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Dan Atherton's guide to every big feature of the Red Bull Hardline course
The world’s hardest MTB track deserves its intimidating reputation, but what inspires its builders to up the difficulty each year? Course creator Dan Atherton explains what's in store for 2021.
By Matt Ray and Charlie Allenby
9 min readUpdated on
Every year, thirty of the world’s best and bravest downhill mountain bikers assemble to take on what has become known as the planet’s hardest mountain bike track, bar none.
Dan Atherton's creation has evolved over the years along with the sport and now the Dyfi Valley course looks like the love child of a UCI World Cup course and Red Bull Rampage. Any one of its drops, step ups, step downs or gaps would be the standout feature of a World Cup course, but here, Atherton has connected them all together to craft a truly mindboggling track.
Red Bull Hardline course map for 2021.
New for 2021 is a mammoth 60ft step down© Sam Needham
It’s an amazing spectacle, but what’s it actually like for the riders? As the course builder, Atherton knows each feature intimately. Here, he explains how the racers approach each vertigo-inducing gap jump and boneshaking boulder garden, one after the other...
3 minTrack walk with Matt JonesJoin Matt Jones as he walks the 2021 Red Bull Hardline track that Dan Atherton created for riders to take on.
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1. The start

Course walk with the competitors at Red Bull Hardline 2021.
Riders inspecting the start of the Red Bull Hardline course© Dan Griffiths
Over the years, the start has been moved down the hill to its current position, meaning riders are thrown straight into the action. "We wanted to keep the pace of race high," explains Atherton. "Before it was quite long and it was a section that was quite pedally – the type of rider that generally does these events doesn't really like pedalling!"
From the start ramp, riders drop straight into a step down, which is followed immediately by a righthand berm. "There's no warm-up and no easing into it – you're literally straight out of the gate and straight into it."
Everything has to be inch-perfect too because there's no room for error or time to correct. "The most daunting thing as a rider is the fact that you know you've got this crazy four-minute track ahead of you and you've got to nail every obstacle," Atherton adds. "From the moment you leave the gate, you're riding that whole top section trying to picture everything that's to come and how you can deal with it. There's a massive amount of nerves on that top section."

2. Camberlands

The Camberlands part of the Red Bull Hardline course.
Camberlands is always slippery, whatever the weather© Dan Griffiths
Next up is a massive grey slate slab, green with moss and lichen, which is quickly followed by a right-hand catch berm that fires the riders on and into the woods. The slab itself can be a major obstacle, especially in the wet.
"Technically, it's one of the hardest bits of the whole course," says Atherton. "It's not visually super stunning – there's no big jumps or drops – but it's a raw downhill track. It's always quite wet and the rocks are always really slippery."
Slate slab mastered, riders are thrown straight into darkness as they enter the Wet Whoops wooded section: "It's a really dark first section in the trees, so your eyes always try to adjust."

3. The Rock Drop

The rock drop on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
The North Shore landing returns, but nothing about the Rock Drop is easy© Dan Griffiths
The track through the woods is rooty, wet, technical and has an outrageous boulder drop halfway through it. This has a landing littered with yet more boulders and is flanked by trees that the riders have to hit at the correct speed in order to thread their way through.
"One of the trickiest things with the Rock Drop is that it's in really dark woods, so it never gets the sunlight – it's constantly wet," explains Atherton. "We added the North Shore landing to firm it up and make it a little bit more predictable for riders, but the riders themselves don't really like landing on wood.
"When I was riding, getting past the Rock Drop was one of my biggest points of relief. The rest of the features at Hardline are big and look really scary but are quite nice and well built. That Rock Drop was always pretty intimidating because it was always so unpredictable."

4. The Cannon

The cannon feature on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
The run into the Cannon has changed this year to make it even faster© Saskia Dugon
This gap jump is one of the most terrifying on the track, even more so than the monster step-up jump that follows it… Riders have about four seconds to compose themselves between the catch berm of the Rock Drop before they power through a left-hander and accelerate over around 100m of straight, rocky run in, pumping their bikes to generate even more speed.
"The Cannon is definitely the most scary jump on the track. It's one of the fastest jumps, has one of the narrowest landings and the room for error is pretty much zero," he explains.
"It's also affected quite heavily by the weather. It's high up the hill and is quite exposed. When you're in the trees, there's no wind and then you pop out of the trees and suddenly there's wind mid-air."
Rider seen coming off big drop in forest.
The Cannon is an incredible sight© Sven Martin
The gap is 57ft wide but even so, it's not uncommon for riders to overshoot the sloped landing by 10-15ft, just because they’re so scared of coming up short.

