How To Watch Red Bull Hardline Tasmania

Tassie has some great mountain biking! Yeeeeewww!!!!!

(Check out Blue Derby trail network)

Race is being shown live on Red Bull TV at 5pm on Sunday… first big event of the year, should be an interesting one!

7am (UK) Saturday morning according to the RB website.

Yeah some of the camera angles are less flattering than others. The more that are coming out, the bigger some things look now

It looks massively fun, but obviously VERY different to Wales on a wet weekend, but of course we’d expect and want that.

The Maydena area often isn’t dry, but the forecast is that it will still be dry and 22 degrees c on Saturday – looks like it could do with a shower or two though. Not sure what it will look like by then with 33 degrees on Thursday and 16 on Friday… maybe if there’s an evening shower that can soak in on Friday things will improve.

The one time I rode there (Xmas week) it was an absolute slop-fest. I had to turn round on one track because I couldn’t get enough traction on wheels or feet to get up a tiny hill!

In BKs latest YT, he was saying they’re going to have to change the start time (5pm here) because the sun is too low.

Some mates are going, one did a walk-through recently and said it’s super steep … i’m just hyped to actually be able to watch something live-ish.

watched the first hits video, looks good IMO

could be make or break for Redbull here. They potentially have everything “the fans” have been asking for/removed everything they think is wrong with the UCI races. I presume they have Warner commentating? Think they are also delaying the broadcast so they can edit it together a bit more slickly.

If it goes well, could be a viable alternate race series. If it tanks…

Weeksy – completely get your point, but in theory the takeover of World Cup DH has been by a group making it more ‘mainstream’ and its failed spectacularly and become if more narrow in its appeal.

DH probably just isnt something that will ever appeal to a mass audience

I honestly think I’m ok with DH being niche forever (he says having finally accepted he’s never going to be a pro-downhiller even though that should have probably been clear from age 15).

I’ve said before but I’d be quite happy if the UCI had nothing to do with either Enduro or DH.  Just let the sport figure itself out without interference from a group that has no understanding or interest.

Not having a major governing body in charge doesn’t necessarily mean that the sport is condemned to eternal obscurity.  Just look at Strongman/Strongwoman competitions to see an example of a niche sport that has wide appeal.  And that’s with every competitor being on massive amounts of PEDs.

If it goes well, could be a viable alternate race series. If it tanks…

It wont because it’s not a race. It’s a promotional event where invited riders are paid to come and take part. Good for them for getting paid but let’s not pretended this is a race. For it to be a race it would require an open field for all those who are good enough to be able to enter. The fact that most of the WCDH top 30 aren’t there tells you where it fits within their and their sponsors priorities for the season. Im sure it will create some great entertainment and lots of social media for the promoter which is what it’s really about.

i also agree with Weeksy in that main stream tv is the only way the sport is ever going to grow, riders get paid more and the whole sport develops which with a bit of luck will increase the appeal for promoters to host races and we will get more of them in more places round the world.

For it to be a race it would require an open field for all those who are good enough to be able to enter.

Pretty sure anyone who wants to be there, is there. This has been on the cards for a year, all the top WC riders are friends.

Fearon is there in his Monster Helmet, so RB havent blocked that.

Someone said above, it seems to be toned down compared to Wales, more in line with world cup difficulty. I guess riders, especially the non AUS/NZ ones wouldn’t know that before accepting or declining – Bruni quite publicly turned it down.

the future for DH is on mainstream TV

when did you last watch mainstream TV? everything is streamed, on demand, everywhere.

I get suggested videos on FB, insta (and I assume twitter, tik tok work the same) of various outdoor/extreme sports because I follow mountain biking. I’ve got no real interst in surfing for example, but a 10 second clip of a big wave ride will lure me in, then click the description to find out about it, then see its from an event, etc etc. I never would have found out about it otherwise.

It just takes one clip in the middle of an avid snowboarder (for example)’s feed, could get them hooked on a new expensive sport. Or maybe they will just get a craving for energy drinks.

when did you last watch mainstream TV? everything is streamed, on demand, everywhere.

This.

Last year was the first year I was actually paying for and watching cycling (all formats, basically anything that was on GCN).

This year I’ll only be watching RB offerings (or anyone else who offers cycling on a platform that is decent VFM).

If you aren’t living in the UK (and possibly even if you are living in the UK) Discovery+ is just not good VFM.

If Ski Sunday with downhill skiing can be a thing why not bikes? Much more relatable for most people.

I’ve often wondered about that.  Also, why does no one want to spend their summers in ski resorts mountain biking?  I guess skiing is just something that is seen as aspirational whereas mountain biking is seen as a bunch of kids messing about in the woods.

I suspect it’s a classism thing.

