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Asa Vermette: The new American force in downhill racing
At only 18 years old, the 2025 Red Bull Hardline winner and 2024 UCI Junior World Champ is having a lot of fun.
If you didn’t know, Asa Vermette is a pretty chill guy. At just 18, the Colorado native and up-and-coming USA downhill racer is a unique talent. He’s smashed the 2024 UCI Junior World Championship title, bagged a Red Bull Hardline victory, and has an upcoming documentary about his impressive Hardline riding – all before he was legally an adult.
Asa Vermette launches at Red Bull Hardline
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
For him, it all comes down to having fun, even when things don’t go quite to plan, as they did at this year’s 2025 UCI World Championships, where a mechanical issue ended his race early.
“I was feeling good and everything was ripping,” he says of this year’s World Champs. “I was doing good in the splits, then just before the finish, I hit this little rock that I didn’t know was there. I tried to keep it rolling, but I think I ended up seventh. It’s a shame because I wanted to make it a double from last year. Next year, though…”
We caught up with the young ripper from France, where he’s hard at work training. Here’s everything you need to know about where he comes from, and where he’s going.
01
Growing up in Colorado’s mountain bike capital
The Junior World Champ has been riding bikes since he was three
© Nathan Hughes/Red Bull Content Pool
Born and raised in the shadow of Purgatory Mountain in Durango, Colorado, USA, mountain bike riding was in the air all of Vermette’s life. He says his first bike was a rough and tumble Strider, gifted to him at the age of three, although his memories of it are scant.
“The first real pedal bike I got was a Scott,” he remembers. “It was like the little kid bike.”
He loved it from day one, taking to the streets and trails around his family home, flanked by a gang of neighbourhood kids. “There were always a bunch of kids around biking,” he says. “In Durango, it’s just a town thing to get the kids on bikes.”
It wasn’t just all of the kids from school, but also Vermette’s parents who accompanied him, heading out on camping trips and taking their bikes with them.
Asa Vermette celebrates his Red Bull Hardline victory with his dad
© Nathan Hughes/Red Bull Content Pool
Friday nights, though, were for BMX racing. “I did that from age seven to 12 or 13, probably,” Vermette says.
In fact, so enmeshed in daily life was riding his bike that Vermette has no memory of deciding this was something he wanted to do. It was always just something he did and loved without too much thought.
The 1990 World Champs on Purgatory Mountain in his hometown undoubtedly played a role. Vermette wasn’t born at the time, but it set a precedent for Durango as a national destination for downhill riders.
“Purg is a sick mountain,” Vermette enthuses. “I rode there basically every weekend growing up.”
From the age of 12, he remembers being fully hooked and riding every day. The rest is history.
02
From local races to Junior World Champion
Asa Vermette shreds the Maydena trails
© Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
At first, Vermette was just having fun, riding his BMX, mountain bike and getting into motocross. “I knew there were good riders around like Eli and John Tomac, but I was never focused on the racing part,” Vermette says. “I was just going out on my bike and having fun with friends.”
But, at age 13, he decided to enter a local series at Purgatory. “I really started loving it after that,” he says of his first downhill race – and win. With his family as his support crew, Vermette made plans to travel the local area that winter and the following summer, taking on races where they could find them.
The same year, 2020, Vermette made it to his first national champs in Winter Park and ended up winning. “After that, we just wanted to keep doing national races,” he explains. After taking on every race in the US, he found himself at the US Open in 202, racing against the “top dogs,” where he ended up beating some of the fastest racers in the world.
I was always dreaming of getting to that level, so to achieve it was unreal
That performance so impressed DH legend Neko Mulally, he offered Vermette a spot on his team, Frameworks. More touring and competition wins followed until, in 2024, Vermette bagged the UCI Junior World Championship title, becoming junior world champion.
“It was super fulfilling,” he says now. “Since I’d started racing nationals and world cups, seeing people like Jackson Goldstone – he just seemed to represent the top of what you could do in the sport. I was always dreaming of getting to that level, so to achieve it was unreal.”
03
Carrying the torch of American downhill after Aaron Gwin
It’s clear that, as the next US downhill star, Asa Vermette is flying the flag for American racing. Not that he thinks of it that way. “I just love riding my bike, and I'm glad that people like watching me ride my bike, and glad that I can inspire little rippers to try it,” he says.
I just love riding my bike, and I'm glad that people like watching me ride my bike
As for the pressure to perform for sponsors and fans, the typically chill Vermette says he does think about it, but getting too in his head doesn’t help his performance on the bike.
“I try to think about what I have to do and just go have fun riding my bike,” he says. “If I get too caught up in thinking I have to prove myself, I usually don't do good because I'm not thinking about what I have to get done.”
It’s a common theme, a focus on fun and getting the job done over analysing it. So far, it’s served him well, bringing him up against legends like Aaron Gwin, whom he calls “The best American and arguably, arguably the best period.”
Aaron Gwin – A bona fide downhill mountain bike racing legend
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
“My first time meeting him was 2020, and he's super nice,” Vermette says. “Now that we’re team-mates through Red Bull, it's super cool just to talk to him, and people like Loïc Bruni and Greg Minnaar.”
In fact, it was hearing Gwin commentating on one of Vermette’s races that actually changed his approach to the sport. “I remember, my first World Cup, I was riding, I won it, and he said, ‘This guy doesn't have to push this hard, he can chill and still have a good run.’ That was eye-opening.”
04
Part of a new North American wave
Talking to Vermette, you get the sense that he means it when he says things like this are “super cool to hear” and that he takes genuine pride in being part of the future of downhill racing as part of the new crop of North American downhill racers.
