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Downtime - The Mountain Bike Podcast

Dan and Gee Atherton | The Untold Story of Red Bull Hardline

Downtime - The Mountain Bike Podcast

Downtime MTB

Sports, Leisure, Fitness, Health & Fitness, Hobbies, Wilderness

4.9628 Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Red Bull Hardline has become the most extreme race in mountain biking, but the story of how it came to be? That’s something you’ve never heard like this before.

Today, Dan and Gee Atherton sit down to share the real history behind Hardline. The secret test sessions, the build failures, the crashes no one saw, and the moments that almost shut the whole thing down.

From a cheeky illegal trail in the Welsh mountains to the gnarliest track on the planet, this is the untold story of Red Bull Hardline. So sit back, hit play, and enjoy this conversation with Dan and Gee Atherton.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube here.

You can watch Red Bull Hardline LIVE here on Red Bull TV on Sunday 27th July at 14:30 BST.

Podcast Stuff

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Photo – Dan Griffiths

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The reason Hardline has done so well is because Athea has always had this love of just making really hard tracks and taking people to it and watching them have to take on the awful things that he's built.

0:12.9

And that's exactly where Hardline came from.

0:15.6

The Rebel were nervous when we suggested the idea.

0:17.9

They were even more nervous when they turned up and seen the track, you know? Well, funnily enough, talking about cheeky trails.

0:28.6

Hey everyone, I'm Chris Hall and this is the downtime podcast, the podcast for the true fans of

0:33.5

gravity mountain biking, taking you deeper into the sport than anywhere else. This episode doesn't have any brand support, so more than ever, the support I get from Patreon

0:42.2

is key to helping me keep the podcast going. So if you're enjoying the show, getting something

0:46.6

out of listening, and are in a position to help out, then from just £3 a month, you can join

0:50.5

my Patreon over at patreon.com for slash downtime podcast. That's Patreon,

0:55.4

spelt P-A-T-R-E-O-N. Currently around 1% of listeners support us in this way. If we could

1:01.2

make that 10% it would make a huge difference and enable us to do this sustainably and to

1:05.7

improve what we do for you each week. All right, just a couple more quick things before we get

1:10.2

stuck into the episode.

1:11.6

Please make sure you never miss an episode by following the podcast. Just hit that button in your

1:15.5

podcast app now or find dedicated buttons for all the major platforms at downtimepodcast.com

1:20.2

for slash follow. You can also keep up to date with what's going on by following us on

1:24.0

Instagram, Facebook or TikTok where we're at Downtown Podcasts, or you can join our

1:28.2

newsletter at downtimepodcast.com forward slash newsletter. That and all the links I've mentioned will be

1:33.8

in the show notes for this episode on the website, downtimepodcast.com. Before we hit this week's episode,

1:39.0

I'd love it if you leave us a review for the show over on Apple Podcasts. It really helps more people

1:43.4

find the podcast,

1:44.6

and that growth helps us keep doing this for you every week. Big thanks for our latest review

...

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