Monday Motivation: The Ladies Sending Red Bull Hardline 2023
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Red Bull Hardline is known for putting 30 of the world’s best and bravest male riders to the test, as they bid to tame the world’s hardest downhill mountain bike track.
Before the main event was unfortunately cancelled due to extreme weather conditions in the Dyfi Valley, the ninth edition of Red Bull Hardline saw six of the best women mountain bikers push new frontiers on a course deserving of its intimidating reputation.
Initiated by Red Bull athlete Tahnée Seagrave and Jess Blewitt – the first ever female to take to the Red Bull Hardline track in 2022 – the days leading up to the 2023 event saw some of the most talented and fearless female riders including Cami Nogueira, Hannah Bergemann, Vinny Armstrong, Louise Ferguson and of course Tahnée Seagrave & Jess Blewitt take on sections of the notorious course for the first time.
Tahnée Seagrave says, ‘The course is so intimidating, but from seeing Jess last year and what we’ve been able to achieve now, it’s just insane! We’ve had no pressure to do anything we wouldn’t feel 100% comfortable with, but by ticking off feature by feature it makes you realise that there is a link to slowly piece it all together.’
The Red Bull athlete added, ‘What we didn’t want to do was make the course easier, tame it down or change the event to facilitate the girls – but instead offer all the support and resources to create the best environment for all of the female athletes to progress together. With more time to practise and hopefully better weather next year I’m excited to see how close we can get to a full run. I can’t believe I’ve left Red Bull Hardline thinking that next year I’d come back ticking more features off.’
Heavy rains and challenging wind conditions couldn’t fully stop the female athletes from going all in as they chased weather windows and worked alongside each other to piece together the course. Tackling the same individual elements as the male riders, between them the riders collectively completed the top and bottom sections of the course, the Rock Drop, technical wood section into the Cannon, the Cannon itself and the On-Off, with a pressure free environment allowing them to collaborate, learn off each other and adapt to some of the toughest riding conditions in Red Bull Hardline’s nine year history.
Riders:
Jess Blewitt
Vinny Armstrong
Tahnee Seagrave
Louise Ferguson
Cami Nogueira
Hannah Bergemann