How d’you know they weren’t invited to take part and have just turned it down for reasons that have nothing to do with their sponsors or Hard Line’s difficulty.

I have no idea, just like the rest of us on this forum, unless we work for RB. Let’s assume that anyone who qualified for a WCDH final men’s and women’s last season got an invitation and was offered the same or at least a similar appearance fee to those who are attending. The question then is why aren’t they there? There will be a whole host of reasons. My point is that those other reasons were clearly more important than attending this event. If it was the first round of the WCDH they would all be there. I doubt it is the cost as some of them appear to be in New Zealand doing winter training judging by the socials.

By mainstream I mean something that regular folks can get without having to go on the ‘net and look for it.

You reckon the audience for DH lies in the over-50s demographic?

Not saying you’re wrong but I wouldn’t call it a growing market.

I’ve not seen any footage of the final big double yet? I’ll have a look now. Was it nerfed after Kerr got them to flatten the take off?

They made it 30ft shorter. Now looks like they are overjumping it.

I like Hardline as a concept. It’s an addition to World Cup, not a replacement, and the southern hemisphere race fills a void in the calendar where not much is happening which I think is pretty positive (as long as it doesn’t create loads of pre World Cup injuries).

It may not be World Cup calibre, but it’s a race with a pretty stacked entry and they do a far better job of building hype and anticipation than the current World Cup hosts have managed.

TV / no TV. I really don’t care who the broadcaster is as long as they are good. If it goes behind a paywall it needs to be better than what was freely available – last year it wasn’t.

Personally I can’t see DH grabbing mainstream popularity so I think the best approach would be to make it as accessible as possible to those that have a passing interest. Danny Hill’s Champery run occasionally goes viral again and Danny Macaskil’s edits seem to transcend beyond MTB but beyond that how many of your non MTB friends show any interest? Lots of my mates follow motorsports rather than football etc, so you’d expect them to be easier wins but I’ve not seen it.

I do think Vali and Jackson are potentially personalities that could lift the sport in a way others havent.

mark88
TV / no TV. I really don’t care who the broadcaster is as long as they are good. If it goes behind a paywall it needs to be better than what was freely available – last year it wasn’t

+1

I pay enough subscriptions currently and I don’t need another one.  Especially not a one trick pony (as far as I’m concerned).  I’d happily pay pro-rata for the DH WC but I don’t want any of the rest of the WB/Discovery content.

Mainstream TV? I guess that means free to air – these days for my kids at least, that’s Youtube. If you’re not doing great little edits with the associated shorts, you’re not going anywhere. DH is almost made for it but now it’s been sold off with the rest of the UCI family silver.

Personally I can’t see DH grabbing mainstream popularity so I think the best approach would be to make it as accessible as possible to those that have a passing interest. Danny Hill’s Champery run occasionally goes viral again and Danny Macaskil’s edits seem to transcend beyond MTB but beyond that how many of your non MTB friends show any interest? Lots of my mates follow motorsports rather than football etc, so you’d expect them to be easier wins but I’ve not seen it.

I’d love to sit here and actually believe that someone somewhere is actively asking these questions in the coridors of power at Discovery+, but you know what, sadly i’m not honestly sure that’s the case.

What confuses me is that must have bid for the WCDH series to beat RedBull, (assuming RB still wanted it) so you’d expect that they have something in mind to grow the sport to increase their viewers and revenue…. But that’s just not being seen is it.
I get that the commentary team were new to it and despite me not being in love with them, at times they were not terrible.. Well, Cedric was terrible, like really really bad…

I don’t have a clue what the answer is though. But part of me agrees that it’s great that in a way it’s not mainstream, it’s supposed to be arsing about in the woods etc, but that doesn’t help in terms of revenue/salaries for riders. There’s still too few of them who’ll make a living out of it. Of course some will say “why should they”… well, they’ve as much right to make a living out of it as someone doing skiing, skating, even cookery lol.. But they’ll only manage that, if they get interest. Sometimes it takes something really lucky to hit a winning formula, like GBBO, who’d have thought people knocking up a cake would ever snowball into personalities making money and changing their lives.. But it has and they do. Will DH… i sadly doubt it will…. but it should.
I mean if Darts can pull £1,000,000 prizes, Snooker can beat that, heck, surely a DH race is more exciting !!!

You reckon the audience for DH lies in the over-50s demographic?

Does the age of the people watching the adverts matter? Does Alpine skiing worry about the demographic watching its races? Athletics? Darts? Road racing? or any of the 101 other niche sports that are probably paying their competitors more money than DH riders are getting currently?

so you’d expect that they have something in mind to grow the sport to increase their viewers and revenue…. But that’s just not being seen is it.

In between Discovery winning the bid and airing the series, they had a massive shake up to save money. What they wanted to do before, and what they’re willing to do now, are probs a bit different.