The unofficial DH season kicks off this week with Red Bull Hardline in Tasmania. The field looks stacked and as we know, the track is pinned with massive jumps.
Use this as the place to share and enjoy the goods from down under!
Live webcast on https://www.redbull.com/us-en/events/red-bull-hardline-australia (and we'd assume on YouTube, too) - Feb 7, 10am EST, 7am PST for those in the USA.
Here's the RAW from last year to get you hyped, and we have Ty Bowmaker shooting another one this year.
Rider list (WHO'S YOUR MONEY ON?)
Men
Jackson Goldstone (CAN)
Asa Vermette (USA)
Ronan Dunne (IRE)
Luke Meier-Smith (AUS)
Aaron Gwin (USA)
Troy Brosnan (AUS)
Gee Atherton (UK)
Kaos Seagrave (UK)
Theo Erlangsen (SA)
Bernard Kerr (UK)
Charlie Hatton (UK)
Dan Booker (AUS)
Roger Vieira (BRA)
Ryan Gilchrist (AUS)
Sam Hill (AUS)
Brook MacDonald (NZ)
Darcy Coutts (AUS)
Connor Fearon (AUS)
Edgar Briole (FRA)
Matteo Iniguez (FRA)
Kade Edwards (UK)
Matt Jones (UK)
Sascha Kim
Women
Jess Blewitt (NZ)
Mille Johnset (NOR)
Gracey Hemstreet (CAN)
Lou Ferguson (SCT)
Mikayla Parton (SCT)
Asa>
Anyone on a 32er?
If everyone stays healthy, I would put a lot of money on some variation of Jackson, Ronan and Asa on the podium. I'm not sure any of the women will touch Gracey and Lou, but hopefully all the ladies are able to clear the course and race this year.
Fantasy would be sick.
What about Erice Van Leuven? Haven't seen, heard anything from her for a while now. Is she ok?
IIRC, she posted a clip of her ripping on her downhill bike a few weeks back.
She's was interviewed somewhere (or maybe it was an Instagram post) and said she's doing good but not going to do hardline Tasmania this year to focus on getting back up to speed for the world cups.
bernard's trackwalk vid
troy's trackwalk vid
Is Luca racing? I thought I saw an IG post about it and his name on a list the other day?
Yes, but haven’t seen much of him on track yet. There’s a few riders there that are wild cards but not listed. Charlie Hatton may or not be riding after a crash in NZ
Hope Oli Clark gets a run there.
I hear a rumor of a hardline in BC in Vancouver? Any more info on this?
https://www.vitalmtb.com/comment/718586
Seems like they made some cool changes to the track, that short and high drop up top looks gnarly
Looks like Mille Johnset took a hard slam. Hoping she is OK.
Here we go, a first look at the action thanks to Ed Bull Media House:
More trackside action from Moi Moi:
Broken collarbone unfortunately
Really sad to hear about Mille. I love watching her ride, she can get pretty sketchy when she's pushing the speed, but she always looks so calm and comfortable on the jumps and things. Her and Lou always seem to have so much fun riding together in videos and it really gets me excited to ride. I was so stoked to see their POVs together like they did at world cups. All the best to her!
I did see Luca pop up finally in clips from Troy and in his own instagram stories. I'm wondering if he got there a bit late and missed track walk or something. It sounded like he traveled pretty last minute, anyway. Haven't watched anyone's youtube vids yet.
I was really hoping she would hold it together. It would be really sick to see more women get it. They did a good job picking Gracie and Louise but Millie always seems to go down and I don’t think she was anywhere near ready for stuff this big
She come up just short on the finish line jump which means she ticked off all the big hits before to get there.
So cool. Pushing the limits of the sport while keeping it grassroots at the same time.
Is there a list of rider numbers for this year? I mean, I'm rooting for everyone on race day, basically--but it would be fun to know who's who in these pre-ride videos.
So stoked!
GoPro wide angle makes it look like Theo just flew in from Easter Island
troy's first hits
Not sure it's particularly grassroots as its a super-exclusive invite only event that caters to a small group of athletes every need. It is sick though and pushing the sport and certainly needed.
grass and roots does not grassroots make
Yeah, I get that, maybe "rider-centered", "not constrained by UCI"...what I mean is that the riders seem to be working together more than say, a WC race. Seeing them all scoping lines together, figuring it out, kind of regardless of teams... it looked a lot different than a World Cup. Much less formal. Maybe the riders have an opinion on that--I'm just saying what it looks like to me.
Anyway, the addition of local racers, late, after invites, etc. I'd argue that's pretty grass-roots. You'd never see that at a WC today.
I completely understand but if anyone at her skill level jump wise can get through that (her POV shows insane nose diving and sketchy moments) then it honestly seems not that hard. I get I would get smoked racing it but if she can jump it I know there’s a decent portion of riders who could easily get through the jumps. They are not hard just hold on and go style.
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