Red Bull Hardline - The most dangerous line!
On September 9th 2014, at a secret location marked only by a specially-made warning triangle, ten of the world’s most skillful bike-handlers met to race.
On September 9th 2014, at a secret location marked only by a specially-made warning triangle, ten of the world’s most skillful bike-handlers met to race.
But this was no ordinary race, it was the first ever Red Bull Hardline, a Downhill race on a track designed by Dan Atherton and built specifically for the best riders in the world. A track so testing that only the genuinely most accomplished would dare to tackle it. There would be no red tape and no limits on discipline, Enduro riders, Downhillers and Freeriders were welcome to try their luck. No allowances would be made for any of them.
The fact is that Downhill World Cup courses have got “too easy” for this particular set of riders. The sport that they love is subject to endless red tape and in setting a course the UCI has to make allowances for Women and Juniors racing on the same track. Dan Atherton’s vision was “to reclaim the fear-factor, to remind the world that Downhill Mountainbiking is one of the gnarliest sports out there and to push the sport that we love beyond its limits and up to the next level.”
So Red Bull gave Dan the resources to build whatever was in his mind.
570m descent, with more features per metre than ever before. A course so intense that the world’s top riders would spend two entire days sectioning the course before anybody put together a full run.
Dan And Gee Atherton, Danny Hart, Sam Dale, Loic Bruni, Brendan Fairclough, Nico Vink, Joe Smith, Mike Jones and Dan’s friend Gareth Brewin spent three days in the Autumn sunshine mastering the track that all agreed was “totally intimidating and totally exhilarating”.
Gee Atherton said “This wasn’t a concept that popped up, fully formed, it evolved from Affy’s constant search for a harder build, the ultimate ride. Once he’d discovered this mountain, in the context of many of us feeling that we can ride most World Cups with one eye closed, it was only a matter of time before it turned into a race that would let us showcase exactly what we can do. A lot of World Cups these days you don’t even feel nervous for the first run, we’ll just ride down blind, first go. This track isn’t just hard to ride fast, it’s hard to ride full stop.”
Nico Vink was another rider fully behind the Hardline concept, he said “I’m so happy that Dan has made this happen, I remember chatting to him a couple of years ago about ideas like this and now with Red Bull behind him here we all are. I completely share and understand his motivation, the bikes and these riders here today can go way bigger than most of the current courses allow. We can’t wait for the UCI to push our sport, it won’t happen, we owe this to ourselves.”
Despite, or maybe because the course was so intense the vibe of the event was super-relaxed. All the riders commented on how much fun they had “It was a big, serious race on a mega track but right up till the final it felt like doing laps with your mates.”
Loic Bruni arrived with his mechanic Jack. He said “The event was really cool for both of us. When I first walked the track I was amazed by the sick view and so nervous, everything looked big and sketchy but I knew that it would be mint to ride and it was clear how much work had been done.”
Practice was scheduled to start Thursday but once riders started arriving on Wednesday afternoon there was no holding them back! Dave Pearce (who runs the UK’s Pearce Cycles Series) drove uplift for a very steep, very long drive to the summit. Every half hour the peace was shattered by fighter-jets training in the valley below; the weird perspective of looking down on them adding to the sense that something quite extraordinary was about to happen.
Dan, Gee, Joe Smith, Gareth Brewin and Mike Jonesstarted to section the track. It was slow progress. Dan said I’d designed this course to be full of features that all link directly into each other. We worked our way down together, it felt great watching everybody battle with each obstacle, especially when so many racetracks have moved away from being technical, it was very much about bike skills rather than speed.
The mounting excitement was tempered by Mike Jones’ crash running in to the first big jump which resulted in him being taken off to hospital with a suspected broken hand. It turned out that the massive swelling was due to a burst blood vessel but the fact that the course had claimed its first victim so soon was a sobering thought.
After this run Dan took the decision to make a change, he said “The riders felt that the double after the road gap was too intense so we took it out. Gareth Brewin was in the digger at 6am and on his bike for the practice runs by 10!”
Dan and Gee have spent their whole lives pushing each other’s riding to the next level so it was natural that they would be first to tackle the huge road gap. In fact Dan said that the two of them tackling that gap for the first time, together, was a huge part of why he chose to build the track. A small crowd of riders, mechanics, friends and family gathered underneath the take-off, 40 ft (12.5m) up with a spread of 70ft (21m) across the road. The brothers looked very small as they walked to the end of the wooden structure to scope their landings. Dan said “In typical Gee fashion he was well up for going first, and I was happy to watch!”
