Red Bull Hardline: the progression and the pain
In advance of Red Bull Hardline Tasmania, the Athertons have released this discussion between Dan and Gee, looking back on the years since the first Hardline. Enjoy!
Red Bull Hardline: the progression and the pain through the eyes of its founders Dan and Gee Atherton
As riders head down under for next week’s 2nd Australian Hardline at Maydena Bike Park, Tasmania we chat to the event’s leading lights Dan and Gee Atherton about the changes they’ve seen in the last 11 years of the event … the podiums, the pain and the progression that has exceeded their wildest dreams.
DAN: Red Bull Hardline is a pretty simple concept – do a downhill race and make it the hardest in the world. We kicked off the event more than ten years ago when the top riders were feeling that World Cups were getting too easy. That first, secret race in 2014 was like nothing before it with elements of Freeride, BMX and Downhill, we were basically setting the path that leads to today.
Everything I’ve done in Mountain-biking has been about pushing my own limits and progressing the sport as a whole and Hardline is perhaps the strongest expression of that. Red Bull have been amazingly supportive in letting us go beyond what any of us thought possible but when you’re pushing that hard there’s always going to be a price to pay.
GEE: The scariest part of Hardline is definitely the testing, a new feature is so risky because there are just so many unknowns. I think that’s been where Athy’s input has been so vital and why Hardline has managed to grow into what it is, his ability to eye up run-ins, trajectories and sizes of gaps meant that we could take on some quite gnarly stuff and trust that it would work. We definitely haven’t had 100% success rate! The amount of injuries over the years and up to the present day show how dangerous it still is …
DAN: Definitely in the early years, things felt really raw and we were learning a lot, some years we would have multiple injuries just testing before the event, it was calculated risk but we were hungry to push the limits and make Hardline as progressive as possible. In 2015 I crashed out on one of the big hip jumps and fractured my scapula into three pieces. I’m happy that as Hardline has progressed there have been fewer accidents. We’re more aware than ever about nailing the balance between challenge and progression and being safe. Also the standard of riding has improved, bike tech has improved and we’re building courses with the weather in mind… I think testing is the key to the progression of Hardline, once one person has hit something it makes it so much easier for the second. As we head into the event’s future of I see us getting more calculated with testing and hopefully that means we can get less injuries whilst still pushing the progress as hard as we can.
GEE: Other people joining in the testing and early riding is a massive help; in those early days when it was really sketchy and unproven there were never that many volunteers! Nowadays more people have been up for joining in those early stages, people like Bernard Kerr and Matt Jones and more. It’s really good for the event as gives it another element of these other riders, incredible riders bringing their influences, and helping to shape Hardline as it expands into new territories.
The women starting to ride Hardline is another massive progression, obviously growing up with Rach we’ve always been really keen to have more women riding, it’s really cool to see what the women are capable of when they are given the opportunity and pushed as hard as we’ve pushed the guys…
DAN: A huge factor with the woman is the weather, if they have enough time and good conditions they can tackle most things, but a huge part of what makes Wales so difficult is dealing with the conditions, if we get a dry week in Tasi this year I think the woman will do some consistent full runs.
GEE: For men and women I think it’s one of the most difficult aspects to get right, balancing that level of challenge, I think it’s been really noticeable some years when the courses haven’t changed to the extent we probably could have, which is when some parts that were really scary a couple of years ago suddenly seem easy, riders start to get comfortable and they’re flipping the jumps, tricking it, messing around, other times they’re a bit trickier and it’s a bit unpleasant … It’s a giant learning curve, every feature on Hardline has always taken a bit of tweaking and adjustment; sometimes you get it right early on, sometimes it takes ages.
Obviously the Canyon Gap is the one that springs to everyone’s mind but it was just an example of how important it is to get those early versions as spot on as you can because the risk of sending people over a jump that’s not quite right is enormous. It’s actually not that different to experiences that we’ve had on other features, perhaps they were just not so well documented.
DAN: Actually the more technical features have been the hardest to get right. The first year of the On-Off took a few modifications to lips and deck to get it right and in the early years we made a huge shark fin that just never worked. The bigger, faster stuff tends to work because the riders are so good they just deal with it.
GEE: Part of that comes down to confidence, what you’re hitting is bigger than anything you’ve hit before so it’s hard to prep for that. Any question in your mind that you or your bike is not up to the job and suddenly you’re not going to have the belief to speed-tuck into a 100ft gap or rip off a lip … Tasi Hardline is fast, a lot faster and a lot more open than Wales, a bit less technical but quite dry and rough and you’re just going at it a lot harder. Any crashes are going to be extensive so it’s challenging in a slightly different way.
DAN: Yeah, the speed in Tasi is insane and this year has one of the highest standards of riders we have ever had so the times are going to be tight and hopefully make for some good racing. I think there is no end to the progression that this event can bring; bike technology is getting better and we’re learning a lot more about what suspension set-up and tyre pressure works for big jumps mixed with tech as riders slowly get more comfortable with this style of racing. The Hardline riders are the best in the world and will always step up so I think it’ll come down to us course builders having the creative vision to push the sport.