It's time for the 21st edition of one of the world's most famous urban DH races, the legendary Valparaiso Cerro Abajo in Chile. Valparaiso is the second event of the 2024-2025 Cerro Abajo Series, the first of which was the Genova Cerro Abajo in Italy, won by Czech urban racing legend Tomáš Slavík. From Valparaiso the series will move on and conclude at the Red Bull Guanajuato Cerro Abajo on March 29. Colombian phenom Juanfer Velez has won the last two overall Cerro Abajo titles, can he make it three from three? We'll find out at the end of the month, but he will need a good result here in Valparaiso to keep his bid alive.
You'll be able to watch all the action live on Red Bull TV and the Red Bull Bike YouTube channel on Sunday March 2 at 10h15am PST, 13h15pm EST, 19h15 CET.
To get us situated (and pumped up!) before the race, here's Rob Warner with a course preview like only he knows how to do them. There have been a number of modifications made to the course for this year, and it's fair to say looking pretty wild!
If there's a course walk to be done, you know BK will be on the job!
Riding most of that track would be fun. Racing it would be terrifying!
Live broadcast here:
2025 RED BULL VALPARAISO CERRO ABAJO RESULTS AND REPORT
The 21st edition of probably the most famous urban DH race in the world went down in perfect conditions today. The track was over 50% changed compared to previous years, and it posed a formidable challenge to anybody with podium ambitions in Chile this afternoon. 16 riders qualified for the finals earlier this morning, among them wily old veteran Tomas Slavik and the fearless young guns from the South American continent. Tomas came down early after a disappointing qualifier, and he laid down an absolute scorcher of the run to take up residence atop the hotseat with a time that was only 0.1 seconds off Juanfer Velez' fastest qualifier. With his strong 4-cross background, Slavik possesses a unique mix of skills that lend themselves particularly well to these urban DH tracks; he's got the technical ability to pump and pop his way down stairs, wallrides, and weird gaps, gaining speed where others sometimes bog down, and enough leg power to briefly affect the rotation of the earth when he sprints. He rides an enduro bike, taking a maximum amount of risk through the technical sections to benefit from the superior pedaling performance of the shorter-travel frame in the flatter parts of the track.
Of course, on this continent, there is no shortage of urban DH talent, and Lucas Borba, Felipe Agurto, Camilo Sanchez, Sebastian Holguin and Juanfer Velez all had their chance to unseat Slavik. There were green sections, wild gaps, and untimely slide-outs, but when it was all said and done, Slavik had won his second of two races on the trot to take a commanding lead in the overall series standings heading into the last stop in Guanajuato, Mexico, on March 29. Before his run came to an untimely end due to a 180-degree slide-out on some dirty asphalt (and a second, more dramatic crash when he was trying to make up for lost time), Juanfer Velez in particular showed us why he is the hottest new talent on the block in this discipline, scrub-whipping and stair-gapping his way to some impressive splits and looking every bit like he was destined to win here. Raincheck for him, although it almost never does rain in urban DH.
2025 RED BULL VALPARAISO CERRO ABAJO RESULTS
1. Tomas Slavik: 2:18.828
2. Felipe Agurto: 2:19.029
3. Lucas Borba: 2:19.541
4. Roger Vieira: 2:19.543
5. Gonzalo Gajdosech: 2:19.968
6. Johannes Fischbach: 2:21.663
7. Felipe Benavides: 2:22.933
8. Douglas Vieira: 2:23.266
9. Alex Rudeau: 2:23.380
10. Jeronimo Paez: 2:24.083
11. Edgar Carballo: 2:25.623
12. Bernard Kerr: 2:44.472
13. Juanfer Velez: 2:54.915
14. Camilo Sanchez: 3:29.839
15. Sebastian Holguin: 3:30.490
16. Hannes Alber: 3:38.929
winning run POV
made some comparisons using IG vertical videos, sorry for not adapted for such type of video UI:
Tomas vs Felipe: https://ridetop.app/compare_vs/?ids=593444482,847394973
Overall Chart: https://ridetop.app/compare_chart/?ids=593444482,847394973,880646605,554829220,760891747,972217395,544065284
Also made a little post with analysis https://www.vitalmtb.com/community/prkel/blog/03/04/2025/entry/131271
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