Bike
Bike
Take the stairs at Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo
It’s all downhill at Chile’s annual urban mountain bike race. Watch a POV video of a run right here.
4 min
GoPro run of the Red Bull Valpaíraso track
Ignacio Rojo drops in and takes us for a flat-out charge down one of the ultimate urban DH tracks.
Urban downhill racing has shifted from being a slightly awkward but spectacular sideshow to a mainstay of many pro riders' off-seasons. It's proved so popular that it now has its own series in the City Downhill World Tour.
The series, which sees riders snaking through city centres, got underway in Valparaíso, Chile on February 21.
Watch a POV clip of the track in the player above (onboard commentary in Spanish, but even if you don't speak the language you'll get the idea!).
Andreas Kukulis dropping in
© Claudio Olguín Parra/Red Bull Content Pool
Bringing riders (almost) right into living rooms
© Alfred Jürgen Westermeyer/Red Bull Content Pool
Urban DH brings mountain biking into places it technically has no right to be! Obstacles like flights of stairs, ramps and shipping containers are all muscled into place to build the tracks.
Rodrigo Farias bursts out of the container
© Fabio Piva/Red Bull Content Pool
Pedro Ferreira tackles a wallride
© Claudio Olguín Parra/Red Bull Content Pool
Local riders are a big part of the draw and soon have the wild local crowds of residents and bike fans roaring them on.
Watch an overhead drone clip of the racing from Valparaiso below.
Key to the success of urban DH racing has always been its ability to attract big international stars from the UCI World Cup roster. Filip Polc has remoulded his racing career into being one of the most successful urban racers ever, while Australian Mick Hannah is no stranger to the world of ramps and stairs.
Filip Polc takes the stairs...
© Fabio Piva/Red Bull Content Pool
Sick Mick Hannah on course
© Fabio Piva/Red Bull Content Pool
Times can be extremely tight at the top and the tracks are long and physical enough to test even the best. As with the all the fastest DH race tracks, it's the riders who can balance stamina and skill with the bravest line choices who come out on top.
The top 5 take to the podium
© Gustavo Cherro/Red Bull Content Pool
Cruz, Fishbach and Polc; your top 3
© Fabio Piva/Red Bull Content Pool
Polc, so often the master amid the gaps and crowds of urban DH, had to settle for second place behind Johannes Fischbach, with former unofficial whip-off world champs winner Bernardo Cruz taking third to lock out the podium.
You can find out more about the exciting events still to come from this year's City Downhill World Tour here.