5. The Step-Up

The step up feature on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
The ramp is less vertical in 2021, allowing riders to keep their speed© Dan Griffiths
No sooner have the riders landed The Cannon, than they face the mammoth step-up jump that requires such amplitude, to jump up from the lip of the take-off, to the landing above them, that a steel motocross ramp has been wheeled in as the take-off. "You're doing this big step down and then you're literally, round one corner, and you're straight into the step up," adds Atherton. "It's pretty relentless."
The riders are doing 40mph (65kph) on the approach and nailing the correct speed is critical. This is complicated by the fact that you have to make adjustments to the speed according to the wind direction and speed – and it’s always blowing. “The wind is gnarly here,” he says. “It’s such a big jump, so there’s a lot of force involved if you get it wrong.”
Gee Atherton, Red Bull Hardline 2019, backflip,
Gee Atherton pulled a backflip over the Step Up in 2019 practise© Sven Martin/Red Bull Content Pool
Some of the world’s top riders have been caught out here, though, over the years riders have started to get more comfortable on the feature and some have even started throwing flips over it into their race runs.
"In 2019, it was ridiculous to see how comfortable everyone was – it made you realise how far the sport has come."

6. The Step Down

The step down feature on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
The Step Down and its 60ft gap is a new addition to the course for 2021© Dan Griffiths
What goes up must come down. Enter the Step Down. New for 2021, it's easily one of the biggest features ever to have graced the Dyfi mountainside. The numbers alone are mind boggling. The gap between take off to landing: 60ft (18m). The vertical drop: roughly 40ft (12m). All of this just four seconds after landing the Step Up, leaving riders with minimal time to set themselves for what's coming.
Racers walk the step down feature at Red Bull Hardline 2021
It's hard to get your head around just how steep the landing's gradient is© Dan Griffiths
"I think it's the gnarliest thing we've had on the track," says Atherton. "Mountain biking as a sport and Red Bull Hardline as an event have come a long way since 2014. I think this will take it to the next level. It will definitely separate the men from the boys."

7. The Rock Gulley

The rock gulley feature on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
Riders have to thread through narrow gaps between boulders and tree stumps© Saskia Dugon
The course veers back towards a very rocky, technical section, littered with tree stumps and boulders.
Even though the obstacles may be smaller here, there’s no mental respite – this is exactly where the riders have to put everything on the line to make up time if they're going for the win.
You can see the evidence for this at a V-shaped gap between two boulders that the riders have to thread through with millimetre precision – the inside of each boulder is scored with lines from pedals that have got a hair’s breadth too close.

8. Dirty Ferns

The dirty ferns area on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
Dirty Ferns was built to help ease riders in to the course...© Saskia Dugon
After the riders jump down through an old dry-stone wall, they hit a fast and flowing jump through the ferns, but the take-off isn’t that high and it’s still 45ft (14m) across. “We've changed that jump quite a few times," says Atherton. "One year I had one of the worst injuries I've ever had in my career on it – we tried to make it too big. I think now, with a steeper landing on it, it should be nice.
"We wanted something that was fun, and something that didn't scare the hell out of everyone, and a way of easing riders in. I mean it's still a massive jump."

9. Waterfall Edge

The waterfall edge area on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
Overhanging trees have been cut down, opening up this hip jump© Dan Griffiths
The next obstacle on the menu is the gnarly sounding Waterfall Edge. It’s a hip jump, up to and over a dry-stone wall. “You've got to judge your speed as you're coming in and then, as you come through the wall, you have to look up and see where the landing is," explains Atherton. "When you're in the compression before the take off, it's so tall you can't see the landing. You have to visualise where it is. A lot of riders aren't used to doing that – they're used to being able to see where they're going."
The combination of this, and the fact that there’s a steep drop into a waterfall-battered river to their left, has psyched some of them out to the point where they have completely overshot it and ended up flying 20ft (6m) up into neighbouring trees. For 2021, the trees are gone and it's all a lot more open, which should make things slightly easier.

10. The Road Gap

The road gap feature on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
The most iconic feature on the course has been made bigger for 2021© Dan Griffiths
"The first time you hit it, you're really nervous," says Atherton about the course's most famous jump – a North Shore take off that flings you across a 55ft (17m) gap and the fire road below. "But once you've done it a few times, you get quite comfortable with it. It's one of the few jumps though where there's no pulling out. That's always scary as a rider to know that you're 100 percent committed."

11. The Final Fly Off

Brage Vestavik surveys the fly off feature on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
Brage Vestavik sizing up the finish field's last obstacles© Saskia Dugon
The wooded section after the Road Gap is actually quite technical and is one more akin to a downhill track than a freeride one. Once the riders make the leap out of the woods, on another 45ft (14m) gap jump, then they line up for the last, huge jump – the Final Fly Off.
This is actually the biggest jump the Athertons have ever built (together with Hardline track builder Ollie Davey), which is saying something and its mind-numbing 65ft (20m) scale shows that Dan Atherton could possibly have got a bit carried away.
The finishing gaps on the Red Bull Hardline course as seen at the 2021 course walk.
Even with the finish in sight, riders still have two mammoth gaps to clear© Saskia Dugon
"You ideally want the course to be getting harder and harder as you go down," explains Atherton. "Those last jumps definitely do that. They look absolutely ridiculous. It's definitely taken the end of the race up a notch from just riders sprinting down the field to now having to lay up their bikes 65ft (20m) to clear the last jump.
"The landings are quite mellow. The riders are always complaining of quite big impacts and physically it's really hard. That always makes riders nervous."
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Red Bull Hardline

One of the toughest downhill mountain bike races in the world, Red Bull Hardline isn’t for the faint-hearted.

United KingdomDyfi Valley, Machynlleth, United Kingdom
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