nice to be fully focused on something.”

Naturally, some people regard his risk-taking as irresponsible, and videos – including the descent with Pidcock – attract negative comments. “With anonymous critics online, you don’t even know if they have ever ridden a bike in their lives. They just don’t seem to realise I’m a human being.” He expresses frustration that his expertise is not taken into account. “No one’s ever confronted me [in person],” he adds. “I get really joyous messages from people saying they’re inspired to pick up a road bike.

What about the other way around – who inspires Brian? “My sister, who has cystic fibrosis, definitely inspires me,” he says. “She’s one of the oldest, if not the oldest survivor [of the condition] in South Africa. She still runs marathons and trail races and doesn’t give two shits about what people say.” Another source of inspiration is compatriot bike racers. “I love the underdog and watching nations that are under-represented in cycling – African riders are at the top of my list. Cycling is still quite a racist place in Europe, so a World Championships [in Africa] will be fantastic.”

On the subject of Africa, Brian reveals that he is about to return to the land where he spent his formative years, a place he rarely visits. He is excited at the prospect of filming there for the first time. “Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world,” he reminisces. No doubt he has some adrenaline-filled descents in mind too. Keep your eyes on his YouTube channel as Brian returns to where his cycling odyssey began.

Downing Tuna with Tom Pidcock

In February 2023 Safa Brian posted a video of Tom Pidcock flying down Tuna Canyon in Los Angeles – so how did it come about?

“Tom was in LA and we ended up on a small group ride together, so I fl oated the idea of fi lming a descent. We practised it a few times over two diff erent sessions. It was a stressful day of fi lming, I won’t lie. I really wanted him to be safe and he’s got so much ahead of him – such a talented rider – I didn’t want anything to go wrong. “He followed me down Tuna three or four times, so it was a really good way to fi gure out the lines and the speed to take through the corners. And then he got behind the car we had out there and followed that down and we started fi lming. It was probably the fi fth or the sixth run when we did that take.

“We were hitting a corner every two seconds. There are so many and a lot look similar. If you get it wrong... there’s a cliff . It’s Impossible to learn completely in 10 runs, even 15 runs. I don’t think anyone else could have done it but he went full-gas, which is his nature.

“Afterwards I said to him, ‘I wish you’d have knocked it off about fi ve or 10%!’ But Tom just wanted to fully commit. I’ve never ridden with someone capable of that after only a few runs. He overcooked a couple of corners, correcting midcorner – has the full skill-set, more than anyone I’ve seen. It was incredibly impressive.”