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I’m going to talk about the Redbull TV broadcast of Hardline Tasmania race, and I will also touch on how to deal with lack of winter riding due to weather.

Redbull Hardline Review and Thoughts

Redbull Hardline is in my opinion the hardest races of the year for pro downhill racers. The track is long, and the features are huge and technically challenging.

Hardline is the brainchild of Gee and Dan Atherton. The whole Atherton family has been heavily involved in the pro downhill race circuit as long as I can remember. The idea was to create an invitation only race on the biggest and baddest track out there. From 2014 through the canceled 2023 event, the race was held at Dyfi Valley in North Wales. The 2024 and 2025 events were held at Maydena Bike Park in Tasmania Australia. They moved the location of the race for better more consistent conditions. It’s summer in Australia right now. They had to pull the plug just before the 2023 event due to wet, windy dangerous conditions. If you want to learn more about the origin and history check out the Redbull page.

The track for the invitation only event is designed by Gee Atherton. It’s an invitation only event because it’s too dangerous for most amateur racers. Some of the racers who will back out after the practice week if they are not up to the challenge. That gives you an idea of how hard this race is. In order to clear some of the bigger features riders need to be moving at close to 50 mph. I think I have hit about 40 on a bike, and it’s scary. I can’t imaging going faster with the intent of hitting huge features. The last jump of the race is about 80 feet from takeoff to landing. These are gap jumps. If you come up short, it’s really bad. Erice Van Leuven broke her back and wrist in practice.Thankfully she will make a full recovery. Ronan Dunne, one of the favorites this year, had a nasty crash in practice, and somehow only broke a collar bone. Jackson Goldstone who won this year, crashed out in his qualifying run after hitting a tree. The ACL surgery and recovery took him most of the World Cup race season. His wining race from this year is my featured video below. If you have a few hours to kill, the whole event is here. It starts a little slow, but once the racing starts it’s non-stop action.

Charlie Hatton was the first one to drop in this year. He set the bar pretty high from the rest of the racers. He had 12 racers finish behind him, and 8 finish faster leaving him in 9th place. Arguably he had the best conditions of the day. It’s been very dry in Tasmania recently. It was super dry and dusty, traction was at a premium. Brown pow was in full effect. Charlie Hatton sat at the top of to podium until Laurie Greenland dropped in. He beat Charlie by a fraction of a second. From then on it was super exciting. The podium changed after each new racer dropped in. Each one going faster than the previous rider. Jackson Goldstone was the second from the last one to drop. His race was perfection from start to finish. Asa Vermette was the last one to drop in. He made a small mistake towards the top. He landed just a little sideways on one of the first big drops. He missed first by .233 seconds. Check out the full results.

Huge shout out to Gracie Hamstreet. This is the second year in a row where she was the only female rider to complete the course top to bottom. That is a huge accomplishment considering the talent of the other female racers there. It’s awesome to see Redbull giving these women a place to display their amazing talent.

Bike I’m Eyeing: Santa Cruz Tallboy

Winter sucks, how to deal with it.

I have always been a proponent of riding year round. There are so many benefits for your health, fitness, and skills. That said, I won’t ride when the trails are muddy. It’s bad for the trails, and your bike. Most trails are maintained by volunteer labor, and riding on muddy trail is a slap in the face to all the folks who take time off riding to work on the trails.

At least where I live, the last month has been rough. Any of my riding has either been on frozen or snow covered trails. Days where those conditions were rideable have been few and far between. This has been a bit of shock to my system. For a number of years I lived outside of Boston MA. Unless it’s actively raining or snowing you can pretty much ride whenever. The soil content is different and it’s very rocky, so freeze thaw isn’t an issue at all. It’s a huge problem in the Mid-Atlantic. If you are unfamiliar with freeze thaw, you are lucky. When the temps drop below 32 overnight for a few hours, the top layer of soil freezes. It also brings any moisture in the soil to the top. As soon as the temps go above freezing or the sun hits the trails they turn to crap. There is a thick layer of peanut butter mud that sticks to everything. Riding in conditions like that is terrible for the trails and your bike.

Now the question is, what to do with yourself. There are other options to keep active like city riding which I discussed last week, and there are trainers, rollers, stationary bikes or any other type of stationary exercise. Those are fine, but there is only so much of that I can do before extreme boredom sets in.

Now is a great time of year to really dig into bike maintenance. This is especially true if you are newer to riding or a newer home mechanic because if you mess something up or it takes longer than anticipated you won’t miss any trail time. All you need to get going is a basic repair stand, or something a little nicer. I currently own a Feedback stand, and I used one like the Bikehand one for years. You can do about 75% of the work you need to do on a bike with a set of hex wrenches and a torque wrench. Some bike specific tools are also required. This Bike Hand tool kits looks pretty solid. It has most of the tools you will need to work on a modern mountain bike. Full disclosure, I have not used this kit myself. Based on the customer reviews it looks like a solid option for the home mechanic. Brake bleeding, suspension work, and wheel truing will require a few more tools. Below is a list of things you can do in the downtime. Between my past(and future) newsletters and Youtube, you can find tutorials on most work you will want to do.

• Brake Bleed with or without replacing the brake pads

• 50 hour suspension service

• Refresh tubeless sealant

• Thorough cleaning

• Full breakdown and rebuild

• Removing, cleaning, and re-greasing individual parts

• Replacing worn cleats for clipless pedals

• Replacing bent or worn pins on flat pedals

• Replacing worn contact points like grips, saddle, of tires.

• Clean, organize, audit of on bike or in hydration pack tools

• Cleaning hydration pack(mine are currently in the washer)

This is just a sampling of things you can do. Do your best to keep busy and active. Before you know it spring will be here bringing with it more consistent riding. With the work you just did(or paid a bike shop to do), your bike will be in tip top shape as soon as the trails are rideable.

Did you miss some of the previous issues? Here are some of the most popular ones:

• Why I ride weekly

• How to carry gear/water/tools

• Pedals: Flats Vs. Clips and home mechanic work stands

What am I reading?

My favorite stuff:

The recommendations below include affiliate links, if you make a purchase I’ll receive a very small commission.

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Video of the week

Jackson Goldstone’s winning Hardline run

Also, based on some inquiries, I’m now offering Bike Consultations, you can find more information about it here. You can also get a bike consultation by referring friends.