All Things RED BULL HARDLINE Tasmania

Will Mr Morton be donning a chain for this race? The people want to know!

you do not understand how stoked I am to watch a world class race that isn't at 2-4am our time.

6pm Saturday I'm gonna tell the kids to shutup, crack a few beers and enjoy, FREE world class racing! 

Hope she is ok.  That slam went straight to her dome.  

Looks like she ticked everything off today. 

I love how all of these fresh team signings get thrown straight into Hardline. "Let's find out if I made the right decision!"

6:30 mark gives a good sense of how quick the highway section is

And not only boys but also girls, progress in recent years is truly insane!

Mrs Sam Hill weighing in (screen shot below), wondering where the Hardline tech is - what do you think? Is it too groomed? (and yes, obvs it's a gnarly beast of a track, the sheer size of it is enough to scare away any mere mortal, but still...part of what makes the original Hardline so gnarly is the ridiculous tech you have to navigate at race speed between hitting the monster features...)

I kind of agree with mrssamhill. Maybe Laurie and Jackson make it look easy, but it does look more like the ultimate bike park/jump line than the gnarliest DH track on the planet. Maybe the dry weather is making it easier to ride. A bit of rain will shake things up for sure.

^ Elite "men"....damn, no love for the ladies there is there.

And...I don't know if I agree with the negative tone about hardline here, I mean if you are going to throw neg vibes on bike racing-make it about hating on a friggin rainbow jersey given out for snowbiking. That just made the rainbow jersey, our most illustrious symbol of greatness, look like clown town.

If you watch any top to bottom POV there are plenty of “hard” sections that aren’t big drops or jumps. Shoot that motor way looks insanely terrifying and technical for how fast you’re going. 

Also this might be one of the sickest follow cams I’ve ever watched. Homies are ripping

All these average riders are super hyped, they love the track. Giving heavy Mrs Kurt Warner vibes, what are you doing lady?

Even Jackson and Laurie's follow cam made the parts in between the jumps look very tech due to being offcamber or very soft terrain.

I think the organisers also learnt from past mistakes, Barreli was a podcast recently saying he was so relieved when he dropped out of the Welsh hardline one of the first years because the track was barely rideable in between the features, I don't remember the stats, but something like 10 riders turned up to finals out of the 30 invitees at the start of the week.

Hardline to me is more like rampage than a race: the build-up and feature testing is more fun than the final event.

The riders universally love the track and think it will make a great race track. 

Wales is its own thing, and I'd argue the actual race is kinda boring, as only 3 people are ever really up there, the gaps between positions is massive. It's so challenging and so few racers actually go there it kinda ends up being a let's survive event. Which the first few were. 

I'm not arguing against Wales at all, but a fresh track means you can take a fresh perspective and do things differently. 

Also I know the Maydena hill very well, and there isn't a lot more they could do realistically, the amount of vert they descend from the start gate till after the hip in the trees is huge. The hill flattens out a lot after then, then they use the rest of the vert to build speed for the jumps. 

There isn't a part of the hill they are missing, and all the steep bits are either chutes with rocks, or huge drops. 

The only other option would to build a track west side (king brown direction) but it's just entirely Forrest the whole way and kinda impossible to do so. 

Compared to hardline wales the technical sections look to be fairly average besides one or two jumps.  The tech sections at hardline wales are arguably harder to ride than the jumps are.  Just the rock garden before the road gap usually catches out a few riders every year as it’s right on the edge of actually rideable.  Same goes for the very top and the first woods.  Still a sick track at taz and I’m stoked for the broadcast.  Most excited I’ve been for a race in some time.  But I’d agree the wales track is more difficult to just get down.  

kind of hope wc tracks start to head in this direction.  Maybe have mandatory go arounds for the juniors on the biggest features.  They did a great job on the track and it should only get better as the years go on.

Who knew "Karen" Hill would show up in the comments .

The track is new number one, so will develop over the years. Is technical in a different way to the Welsh version. Will be a challenge to race and as it won't be that easy for red bull to find venues that will build tracks the public "can't ride" and host these events. Red Bulls Hardline series, if it takes off is gonna have to do what it can at some venues maybe. For sure this track could be steeper and more challenging in parts. But it ain't "two jumps and a couple of berms".

Seems Mrs.Hill has some serious souer grapes? 

 

Wyn was running crank brother IG today wonder why they didn't interview Gracey

The track is steep and tech, flow and huge. Dont mistake that. Like the trees down there its some pre-historic oversize greatness. 
Riding has gone another-nother level!

the Hill Family, both mrs and Sam have fallen off the MTB train, more into moto now. No more NP/crc money

Not hating on Them but Their opinion is kinda irrelevant as theyve given up on MTB.

They are owed over 30k British pounds (after CRC/Wiggle going into administration) and Sam's retirement was forced by injury so they may be a bit jaded with the scene.

Sam Hill is one of the greatest this sport has ever seen, he has 2 of all time top 5 rides in DH racing (I'd argue Champery will forever be n1) but that mrs comment is typical keyboard warrior stuff, she is not there, didn't see or even ride the track and if pretty much all of the best riders in the world are stoked on the track then it must be a bloody good one and their opinion is only one that matters. They've said it really isnt as tech as Walles, but more full gas with big jumps and thats enough, I'd rather see riders happy and safe compared to full on survival mode. Plus there needs to be a variety, hope we will be even more fortunate in te future to get more such races. I also feel like thats like a small middle finger from redbull to UCI, look we can do better than you do without the fuzz and a sack of money stuck up Chris Balls a**. And vitalraw is again the best video of the event so far so f**k yeah, bring on the good times!

I agree on the Hill comments.

Although I don't agree about RB vs. UCI. RB could care less about what the UCI think, Hardline is it's own class of event. Always has been and will be. The comparison to World Cups is not really neseccary and is kinda keyboard warrior in a different way no?

Hardline existed while RB was broadcasting world cups and RB TV and the branch of RB that run hardline are different companies. So yeah. Cool

I don't really get the vibe that with this event they're gunning for the UCI, Monster more likely. The motorway section is far more like Darkfest than Dinas Mawddwy.

They cut the track short just after the container road gap due to wind.

hoping the racing is closer than the seeding, I got the feeling Jackson will pull a rabbit out of the hat come race day.

Bernies been on it all week, only person who can beat bernard is himself.... stay on yer bike lad!