How To Watch Red Bull Hardline Tasmania

I watched Matt’s video ^^^ followed by Bernard’s, my god the speed difference is intense. Hats off to Matt, he did really well, with so little preparation and (as above), as he’s no doubt a hugely better ride than most of us, but Bernard.. bloody hell that’s fast… and he was 1.8 seconds slower than the winner

Matt was 21st (out of 23 that completed the course), hats off to him

I always wanted to see them inviting freeriders to Hardline and I think it really did make the event more interesting.

That and it being a really good DH track with huge jumps, rather than a series of huge jumps with a bit of a lacklustre track in between them in Wales.

Fantastic production and coverage from Red Bull and the commentary was particularly good. You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone, eh?

Too many fixed cameras for my liking and blurry chase drone images in the woods can crash and burn in a ball of flames for all I care.

Long course though, and camera operators may be more scarce / expensive to get to Tas?

Imo, the old cable cams always looked better and in this situation, the speed and stability given by the old technology may well have been the solution.

The only time I’ve really seen drones working well in the woods is for XC racing. The minute it gets tight or fast, it becomes too much of a challenge for the pilot to keep everything in frame.

ocrider
It does show how slick you can make the broadcast if there’s only 30 odd riders to commentate, not that I’d like the more limited rider coverage in WC but it seems inevitable in the long term.

Gaps between riders were a bit big for me but understandable given the nature of the course and that they wanted to stick to a schedule.

DH has always been more about the racing and putting the event on for the participants than the public – now they’re trying to format and  monetise it, that will change.

My biggest take from Hardline Tasmania is how much of a sore loser BK is.<br style=”box-sizing: border-box; –tw-translate-x: 0; –tw-translate-y: 0; –tw-rotate: 0; –tw-skew-x: 0; –tw-skew-y: 0; –tw-scale-x: 1; –tw-scale-y: 1; –tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; –tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; –tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; –tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); –tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; –tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; –tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; –tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, ‘Noto Sans’, sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Apple Color Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Emoji’, ‘Segoe UI Symbol’, ‘Noto Color Emoji’;” />2nd place is nothing to be devastated over Bernard, be pleased for Ronan like everyone else.

Nothing new there then 😀

He was even worse when Craig Evans had the temerity to win Hardline the other year.

BK is a massive cry baby though. I haven’t been a fan since since I was unfortunate enough to be accommodated near him and his fawning entourage for a while.

He’s got a fanclub full of boorish, hooray Henry, Surrey millionaires.

Im sure BK even moaned at Amoury Pierron when AP bet him last year or the year before.

I remember AP a few years ago on the grass turns at top of Les Gets (?) going visibly faster than anyone, utterly amazing before he’d even got onto the dirt.

He sees himself as the king of hardline and has an entitlement to win. He had more track time in Tasmania than any other rider at the sharp end, so to be beaten by Ronan, who had the least amount of track time must have been a huge reality check.

I like Bernard, but I also dislike him.    Whatever the view though, he has come a long way since ‘can’t pay or we’ll take it away’.

He sees himself as the king of hardline and has an entitlement to win. He had more track time in Tasmania than any other rider at the sharp end, so to be beaten by Ronan, who had the least amount of track time 

That’s it.

I’m sure some of the other riders must resent that self-imposed role a bit.

Anyway, I don’t think anyone was disappointed to see Ronan win – and mostly because he was Ronan rather than not BK. The lad is a breath of fresh air.

You get that vibe at every level from grass roots DH to Nationals. It’s honestly incredible how much support the riders all give eachother. Chatting about lines, (probably hiding a few sneaky ones of course) chatting about cornering, jumps, just standing there going nuts every time a rider comes down the trails. It’s part of what makes what i do with the boy so worthwhile, the fact that even their rivals are still cheering eachother on. It’s brilliant, utterly brilliant.

