The Red Bull Hardline track is known as the toughest downhill mountain bike course in the world. With competitors taking on huge jumps at breakneck speed, health and safety and monitoring of weather condition is a top priority. We were thrilled to help the team in Dinas Mawddwy gear up for the much-anticipated 2022 event, facilitating safety for the competitors and spectators alike.
About Red Bull Hardline
Co-founded by brothers Dan Atherton and reigning World Champion, Gee Atherton, the first Red Bull Hardline event took place in 2014. When it was first unveiled, the course included more features per metre than any other downhill race. Growing in magnitude each year since its beginning, the 2022 course is without doubt the most challenging to date.
The Challenge
The 2022 course is a brutal part-downhill, part-freeride track set in the heart of Wales's Dyfi Valley, leaving competitors completely open to the elements. Not for the faint-hearted, the sheer height and width of each of the jumps would leave riders at considerable risk if weather conditions are not accurately and consistently monitored.
From a technical viewpoint, the Red Bull Hardline course consists of four separate locations so it was crucial that any wind sensors and receivers installed could operate from a distance apart, without affecting communication or power.
Our Solution
Skyview’s engineers visited and surveyed the impressive site, to assess for any factors or pit falls that would need to be considered. After meeting with the organisers, our team installed wind speed and wind direction monitoring systems at all of the four required locations on the Hardline Downhill Course. The systems themselves consisted of four robust wind sensors, supporting wireless kit and an automated GPRS modem for feeding data back to our Skylink-pro weather monitoring portal for data access.
To factor in the distance between each individual system, we installed wind sensors and receivers that can be up to 300+ metres apart without any impact to communication.
As well as enabling access to current and historic wind data from the each of the monitoring locations, the team at Red Bull can also receive email and SMS alerts throughout the day, reporting the current weather conditions from each location.
Due to high winds moving in across Dyfi Valley, and as a result of vigilant real-time weather monitoring, the organisers were able to make the management decision to move the 2022 race forward by 1 hour to protect the riders’ safety.
“As a competitive cyclist, I fully appreciate the limitations and risks that high winds and extreme weather can create during a competition of this level. Having designed weather monitoring systems with the Skyview team for 20+ years, it was a brilliant opportunity to combine my personal and professional experience to enhance safety at one of the most difficult competitions in the world.”
Steve Southey, Operations Manager, Skyview Systems