Tucked into the hillsides surrounding the market town of Machynlleth, a selected few of the most skillful riders in the world gather for the annual Red Bull Hardline event.

Widely regarded as the hardest and most dangerous downhill race around, Red Bull Hardline has been going since 2014, having been co-created by brothers Gee and Dan Atherton.

“Hardline came about from a conversation between me and my brother,” Gee Atherton says.

“We came up with an idea of how cool it would be to just create the hardest downhill mountain bike track in the world. As big jumps, as big drops, as big gaps as possible. Every feature, just go above what I would usually do.

“We went to Red Bull with this wild event and they loved it. It’s been going 11 years now and has been a great success.”

Not that the Atherton brothers rested on their laurels after the first edition in 2014. The mindset of an extreme sportsperson is to always look for the next challenge. So that’s what they did.

“The following year, the event came round again and we thought we needed to make Hardline even harder,” Atherton adds.

“So we made everything bigger, more difficult. Seeing riders come back year on year and managing to get down the tracks that we built, just spurred us on to keeping pushing the difficulty”

Not that the Athertons are simply track builders.

All three siblings – Dan, Gee and their sister Rachel – have won National and World titles in downhill racing, with Gee starting Hardline off the back of winning his second mountain bike World Championship title in Hafjell, Norway.

Gee still races to this day, and will be one of the 30 riders competing this weekend in Red Bull Hardline 2025.

Such is the difficulty of the race, the event is invite only. The track may only take about two and a half minutes to ride, but it’s an intense route, taking in massive features like the infamous Road Gap, Crag Drop, and wall ride, to name a few.

It’s run in a time trial format, so each racer in the finals gets to set a race run time and aim to be the fastest down the hill. Last year, reigning World Cup winner Ronan Dunne took the Hardline title, in a time of two minutes, 23 seconds.

“The guys that love Hardline are the people that want to challenge themselves and push themselves,” Atherton says.

“They want to turn up and see a track that looks difficult and dangerous, they want to see if they can get down it. Red Bull Hardline attracts the best riders in the world because guys want that challenge.

“They want to be out of their comfort zones and be on the top of the mountain, scared and terrified, dropping into what could be one of the biggest features they’ve ever hit in their lifetimes.”

Despite the Atherton family being born in Salisbury, their biking exploits have brought them to their second home in Wales: Machynlleth in the Dyfi Valley.

“It’s just an incredible location,” Atherton says.

“We’ve lived their a long time, spent years riding our bikes around here and learning what an incredible terrain it is. We’ve got our base for Atherton Bikes down the road.

“Everything we do is here because it’s the most incredible riding. It’s one of the best place to mountain bike in the whole country. We’re still learning new spots to ride, new places to build features. That’s just what this corner of the world can offer.”

Gee Atherton spoke to Sportin Wales ahead of Red Bull Hardline which is taking place on 26th and 27th July – you can watch Red Bull Hardline live on Sunday 27th on Red Bull TV.

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