The event that was, Red Bull Hardline. For months, we’ve had a trickle feed of MASSIVE piles of dirt being pushed together at Maydena, and images of trail builders in high-vis standing atop seemingly impossible rock drops.
But the question remained, was it going to work? This was the first time in the decade of Hardline that it had been anywhere except Dyfi Bike Park in Wales. Could the 800m vertical drop of Abbotts Peak live up to the legacy that had been built in the UK? Could the broadcast work in the deep, dark jungle, and would the weather play ball?
Watch Brook Macdonald’s Race Run, Shot On GoPro
As it turned out, the steady hands behind Dirt Art and Maydena pulled together a winner, and the drama of downhill racing rang through — along with some unthinkably big jumps. The women finally got their day at Hardline, with Gracey Hemstreet being the first female rider to complete a race run and making it to the final alongside Louise-Anna Ferguson.
For the men, it seemed like Bernard Kerr had all but locked up a win in Maydena, especially after Jackson Goldstone’s big crash through one of the tech sections. But in the end, it was Ronan Dunne who would earn that top spot on the podium, managing to find two seconds over Kerr by the time he crossed under the final Redbull archway.
There was so much action on and off the course, and fortunately, we had Kristina Vackova on the ground to capture it all.
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