MASSIVE! Red Bull Hardline Slideshow

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MASSIVE! Red Bull Hardline Slideshow
By sspomer
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<b>Ruaridh Cunningham on the way to winning Red Bull Hardline. His race run was his first complete run of the weekend..</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Winner, winner, Ruaridh Cunningham.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>The sun finally came out for the champagne shower. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>"Just a little pump and slight pull up..." Dan Atherton, man behind the madness, in the next batch of audios.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Yes, it's is this big. No fisheye trickery here. Joe Smith.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Gee, last run before finals and just before my camera broke away and plummeted. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>Smith x 7.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Gee Atherton on the first days practice. Gee was the only rider to look both comfortable and the huge jumps and fast on the gnarly track whether it was muddy or dry. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>BMX legend, Kye Forte took a lot of knocks this week. In the end his body was too battered to ride on Sunday. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>#YOLO</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Ruaridh Cunningham, 1st place</b> -Sven Martin
<b>30mph and hucking!</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Bernard Kerr, one of the few riders to trick on the big, technical jumps. Every jump had a tricky section before the entry and then hipped or transferred differently each time. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>Joe Smith, danglin'.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Getting a number plate meant getting really nervous.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Braking anyone? Al Bond, nice tires.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Thanks Jeep!</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Reece Wilson, 19-years old and stylin'.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Reece over the debris with Gee as emcee.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Reece Wilson x 2.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>16 starters turned to 8 come finals day due to the gnar. Dan Atherton and fellow builder and entrant, Gareth Brewin, each took a shoulder each for the rest of the field, guinea-pigging the the jumps they built early in the week. They were made smaller. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>With attention on the features, a lot of the riders forgot there was a very gnarly and proper DH race track, too. Taylor Vernon hitting the steep berm after the big, boggy rock drop in the woods. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>Olly Davey, Dan Atherton's mechanic part of the year and shovel smacker the rest. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>Olly moving too fast for modern technology.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>The downpours took their toll on the track and it was fortunate that there weren't that many riders afterall.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>This the biggest jump remained unridden. First the wind then the slower muddy conditions kept this out of bounds. Next year...</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Gee can go crook with the best of them.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Gee-Out Project.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>A bitter end to a great weekend for Gee.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Charlie Foxtrot.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Racing is tough. And it's even harder when the track wants to kill you!</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>There was a huge TV production presence which reigned in some familiar faces to stoke the riders out. Still not quite #VeroRaw though...the most stolen video of 2015.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Bummer weekend for Mark Wallace who was one the first to hit all the jumps and look at both at ease and fast. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>This shoulder and head check ended his week. Misjudging the line just as Kye Forte did before him.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Bernard Kerr, road gapping.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Who's #1?</b> -Sven Martin
<b>One gnarly case and TV67 was centimeters away from a total Ratboy foot detonation, but still sidelined at Hardline.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Wildcard, Craig Evans, was one of the first to hit a few of the jumps after Gee. Always good for the morale, amping and goading other riders to step up too.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Remote camera still firing at Al Bond as it falls 20 feet down off the road gap when the clamp came loose. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>Adam Brayton, #gas2flat literally. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>Joe Smith...epic.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Joe Smith on a gross section.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Bernard going camo.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Nature's field goal with Joe Smith.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>This was the set up into the one of the biggest and trickiest jumps. Miss the line or exit speed and you can't get the next two jumps. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>#gas2flat. But this time the flat was the deck of the landing. Thug Life. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>Rock, paper, scissors at the Dirty Fern jump. </b> -Sven Martin
<b>Drink up, Dan.</b> -Sven Martin
<b>Brayton with a first-day sender.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Dust and golden light, the riders get a first taste of the course in a rolling practice after the track inspection.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Craig casually careening.</b> -Duncan Philpott
<b>Thanks for the hard work Dan, Olly, Gareth, Gee and everyone else involved. DH never looked so rad!</b> -Sven Martin
hardlineshowintro

Red Bull Hardline lived up to its name. 30 top racers and freeriders were invited to the DH race featuring massive jumps. Approximately 25 confirmed attendance. A handful ultimately couldn't attend due to Cam Zink's wedding (congrats!) and international travel plan conflicts. With two weeks leading up to the event, about 10 more pulled out for various reasons (like Rampage coming up) after teaser pics of the jumps started surfacing.

Of 15 final confirmed starters: Dan Atherton and Gareth Brewin went out early with shoulder injuries. They were both course builders and guinea pigs. Lluis Lacondeguy pulled out after arriving too late to safely get enough practice time in. Mark Wallace suffered shoulder injury and concussion in practice. Taylor Vernon blew up his ankle, Kye Forte got slammed and others went down hard.

Rain, wind and mud made it tough during practice and race runs but everything except the biggest, most-exposed jump was hit by all the racers in the final. In the end, Ruaridh Cunningham took the win. Favorite, Gee Atherton, suffered a flat tire.


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