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Red Bull Hardline Wales is set for its 10th anniversary
The gnarliest downhill event on the planet heads to Wales for the second Red Bull Hardline race of 2024. Find out what's new in the Dyfi Valley for its special milestone.
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The brutal part-downhill, part-freeride track race is back on familiar ground in Wales's Dyfi Valley in June following the success of Red Bull Hardline's expansion to Australia in February this year with Red Bull Hardline Australia in Maydena Bike Park in Tasmania.
What's more, the original Welsh race, which takes place on June 1-2, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The first-ever Red Bull Hardline in Dyfi took place in September 2014.
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How can I watch?
Red Bull Hardline Wales finals will be shown live on Red Bull TV on June 2. Watch the live broadcast from 12:30pm UTC.
UK livestream
The world’s toughest and most progressive downhill mountain bike race returns to the UK for the 10th time.
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Where exactly do the Red Bull Hardline races take place?
As ever the course for the original Welsh race is located in the Dyfi Valley in Snowdonia, north Wales. This area is very popular with mountain bikers, as it's only a few miles north of Machynlleth and close to Dolgellau, two villages with access to all types of MTB trails and bike parks.
The Australian edition takes place at Maydena Bike Park in Tasmania, Australia. It is located in the Derwent Valley region, west of Tasmania's state capital, Hobart. Designed and built by Australian trail builders Dirt Art, the park has over 100km of mountain bike trails, including super techie fast-paced jump and freeride lines that make it very suitable to host a Red Bull Hardline event.
Maydena Bike Park under Tasmanian sunshine
© Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
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What are the Hardline courses like?
Red Bull Hardline Wales
Course creator, and Hardline tormentor-in-chief, Dan Atherton
© Dan Griffiths
The Dyfi Hardline track – designed and built by Red Bull Hardline founder and course builder Dan Atherton. Atherton and Ollie Davey – as we know from the past ten editions of the race is a beast. Snaking its way down the mountain in the heart of the Dyfi forest, the track combines huge freestyle jumps with extremely technical downhill features. This means that you need to nail the formula of this course in order to make it down in one piece, never mind in a winning time. To do that, riders need to have the skills to handle big jumps and navigate their way through difficult and (usually) damp forest sections. For 2024, the course now starts from a new spot and there is a new top section with new features.
With gigantic step-ups, gaps and speeds of up to 65kph, it's fair to say that the Hardline course is the gnarliest downhill track in the UK – if not the world!
Take a look at the Red Bull Hardline Wales course as it was in 2023 with Rónán Dunne:
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Course preview
Irish mountain bike rider Rónán Dunne drops in on the 2023 Red Bull Hardline course.
Red Bull Hardline Australia
For Red Bull Hardline Australia, Maydena’s mountainside was turned into a course true to the Red Bull Hardline ethos with trail builders guided by Dan Atherton.
The all-new course, which got a universal thumbs up from participating riders, runs 2.3 kilometres in length with a vertical elevation of 575 metres. The course encompasses a vast diversity of forest types, terrain and trail features.
Those Maydena jumps are huge
© Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
Like its Welsh cousin, the Maydena track has some massive jumps and drops, particularly in the middle and latter parts of the course. For instance, the largest road gap on the course is 75 feet (22m), with the biggest vertical drop being over 10 metres. The athletes who took to the Tasmanian course say it has more of a World Cup feel to it compared to the Dyfi track, but with big features you’d never find on a World Cup track.
Take a look at the Red Bull Hardline Australia course with Laurie Greenland and Jackson Goldstone:
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Tasmania course preview with Goldstone and Greenland
Jackson Goldstone and Laurie Greenland take us down the course for the inaugural Red Bull Hardline Australia.
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Two races but there this will be no overall title awarded
Despite the addition of a second race to the Welsh original, the two races in Australia and Wales will not award an overall title to athletes who take part in both races. The races will run as standalone events.
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More women will be taking part than ever before
A significant development for Red Bull Hardline in 2024 is the increased participation of women in the races.
Red Bull Hardline Australia saw female athletes build on previous participations in practice/training at the Wales event with two of the women taking to the track on finals day – Gracey Hemstreet and Louise-Anna Ferguson. The hope now is that we'll see female athletes take to finals day for Red Bull Hardline Wales.
