MTB
The city streets of Valparaíso, Guanajuato and Genoa will host incredible urban downhill racing over the course of the year. Get all the info on and find out how to watch the action right here.
Summary
- 1The Red Bull Cerro Abajo series
- 2How can I watch the Red Bull Cerro Abajo 2024–25 series?
- 3Where are the Red Bull Cerro Abajo races taking place?
- 4What are the courses like?
- 5Is there an overall Red Bull Cerro Abajo series winner?
- 6Who's racing the Red Bull Cerro Abajo 2024-25 series?
- 7Who won the Red Bull Cerro Abajo 2024 urban downhill series?
When it comes to mountain bike racing, there are few disciplines as spectacular and risky as urban downhill. These races see competitors race flat out down a steep course set in a city setting. There's a lot to take in. You'll see racers ride down stairs, navigate narrow alleys, jump over massive man-made ramps, ride over the top of rooftops and, in some cases, actually ride through buildings.
This unique gravity mountain bike discipline is popular around the world, but especially in Central and South America, where the geography of major cities lends itself to these street races.
The series that brought the urban downhill racing phenomenon together is Red Bull Cerro Abajo, a three-race series established in 2023 that's contested by the world's finest proponents of the sport in some of the most vertiginous cityscapes around the world. With the 2024–25 Red Bull Cerro Abajo series already underway, read on the find out more.
01
The Red Bull Cerro Abajo series
Red Bull Cerro Abajo urban downhill races have been held in South America for years. The most well-known of these is Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo in Valparaíso, Chile, which held its 20th edition in 2024.
In 2023, a fully-fledged Red Bull Cerro Abajo race series was launched and last year the first stop outside of the Americas was added to the calendar, Red Bull Genova Cerro Abajo in the famous Italian port city. The October event, which was won by Czech urban racing legend Tomáš Slavík, was the first race of the 2024–25 Red Bull Cerro Abajo Series and is completed by the classic Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo on March 2 and Red Bull Guanajuato Cerro Abajo a few weeks later on March 29.
You can watch all three races in full on Red Bull TV. Read on below for details on the dates of the events, the live broadcast details, what the courses are like and who'll be riding.
02
How can I watch the Red Bull Cerro Abajo 2024–25 series?
The debut Red Bull Genova Cerro Abajo race took place on October 20, 2024, where Slavík bested Colombians Juanfer Vélez and Sebastián Holguín on the fast and physical 2.2km course to take an extremely popular victory in front of a bumper Italian crowd. Take a look back at the Genova race in full below to catch up on the action before the next two races of the 2024–25 series.
Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo will be streamed live on Red Bull TV on March 2 and Red Bull Guanajuato Cerro Abajo will also be live on Red Bull TV a few weeks later on March 29, with mountain bike legend Rob Warner calling the action. All races will also be available to watch as full replays right afterwards.
Stop 1: Red Bull Genova Cerro Abajo: Replay
Stop 2: Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo, March 2: Watch Live
Stop 3: Red Bull Guanajuato Cerro Abajo, March 29: Watch Live
03
Where are the Red Bull Cerro Abajo races taking place?
Genoa is the new kid on the block for the Cerro Abajo series. The Italian city is a historical port on the Mediterranean coast who's old town is also known for its narrow lanes that the locals call 'caruggi'. These make up part of the race course, alongside some sizeable drops and fast, wide sections down main thoroughfares.
The UNESCO World Heritage port city of Valparaíso is the location for Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo. The Chilean city was a major trading and shipping hub in the 19th century, with many of the colourful homes and buildings that sit on the hillsides constructed during that colonial time. The barrios on the hillsides are connected by a labyrinth of narrow alleyways, a number of which form part of the course.
Guanajuato City in Mexico is another UNESCO World Heritage site on account of its colonial street layout and housing architecture that dates from the 16th century, when the city started to boom as a major mining location. The city sits in a high valley and the lanes here on the hillsides can be super-narrow and steep – perfect for urban downhill racing.
04
What are the courses like?
