Red Bull Hardline | Tasmania
A recap of the ultimate downhill race…
Hardline was born in the rugged and wet mountains of Northern Wales, conceived by the Atherton family who are born and bred racers to their very cores. The idea was simple; how can downhill racing be pushed to its very limit? How hard can a track be? The answer to that is very hard indeed. A line was cut into the mountain which, at first, seemed like no one would be mad enough to ride. Then, 20 or so of the world’s best World Cup downhill racers turned up to give it a go. Fast forward 10 years and not only has the track become gnarlier and bigger, but there is now a second event on the other side of the world in Tasmania, Australia. Was it Really Hardline?
There was a lot of talk online about this event not being hard enough to be a ‘Hardline event’- but that doesn’t really strike us as true. Whilst perhaps not as gnarly and technical as the Welsh iteration, the Tasmania track was long, off camber, filled with large features and had some blind and very technical sections. Many of the world’s best took plenty of time to come to grips with the track, and only the top 10 or so riders set a representative race time- all the information seems to suggest that maybe it was pretty hard… One thing is clear though, and that is the build crew at Maydena built one hell of a race track. It’s very rare in the mountain bike world that everyone agrees on everything, but in this case, all the riders agreed that this track is amazing. It was fast and flowy in sections, had some amazing corners, exciting features all the way down, and some super technical rock gardens- check out Laurie Greenland's finals run and see for yourself! Whatever your thoughts on the difficulty of the track, no one can deny that the race was something special.
Another Women’s MTB First
2024 is a year of firsts for women’s MTB; with the first ever women’s Crankworx Slopestyle event coming this summer, women going big at freeride events around the world, and more talented riders than ever in pretty much all categories of MTB- and Hardline Tasmania was no different. We saw not just one, but two female riders complete a race run on finals day. To underline just how amazing this fact is, we need to consider two things. Firstly, until this event, no female athlete had ever completed a full run of a Hardline track- let alone raced it- we should at this point give a shout out to Jess Blewitt, the Kiwi MTB legend, who back in 2022 was the first woman to ride at a hardline event and showed what the girls were capable of! Secondly, the fact that we saw women racing in equal conditions against men, is an earth-shatteringly big achievement for women’s MTB. In a couple of years, female riders have gone from testing just a few features on the gnarliest tracks in the world, to racing competitively against a field of international talent on one of the hardest courses in the world of bike racing. If that’s not enough to get you out on the bike, I don’t know what will!Now let’s take a look at some of the women who broke new ground during this incredible event.
Gracey Hemstreet
Gracey Hemstreet is one of the most promising new talents in the world of downhill racing; hailing from Canada and the impossibly sick trails of Coast Gravity park, (built by her father!) Gracey has been Canadian National champion and has a handful of top 10 finishes in the junior UCI Downhill World Cup to her name. Her first year of Elite racing is sure to be an impressive one, particularly after her commanding Hardline run. She set a great time and had a near-perfect and well controlled run, finishing ahead of a few big names. She made the biggest features on the course look easy, which is saying something when there is a 60 foot road-gap, a 70 foot dirt-to-dirt jump, and a number of crazy drops that are blind and technical to say the least- check out her run here.She picked up the 'Rider of the Week' award, and rightly so; the magnitude of this achievement should not go unnoticed, and we cannot wait to see what Gracey has in store for us this year!
Louise Ferguson
Louise Ferguson was the second ever female to leave the start gate, which in and of itself is an amazing achievement; but when you consider what happened during her run, it’s even more impressive that she was the second ever woman to race across the line at a Hardline event. Louise has won in multiple categories all over the world, she is a true mountain biker and seems to be able to ride successfully in any discipline, so it makes sense that she would excel in an environment like Hardline. She was strong and fast out the gate and looked to be following in Gracey’s footsteps until her front wheel dug into a berm and she went down hard. She diligently and calmly shook herself down, checked the bike and hopped back on to continue- an incredibly impressive feat in its own right as there are no breaks on a Hardline track. She built her speed back up and looked to be cruising, until she had another massive over the bars crash in a dusty right hander. Many would have forgiven her for packing it in then and there, but with a thousand years of Scottish resolve behind her, she climbed back on the bike and absolutely sent the final section making two of the biggest features on the track look easy.As we all know, crashing sucks- it really sucks. So for Louise to be able to get back on the bike, after two huge crashes on a Hardline race run, and still cross the line as the second ever female to do so, is something pretty special; she has our respect and admiration for that! Tahnee Seagrave
Tahnee Seagrave is a favourite of ours here at SheRides. She’s a pioneering rider and has led the way for British female MTB for years; she has multiple wins under her belt, an incredible amount of podiums to her name and is an all-round shredder. Unfortunately, the start did not align for her this year at Hardline. She ticked off every single feature on course except the last 70 foot jump due the windy conditions during practice, meaning she did not qualify to race. We are certain that next year she’ll do one better, and we cannot wait to see her back on the World Cup circuit chasing a win in a few weeks time- could she be the one to take down Vali Holl in 2024?
Hardline Tasmania
At this point we should shout out Ronan Dunne for his outstanding race-winning run, and just all thank the Hardline organisers all round for putting on an incredible show. If you haven't caught up on the action then catch the replay here, or go and watch as much content as you can, it was really an awesome show. There were plenty of sick women who attended the event, we’ve just covered the ones who stood out to us- be sure to check out the content from the rest of the crew, the women’s rider list is below, and you’d better believe they all shredded pretty hard:
Harriet Burbidge-SmithGracey HemstreetCasey BrownTahnee SeagraveLouise FergusonHannah BergemannCami Nogueira
We can’t wait to see where the future of Hardline will take us, and which women we will see racing against the very best; for now we await the start of CrankWorx with great anticipation! 