Big air, big crowds and big scenery | Red Bull Hardline Maydena through the lens of Kristina Vackova

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.

This rock is one of those features that we saw photos of trail builders standing at the top, wondering how the heck they were going to make it work. And boy howdy did they deliver — this thing is massive!
Hardline isn’t all about airtime, and there were some fantastically steep and techy sections on this course.
It’s the Catalina f***** Wine Mixer!
The crowds were out in droves for Hardline; we were not sure we’ve ever seen the park this busy.
We’d heard a few grumbles about the hard landing off the shipping container drop in the lead-up to the race. Doesn’t seem to be slowing Laurie Greenland down here.
The energy down into the finishing bowl was electric, and the sound of cowbells, chainsaws, and chanting was deafening.
Big crowds, big jumps big scenery — Maydena Hardline in a nutshell. It’s genuinely difficult to put the size of some of these features into perspective.
Gracie Hemstreet would win Rider of the Week, a well-deserved accolade.
Ronan Dunne getting sideways on his Hardline-winning race run.
Hardline hearing loss, brought to you buy Stihl Chainsaws.
The media scrum with their elbows out to get a shot of the man of the hour.
Josh Carlson was in his element, keeping the vibes high and the crowd pumped.
After some wild racing, Ronan Dunne, Bernard Kerr and George Brannigan would fill out the podium.
We’re glad to see Dunne embracing the shoey after taking the top step on the Hardline Maydena podium.

It appears you're using an old version of Internet Explorer which is no longer supported, for safer and optimum browsing experience please upgrade your browser.