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Vermette and Ferguson shatter records at Red Bull Hardline in Wales
Red Bull Hardline Wales 2025 delivered record-breaking moments to remembered for years as the youngest champ and first ever women's finisher of the world's toughest downhill race are crowned!
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Historic. That's the only way to describe Red Bull Hardline Wales 2025, as not one, but two, records were broken at the world's toughest downhill mountain bike race in Dyfi, Wales.
First American teenager Asa Vermette charged to victory to dethrone Canadian Jackson Goldstone as the youngest ever Red Bull Hardline winner. Then, Scotland's Louise Ferguson became the first ever female rider to do a top-to-bottom run of the Red Bull Hardline Wales course and qualify to race the final, where she finished 18th and became the inaugural women's champion.
It was another incredible weekend of mountain bike progression on the infamously gnarly course dreamed up by Dan Atherton, so read on to recap all the action below.
Hail the new king of Red Bull Hardline Wales, Asa Vermette
© Nathan Hughes/Red Bull Content Pool
The undisputed queen of Hardline, Louise Ferguson
© Marcus Cole/Red Bull Content Pool
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Replay all the action from Red Bull Hardline 2025
Red Bull Hardline UK livestream
The world’s toughest MTB race pushes riders to their absolute limits on the most extreme, unforgiving terrain.
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Rookie Asa Vermette rides straight into the history books
Rookies are starting make a habit of rewriting the record books at Red Bull Hardline Wales. The physically and mentally draining course high in the exposed Welsh hills has long been considered a course where experience matters. Then, in 2022 teenage Hardline rookie Jackson Goldstone rewrote the rules with a sensational victory that made him the youngest ever winner of the race.
Now, 2024 Junior world champion Asa Vermette has dropped the age bar even lower by storming to victory on his first visit to the original Hardline course and taking over from Goldstone as the youngest ever champion, beating established Red Bull Hardline contenders Charlie Hatton and 2024 winner Ronan Dunne to the top step of the podium.
Vermette was incredibly fast in the tight, tech sections
© Nathan Hughes/Red Bull Content Pool
No problem with massive the 90s for the new champ
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
The 18-year-old from Colorado is already considered one of the most exciting prospects in the sport and finished second to Goldstone at Red Bull Hardline Tasmania earlier this year, after qualifying fastest. The Welsh course is a very different, much more rugged prospect, but Vermette never looked anything other than totally comfortable all week.
Even after the weather turned and delivered and rain-slicked course for the first time during Saturday's seeding runs, Vermette qualified fastest with a time of 2m 29.063s ahead of fellow rookie Tuhoto-Ariki Pene and Brits Charlie Hatton and Laurie Greenland.
The last rider down the hill on Sunday and needing to beat a brilliant time by Hatton of 2m 26.158s, Vermette delivered when it really counted. He rode a blistering pace from Split 2 all the way to the finish to stop the clock in 2m 24.477s, beating his qualifying time by almost five seconds and score a record-breaking win over Hatton by 1.681s while Dunne completed the podium 5.019s behind the winner.
It was a win and a second-place at Red Bull Hardline in 2025 for Vermette
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
The run was probably one of the sketchiest I've done all week, honestly. I felt like I was all over the place, but I'm stoked
With 2–1 finishes and the record of the youngest ever winner to his name in his first two Red Bull Hardline Appearances, Vermette was understandably happy. "The run was probably one of the sketchiest ones that I've done all week, honestly. I felt like I was all over the place, but I'm stoked," he said. "Through the bottom, I was just pumping as hard as I could through the jumps. I'm on top of the world, it is pretty sick. The track is insane."
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Redemption for Ronan Dunne
After winning both Red Bull Hardline Tasmania and Red Bull Hardline Wales in 2024 during a breakout season that also included a first UCI World Cup win, Irish charger Ronan Dunne entered 2025 with high expectations to win again at both venues.
A huge crash during final warm up in Tasmaniain in February ended Dunne's hopes of doing the Hardline double-double and left him sidelined for the early months of the season with a long list of injuries. Another heavy fall at the recent World Cup round in La Thuile left Dunne with a damaged liver that made his participation in Wales touch and go until race week.
