Even hot favourite Nino Schurter will struggle to beat this lap time.

Join course designer Nick Floros as he zips round a lap of the 5.4km course in just over a minute – with the little help of some sped-up footage and some judicious editing.

This video is perhaps to best distillation of what the course for the 2016 Rio Olympics cross country mountain bike race course will feel like to ride.

>>> What’s the Olympic mountain bike course like?

Need to know

• A lap of the course is 5.4km.
• The exact number of laps is still TBC but races will be around 40-50km long for men and 30-40km for women.
• The winner is expected to finish in approx 1hr 45min
• Women’s race: Saturday 20th August at 1630hrs UK time
• Men’s race: Sunday 21st August at 16:30hrs UK time

2016 Olympic course designer Nick Floros: “The first tracks [at Atlanta 1996 Olympics] were very, very basic, there was not too much construction. Then London set the bench-mark for having a very spectator-friendly course and the riders really enjoyed it. The lay of the land allowed for spectators to see a large portion of the track, whereas traditional courses are in wooded areas with far less visibility. The beauty of Rio is that spectators can stand at the highest point (on a hill opposite the grand stand) and see 85 to 90 per cent of the course.”