At Fort William last year the boy was at the top with Minaar behind him in the queue, he looks and sees him and goes “Do you wanna go first..” the reply was “Nah kid, you go, it’ll be brilliant”
A couple of weeks ago the boy was riding with Dan Atherton at Dyfi along with 4-5 others. “Right kid, you look fast, you lead on this one” was what Dan says to him. Along with “yeah you can hit the ramp easy”, so he did…

Fabulous.

Interestingly Amaury Pierron wasn’t that far away, he was racing at the New Zealand national champs, is time would have put him 3rd behind two locals, surprising though two other riders in the juniors beat his time.

What’s interesting is how many were racing in Tasmania and still declined to be part of this pr stunt

@chrismac what do you mean? you appear to have a real bee in your bonnet about Red Bull in all of these threads.

Speaking of Amaury ‘The Dreamcrusher’ Pierron, I can’t wait until he’s back and riding at full speed. When he’s on a flier I’m convinced we’ve never, ever seen anyone go that fast on a DH bike.

Agreed – when he puts a run together I feel like he’s a level above the others. Jackson is a very different rider but I think the next one we’ll see do that. I look forward to them going toe to toe.

Jackson is a very different rider but I think the next one we’ll see do that. I look forward to them going toe to toe.

Exactly. I was gutted when Jackson got hurt, I can’t wait to witness a season of him riding in good health. He’s definitely playing on a different level to almost everyone else.

AP is a monster but the way JG changes direction is supernatural, he’s like a housefly. Total opposites. It’ll be amazing seeing them face off on various tracks.

God Damn, is it time for round 1 yet? It’s been forever!

It was a brilliant event… no more, no less… I can’t see any downside to it.

When there’s no downside, someone on here will find one.

AP is a monster

I love watching AP’s runs, he’s going so fast, it’s like he’s only *just* this side of it all going horribly horribly wrong, he literally seems to be going as fast as he possibly can, he holds nothing back,  when it all comes together I genuinely think he’s untouchable, it’s amazing to watch.

what do you mean? you appear to have a real bee in your bonnet about Red Bull in all of these threads.

I just don’t get the love in for these events and that RB are somehow the shining light of dh. I have a friend who works at RB HQ in marketing and these events are carefully calculated around the ROI. They are just as money motivated as WB and Discovery but everyone gives them a free pass for some reason. I also struggle with all the hype when clearly most of the top racers aren’t interested.

I think you miss the point fella. People enjoy the spectacle, the pleasure, the fear factor, the atmosphere between the riders, then of course the racing too.
I don’t see why the top racers need to be there for it to be enjoyable. No one is saying “it’s bigger than WCHD” or they’re all faster than DH racers, people are enjoying it because it’s brilliant to watch things that are crazy difficult.

I couldn’t care less if RB make £10 or £1,000,000 from it… i simply don’t care. I just enjoy watching MTBers do stupid stuff really well. The fact that Bruni or Jordan or Vergier isn’t there doesn’t take anything away from the event.

I have a friend who works at RB HQ in marketing and these events are carefully calculated around the ROI.

Oh no it’s a conspiracy!!!

Honestly I wouldn’t expect anything less. Burning money would be foolish and your business would die.

 They are just as money motivated as WB and Discovery but everyone gives them a free pass for some reason.

Because from my perspective as an armchair racer, the product is better. It’s free and it works beautifully on multiple platforms, it’s easy to find out what’s on and when and they’ve got the commentary dream team.

Disclaimer: I well remember when Red Bull TV was crap and they have dropped the ball multiple times in the past but at least the riders and teams have a direct line to raise their concerns.

WB Discovery just took the whole thing and changed everything without consulting anyone who has dedicated their entire life to it. They took the sport that we’ve been following since the 90’s and tried to turn it into Gladiators. Then they put it behind a paywall, and I haven’t bothered to find out how to watch it.

If it was the other way around I’d be a WB fanboy but they’ve bolloxed the job and they’ll drop it as soon as the bean counters say it doesn’t make sense.

I also struggle with all the hype when clearly most of the top racers aren’t interested.

I think some of the top racers are seriously considering how their bread gets buttered. Riders just below the top are drawing up schedules that include lots of non WC events.