Ronan Dunne flies into the finish arena on his way to third
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
Dunne joined Asa Vermette and Charlie Hatton on the podium
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
Nevertheless, Dunne suited up and despite strict instructions not to crash and delivered a redemptive ride in Wales to make an impressive return to the podium.
After suffering a puncture and DNFing his seeding run on Saturday, Dunne was the second rider on course during finals and endured a long wait in the hot seat after setting a superb time of 2m 29.496s that was just 0.4s off Asa Vermette's fastest qualifying time.
In fact, it took until third fastest qualifier, Hardline Wales veteran Charlie Hatton, before Dunne's time was beaten and the former champ held on to complete the podium behind Vermette and Hatton. It might not have been the win he was hoping for, but after such a difficult 2025 to date, Dunne rebounded impressively.
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Louise Ferguson becomes the leading lady of Hardline
Louise Ferguson skips through the tech above the Road Gap
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
Who's the gnarliest female downhill racer in the world right now? It has to be Louise Ferguson, who made history no less than three times over the Red Bull Hardline Wales weekend.
The 29-year-old Scot had already made the second female top-to-bottom run at Red Bull Hardline Tasmania in 2024 after Gracey Hemstreet, but in Wales she went one better. Ferguson delivered the historic first full female run during seeding and then lined up as the first ever female in finals on Sunday to become the first and only woman to complete full runs of both Red Bull Hardline Tasmania and Red Bull Hardline Wales courses. What an incredible achievement!
Joined by a number of fellow women in ticking-off the last of the biggest course features during the week – including the huge 90s gap jumps and punishing cliff drop higher up the course – Ferguson was the first and only female to complete a whole top-to-bottom run ahead of seeding, which allowed her to line up and qualify.
Ferguson cleared the 90s to set up a first full run
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
Cameras out to capture history being made
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
History made, time to celebrate with the girls!
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
The first woman to tame Red Bull Hardline Wales
© Nathan Hughes/Red Bull Content Pool
She did that in incredible style despite the slick conditions after rain fell and then, with the eyes of the mountain bike world watching, she rode a brilliant finals run to finish in 23rd place and make a piece of mountain biking history that has pushed the sport to new highs for women and can never be beaten. "I feel so much pride and it's not going to take long before there's more of us women completing the course," said Ferguson after her run.
In just few years, female participation at Red Bull Hardline has advanced from Tahnée Seagrave and a couple of riders testing a few features to now full runs being ridden on the wildest course in the sport. We can't wait to see what Ferguson and rest of world's most progressive female riders will do next.
It's not going to take long before there's more of us women completing the course
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Red Bull Hardline Wales shows it's still the hardest of them all
After a huge overhaul for the 2024 edition, the course for Red Bull Hardline Wales 2025 remained pretty much unchanged – but that didn't mean it was any easier for the competitors. In fact, the exposed, rock strewn upper section of the course proved to be a real decider in the outcome of numerous riders' runs.
Ronan Dunn, another 2024 top-10 finisher Sebastian Holguín and debutant Felipe Argurto all punctured within seconds of the start during seeding, with Holguín suffering terrible luck to puncture in exactly the same spot again during his finals run. 18-year-old rookie New Zealander Oli Clark went down hard up top in his finals run after starting at an incredible pace, while the likes of Hardline vets Adam Brayton, Matteo Iniguez, Brook Macdonald and Laurie Greenland all failed to make it to the halfway point of the course with tyres and bikes intact.
Laurie Greenland was looking incredibly fast until his crash
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
Matteo Iniguez was just one of number of rider to flat in finals
© Marcus Cole/Red Bull Content Pool
Even multi-time Red Bull Hardline winners like Bernard Kerr were reminded just how brutal the Welsh hillside can be. The three-time champion hit the rocky ground hard just after the big Road Gap drop during seeding, but after checks at the hospital on Saturday night, returned to race on Sunday with a mightily impressive fifth place.
Check out the full Red Bull Hardline Wales 2025 results here.
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