“Coming up through downhill racing, there were just three or four race series, now there’s a bunch of them. It's sick; all the kids coming up have so many options. A couple of years ago, you’d have to drive to different sides of the country just to race, so it’s cool to have more races across the US because it costs a lot of money to travel so much.”
Vermette genuinely loves riding bikes
© Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
Vermette says the scene is definitely going “in the right direction,” but it would help to have one-off events not overlap with World Cups so that “more of us could come race, and bring more people out.”
He points again to the likes of Jackson Goldstone as evidence of a strong scene with real talent. “It’s cool that kids can watch people like Jackson on social media and just get hyped and just go ride,” he says.
05
Red Bull Hardline, enduro and the rise of a downhill racer
Of course, any conversation with Vermette would be remiss not to mention his barn-storming victory at Red Bull Hardline this year. “It’s insane,” he says of Hardline. “It’s like the full circle of biking. Huge jumps, super gnarly, Rampage-type shoots and features, and racing against the clock. It’s a cool mix of freeriders that do it, and it brings them all together. I wanted to do it since I was a kid.”
He’s equally enthusiastic about the rise of freeracing. “It’s cool because the only thing you’re focused on is racing and the one run,” he says, although he does add that only focusing on freeracing might lead to burnout because “you’re only focused on one thing. I have more fun going out and hitting jumps and doing flip and ticks with my friends than just focusing on racing,” he says.
Vermette rode like a Hardline veteran, not a rookie
© Nick Waygood/Red Bull Content Pool
In other words, more fun again, and a focus on broader events is what Vermette is looking for. Which brings us to Enduro.
“Oh, man, it's not going the best,” he says. “It’s too bad, because Enduro is super fun. It's basically just people who want to go out all day and ride their bikes. Enduro is what I did before downhill. So it’s too bad that it seems to be going away because I really enjoy it. Any downhill racer trains on enduro bikes because you can’t always ride downhill.”
06
Training and racing mindset
Vermette is geared up and ready for action
© Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
As for Vermette’s own training, he’ll spend the down season in the gym, building fitness for the season.
“I only started gym training two years ago, so it’s really about building a base level,” he says. “I do a bunch of leg press, dumbbell bench press, barbell press, sit-ups, bike interval stuff. Planks, pull-ups. Biking uses your whole body, so you have to focus on it all."
When it comes to diet, his mum does all the cooking. Asked what his favourite food is, Vermette asks his mum. “Breakfast,” he decides. “Four to five eggs, bacon, potatoes, avocado.”
Vermette has already had a taste of why it’s so important to look after his body. Last year, he suffered a compression fracture in his T6 thoracic after an accident. “If I were to hit it again, I could have paralysed myself,” he says. “It was pretty serious for sure. In terms of recovery, I had to chill in a back brace, but I’m back to normal now, and it wasn’t too painful or anything.”
So does an injury like this play into his mental state when he’s racing? “Before I broke my back, I would think through my run, not really thinking about the consequences,” he says. “Now I’m realizing that it’s not hard to have a silly crash on a corner, so I have to think about that before a race, which is probably not the best for me, but I think it’s good to get it out of my mind. Then I try to visualize the track and all the practice runs I’ve done.”
Recovering from injury has impacted Asa Vermette's approach to riding
© Graeme Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
As for music, Vermette sticks his headphones on shuffle. Madonna’s Like a Prayer has become a lucky song after he listened to it randomly before his World Champs win.
More and more, he’s asked for downhill racing tips from beginners in his DMs. “It’s a hard one because you don’t know their skill level,” Vermette says, “but the simple advice is just go out and ride your bike. Don’t focus too much on one race or trying to get good at one thing. Growing up, I just went out and had fun on my bike. Doing that, you naturally progress day to day.”
The setup
Asa Vermette's Red Bull Hardline bike setup
© Marcus Cole/Red Bull Content Pool
One area fans can take direct inspiration from Vermette is in his racing setup. He breaks it down like this:
“I ride a Frameworks racing downhill bike, Fox suspension, Envy wheels, Continental tires. I don't know all my compression and rebound clicks and the shock and fork, but I run 94 psi in the fork. Usually, I have 24 psi in the front tire, 29 to 30 in the rear. It's like a seven-speed transmission. It's pretty standard on a downhill bike, but TRP brakes, predialed.”
Vermette explains that this is what seems to work for him, but it’s constantly evolving, especially with regard to pressures. “You need to adapt as you grow and get bigger,” he says, adding that the setup is tested almost every weekend, with off weeks in particular a time to work on the bike. It changes with terrain, too, of course. “On a steeper track, we’ll lower the psi and the back shock so it sits lower, and then on a flatter track, you'll raise it so you can push it around more,” he says. “It changes a lot.”
07
What’s next for Asa Vermette in the elite world cup
Throughout our conversation, it’s clear that Asa Vermette is just happy being where he is. “Racing was always my dream,” he says. “I just want to perform as best I can at every race and try not to think about, like, the outcome of it too much.”
A cloud of dirt behind him, as Asa Vermette flies downhill
© Nick Waygood/Red Bull Content Pool
His long-term dream in the Elite World Cup is a humble one: “to be the fastest man in the world someday.”
But, at 18, he’s more focused on the here and now instead of a lasting legacy. “I’m just enjoying the sport right now,” he says. “Whatever I think about the stuff coming up, I get too nervous, so I just have to stay in the moment and try to keep going.”
Long may it continue.