Seagrave, Ferguson and Hemstreet chewing the fat at Hardline Australia
© Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
New Zealander Jess Blewitt had the opportunity to ride the course in Wales in 2022, but unfortunately, she did not compete in the race. She was also scheduled to race there in 2023, but she sustained an injury. Blewitt was also involved in a women's progression camp, which included downhill riders Tahnée Seagrave and Louise Ferguson, as well as freeriders Cami Nogueira, Vinny Armstrong and Hannah Bergemann that got to session the Welsh course in 2023.
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So who's taking part in Red Bull Hardline Wales?
Red Bull Hardline continues to be an invite-only event. Twenty-six athletes were slated to compete at both the Australian and Welsh races.
Previous winners Bernard Kerr (three-time winner of the Welsh race), Gee Atherton and Craig Evans will be racing in Wales. Red Bull Hardline Australia winner Ronan Dunne, fresh from his first World Cup win in Poland, will be aiming to add the Welsh crown to his palmares and so be seen as a Red Bull Hardline legend on two continents.
Bernard Kerr and Red Bull Hardline is an evolving love story
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
A slew of other Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup downhill racers will also be starting both events, including Laurie Greenland, Charlie Hatton, Brook Macdonald, Tahnée Seagrave, Mark Wallace and Kade Edwards.
Athletes more known for their freeride skills are Johny Salido, Reed Boggs, Hannah Bergemann, Cami Nogueira and Casey Brown, who are interesting additions to the rider list. All in all, this is a strong Hardline athlete list. The full list of the 30 athletes taking part in Wales is immediately below:
- Sam Blenkinsop (🇳🇿)
- George Brannigan (🇳🇿)
- Adam Brayton (🇬🇧)
- Edgar Briole (🇫🇷)
- Josh Bryceland (🇬🇧)
- Rónán Dunne (🇮🇪)
- Theo Erlangsen (🇿🇦)
- Craig Evans (🇬🇧)
- Brendan Fairclough (🇬🇧)
- Sam Gale (🇳🇿)
- Thomas Genon (🇧🇪)
- Szymon Godziek (🇵🇱)
- Charlie Hatton (🇬🇧)
- Sam Hockenhull (🇬🇧)
- Sebastian Holguin (🇨🇴)
- Matteo Iniguez (🇫🇷)
- Jono Jones (🇬🇧)
- Matt Jones (🇬🇧)
- Bernard Kerr (🇬🇧)
- Thibault Laly (🇫🇷)
- Josh Lowe (🇬🇧)
- Dennis Luffman (🇬🇧)
- Brook Macdonald (🇳🇿)
- Harry Molloy (🇬🇧)
- Jim Monro (🇬🇧)
- Alex Storr (🇬🇧)
- Vincent Tupin (🇫🇷)
- Juanfer Vélez (🇨🇴)
- Taylor Vernon (🇬🇧)
- Gaetan Vige (🇫🇷)
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What happened last time out at Red Bull Hardline in Wales?
Unfortunately, the 2023 race in Dyfi had to be cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. In 2022, 20 of the best riders from across Britain and around the world lined up to take on Dan Atherton's creation.
The assumption pre-race was that it was Bernard Kerr's to lose – the three-time winner dominant throughout practice and qualifying. But come race day, a costly mistake from Kerr meant it would be someone else standing at the top of the Hardline podium.
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Jackson Goldstone's winning run
Jackson Goldstone conquers the toughest course in downhill mountain biking to take the win at Red Bull Hardline 2022.
Debutant 18-year-old Jackson Goldstone stepped up to fill the void. The then Junior World Cup overall champion showed no fear throughout the weekend in Wales, riding the course like he had been coming to Hardline for years and putting in a time that was in the green from top to bottom.
Joe Smith and Taylor Vernon made up the two other podium spots.
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What happened at Red Bull Hardline Australia
Irishman Rónán Dunne put down a brilliant run to win the first-ever Red Bull Hardline Australia taking the win from Bernard Kerr and George Brannigan of New Zealand. Only three seconds separated Dunne, Kerr and Brannigan at the top of the standings.
The female athletes that took to the course – Gracey Hemstreet and Louise-Anna Ferguson - placed 22nd and 25th of the 26 starters in Maydena.
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Top 3 runs – Australia
Check out the top three runs from the first Red Bull Hardline Australia in Tasmania’s Maydena Bike Park.
Be sure to download the free Red Bull TV app and watch unmissable action on all your devices!
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