Atherton diaries - Red Bull Hardline 2017

Video: Atherton Diaries, Red Bull Hardline

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Did you know Gee Atherton has been dabbling in rally driving? Well he has, and we suppose compared to downhill racing or the Red Bull Rampage, it feels pretty safe to be inside a roll cage. You can see some of his skills on show in this episode of the Atherton Diaries, most entertainingly when he’s taking people up a mountain in the Dyfi valley.

This quickly moves on to the Red Bull Hardline, and unlike all the highlights reels and POV footage, it’s a nice long look inside the event. Those who are delicate of ear be warned, this video has f-bombs.


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Atherton Diaries - Red Bull Hardline 2017
“Just match my speed and you’ll be fine”

Dan Atherton got to put in a clean race run this year, after previously being taken out by injuries. This was despite heavy rain making the track sketchy as well as huge, but as Dan says in the video, he’d rather have rain than wind, as at least rain is predictable (high winds have caused certain big features to be taken out of the event entirely in previous years).

Craig Evans put in the winning run, which you can see a POV video of here:


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Atherton diaries - Red Bull Hardline 2017
It’s a whip, not a crash.
Atherton diaries - Red Bull Hardline 2017
Dan Atherton got to put a race run in this year, but wasn’t worried about times.

Red Bull write:

‘This week is wall to wall action with Gee’s British Rally Championships, a mega shred-train at the Dyfi Bike Park and the mountain monster that is Red Bull Hardline!

Gee is straight off the plane from World Champs in Australia and over to the Isle of Man for the final round of the British Rally Championships – some of those stages look sketchy to say the least – and we’re not sure that all of co-driver Keaton’s instructions are in the manual…It’s a good job he’s not on board when Gee takes his Jeep for a spin as a Hardline uplift shuttle!

In a quieter moment Rach is in hospital for the “Millionth” operation on her shoulder to repair that broken collar bone then it’s over to the Dyfi for a pre-Hardline warm-up with the boys – in Gee’s words – “sick riding, gnarly weather.”

Then it’s off to Red Bull Hardline for the world’s best riders to take on Dan Atherton’s creation – “the most gnarly, fast, most outrageous track you could ever imagine!”’

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David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly. Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.

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