Urban downhill courses in Central and South America share a few characteristics that define them. They're steep, often have long staircase sections and feature speedy straights, as well as tight turns on incredibly narrow streets that are barely wider than a set of handlebars. To help boost the spectacle the courses also feature man-made obstacles like artificial ramps and wallrides.
The Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo course is about 1.6km in length with with 205m of descent. It starts at the top of Cerro Cárcel before winding down past Bismarck Square and Atahualpa Street towards the fountain of Neptune at the Plaza Aníbal Pinto in the city centre, where the finish line for the race is. On their way down, competitors will ride on the rooftop of a house alongside the famous Boccaccio stairs, which leads to them going through the interior of the Hotel Faro Azul – in what's considered the most iconic part of this Valparaíso track.
Watch the winning run from Brazil's Lucas Borba at Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo 2024 to get an idea of the Chilean track awaiting this year's competitors:
Red Bull Guanajuato Cerro Abajo presents a different challenge to racers, boasting a lot of steps, a few hard pedaling sections and the narrowest sections that any of the three races boast during it's 1.2km length. It also features an iconic drop right out of someone's front window. Mastering this track at the speeds needed to contend for the win takes pinpoint accuracy and no small amount of bravery as Tomáš Slavík shows below at the 2024 race.
05
Is there an overall Red Bull Cerro Abajo series winner?
Yes there is and for the past two years the Red Bull Cerro Abajo champion has been the same man – Colombia's Juanfer Velez. The native of Medellín burst on to the international scene in 2023, winning back-to-back titles. Can he make it a hat-trick in the 2024–25 season? We'll soon find out.
In the race for the Red Bull Cerro Abajo title, points are awarded over the three races depending on where an athlete finishes in a race. At the end of the series the coveted championship belt trophy given to the athlete who's accrued the most points over the three races.
Entries are generally capped around 30 athletes per race. Just like any other downhill mountain bike race, there's a small amount of practice allowed on the course. This is followed by a qualifying run so that numbers can be whittled down to a manageable amount for finals. There's then just one race run for each finalist, with the fastest time being declared the winner.
06
Who's racing the Red Bull Cerro Abajo 2024-25 series?
With these races taking place either side of the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup season, they usually attract some serious racing talent that includes top World cup racers and the urban racing specialists who thrive on the asphalt and concrete. Brook Macdonald, Jackson Goldstone, Bernard Kerr and Wyn Masters are just four who've dabbled in the past.
Confirmed to be racing Red Bull Valparaíso Cerro Abajo are two-time winner Tomáš Slavík, defending series champ Juanfer Vélez and fellow Colombian victory contenders Sebastián Holguín and Camilo Sánchez. Also, heading the Chile are three-time Red Bull Hardline winner Bernard Kerr, defending Valparaíso winner Lucas Borba, local hero Pedro Burns, urban specialists like France's Adrien Loron, Chilean Felipe Agurto and more.
The lineup for Red Bull Guanajuato Cerro Abajo will be released soon, but you can expect to main title contender like Slavík, Vélez and Holguín to be there and maybe a few surprise entries from other big names in downhill.
07
Who won the Red Bull Cerro Abajo 2024 urban downhill series?
The same rider who won the very first title in 2023, Juanfer Vélez. The Colombian made it two from two on the title front by beating Slavík to the champion's belt by just four points, 113 to 109.
Vélez missed the Valparaíso race after breaking his wrist earlier in the year at another renowned urban race in Manizales, Colombia, but came back to claim victory in Guanajuato with an incredible ride that saw him claim victory from Slavík by over a second – a significant gap on a course that was completed in less than two minutes.
"The happiness of confirming myself as champion is unparalleled, so now let's celebrate properly. I'm delighted to be the Red Bull Cerro Abajo champion for the second year in a row," said Vélez, after accepting the overall winner's belt again.
He'll be determined to make it a hat-trick of Red Bull Cerro Abajo series titles this year, but the likes of Slavík, Sebastián Holguín, Borba and Agurto will be equally determined to get their hands on the champion's belt for the first time. It's going to guarantee some electirc urban downhill racing.
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