Finals Photo Epic: Rise of the Phoenix - Hardline 2019
Today brought the sixth battle deep in Dinas Mawddwy, North Wales. A course designed to test the best athletes in the world has done just that. With just 14 riders remaining following qualifying, who would race to survive and who would race to thrive? With yesterday's weather on the up, today's weather brought us firmly back down - building winds, poor visibility, and slick slop all turning up the difficulty a notch. The riders had time for just two practice runs this morning to acclimatise to the new conditions before tackling the most punishing downhill track in the world.
A mudguard awaits
Gotta dry them shoes.
Charlie Hatton leads Gee off the step up in first practice run
Brendan and Kaos in quick succession. Training this close to keep Brendog in sight perhaps?
Kade doesn't seem fazed by the weather and flicks a huge whip.
Brage tucks it up for the step up.
Bernard skips through the tech.
Gaetan applies the air brake.
Kaos laying down yet another huge one foot turn down.
Forgot your goggles or gone full euro?
Laurie dangles on for the fans.
Kade over the dirty ferns.
Charlie battling one of the smaller gaps.
Mechanics going to lengths to keep things clean.
Danny Mac on form for the fans.
Rach and Rob in the commentary box.
Not quite the classic rim rattle.
Midday whip train for the fans.
Lunch time laps with the boys.
Kade goes up.
Kade goes down.
Flo tucks it up before the send.
When this man makes things look big...
Brage looking super smooth into the finish arena.
Brendan sails into the finish over the fans, note the non-custom coloured link. Not sure what happened to the old one.
Matt Walker takes it in his stride.
Gee coming in hot.
Gee the crowd pleaser.
Gee watches on as seconds are taken off his time.
Kerr pushes it across the line.
Bernard takes it!
With a juicy cash boost to close his season, hopefully, we won't be seeing this face on 'Don't pay we'll take it away' any time soon...
Used and abused.
Bernard back on top. The first two time Hardline winner.
Over and out.
Top Five Riders:
1st. Bernard Kerr: 2:52.109
2nd. Gee Atherton: 2:55.338
3rd. Joe Smith: 2:57.886
4th. Brage Vestavik: 2:59.828
5th. Alexandre Fayolle: 3:00.509
Author Info:
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Huge kudos to Kaos, crashed, back flipped the big step up and then flipped the hip into the trees too. Complete and utter nutter :-)
Best race of the year. Kaos flipping the hip was the most insane move.