Gee said “ Actually the road gap was probably the easiest part of the course, it was intimidating because it was so big but as soon as you’d done it once it wasn’t an issue, there were other parts that were difficult every time, most of all the hip near the top. There is a step-down out of the woods, then a fast left to hit the fire-road and you’re onto this huge hip really fast, that one got me every time.
Loic Bruni said “I wasn’t confident about jumping everything so I was proud and happy that I did all of them, I’m not used to this kind of steep take-off and high drop but when you are racing you just have to get acclimatized and try everything that you feel able to. My favourite part was the woods and the open section, it felt like the most amazing World Cup Downhill track, it’s where I was most in my comfort zone and having fun. The worst part for me was the corner before the road gap, too slow and rocky for my liking, I crashed there, and I was relieved when they took out the bottom hip – that was ridiculous!
It is a measure of the difficulty of the course that nobody put together a full run until after lunch on the second day of practice.
Gee said “Watching Dan ride this course was incredible, he hadn’t ridden any part of it until we did so he had no advantage there. He was tired too from six weeks of digging and yet here he was giving the top 10 World Cup riders a run for their money. All through those practice days I was following him down and he was talking me through it, showing me how to do it and then doing it better than me! I’d won the World Championships the week before while he hadn’t picked up a downhill bike in months!
Gareth Brewin tackled the big jump at the bottom of the course for the first time during his qualifying run. Gareth said “I kept going round because the landing looked so violent!” Nico Vink agreed, “It was the only part of the course I didn’t like, I struggled to hold onto the bars near the bottom and still had to hit those last two jumps with the harshest landing.” Nico said “I can say that this is one of the most intense courses I have ever ridden. The last year I’ve been riding a lot of big jumps so they didn’t worry me too much, but don’t get me wrong, I was still scared! For me the main difference is the racing – I think I kind of lost that fight in me that you need to be fast in a race.”
Qualification was structured so that riders could put in a several runs and take their best time. Dan said “We wanted it to feel as relaxed as possible – the only pressure on the riders came from within.”
In Qualifying run 1 only Danny Hart was close to race speed, he posted a 4 minute run while Brendon, Gee and Dan were at 7 minutes plus and the rest of the field didn’t finish a full run. By Qualifying Run 2 Gee posted 3.45 with Dan 3 seconds behind him and Danny a close 3rd.
Qualifying Run 3 saw the fastest time of the day from Gee at 3:40 with Danny at 3.45 and Brendan and Dan on 3.48. Dan and Gee called it a day while Danny, Loic, Joe, Brendan and Gareth Brewin went for one more run, but nobody could touch Gee’s 3.40.
Sam Dale had a tough couple of days with plenty of offs in practice, then in his qualifying run, entering a rocky gully he took “one of the gnarliest crashes of the year” so he had to content himself with cheering on the Finals from the sidelines.
Gee had qualified first so he was last on the hill for the big race. Danny was in 2nd, Loic 3rd, Brendan 4th and Dan in 5th.
When it came to the finals run there was a noticeable shift in gear as the riders’ competitive natures came to the fore. Dan said, “Downhilll is so intense, it comes down to one chance, one run. I was totally reminded of why I switched to Enduro! I’d had such a gnarly six weeks digging this course, working against the clock to have everything dialled, and all through practice I’d been worrying about what the other riders thought of the course. Then suddenly they were calling me for the Finals uplift and nothing else mattered. Time to lay down one fast run.
Gee said “ The race run was the hardest of the week. For days we’d been building up, working towards that run. I wanted it to be so good, I was confident that I’d saved enough for the kind of extra special run that you know you have inside you, but you also know that you don’t have that many of them. Anyway I was in the middle section in the open, drifting into a fast left when I sliced the side of my tyre wall. I was gutted but I ‘d done a lot of good riding, it wasn’t so much missing the win that I minded as never getting to know exactly what I had in me for that final run.”
Perhaps the last word should go to Danny Hart, winner of the first ever Red Bull Hardline.
“This event was great fun and it definitely pushes our sport to the next level, you couldn’t put jumps like these in a normal race because somebody would get hurt, not everyone can jump that sort of jumps.
I wasn’t totally crazy about winning this event, because I was having such a good time just riding it, having a blast with my mates. Don’t get me wrong, when I look back now it is sick to have won the first Red Bull Hardline, but if I’d walked away with 2nd or 3rd, I would have still had a smile on my face.”
Results
1st Danny Hart 3:39.081
2nd Dan Atherton 3:41.491 +2.410
3rd Loic Bruni 3:47.432 +8.351
4th Joe Smith 3:47.479 +8.398
5th Gareth Brewin 4:03.870 +24.78
