- Urban Downhill Racing is quickly becoming
one of the biggest parts of our sport.
It's downhill racing but in a city center
where rocks and trees are replaced with
curves and lamp posts.
(soft background electronic beats)
So, I wanted to check it out and compete
in one of the biggest most prestigious tracks
in the world.
The 17th Edition of the Red Bull Cerro Abajo.
(airplane sounds)
I hoped on a flight to South America, Chile.
Landed in the capital of Santiago.
A two-hour drive to the coast and the city of Valparaiso.
I am no downhill racer, but I sure as hell a free rider,
and there's some pretty big hits on this course.
First things first, let's walk the track.
(electronic beat music)
(flourishing of trumpets)
(crowd cheers)
(beat continues)
Right, it's an hour 'til practice,
so I thought I'd, the best thing was to
come up here, do a track walk, see what it's all about.
Because as you can see there's like cars coming down
hard to believe that I gotta practice on this in an hour.
I been introduced to the first obstacle: road gap.
(dogs bark)
Not so big, noisy dogs though.
God, you're gonna be have to be on the break so hard here.
Take a look this! I call this Dog Leg Corner.
Oh my goodness me, this is the notorious,
longest strait of stairs that I'll be riding down.
And to make life even more difficult,
look at the size of this.
You have to jump it.
It's like a meter and a half wide.
My bars are seven seventy.
And, it's flat out down there, look,
to the abyss.
What is that? That is not a snake, that is dog eggs.
183 steps straight line with a slight kink in it
right at the bottom, just to add extra scariness.
To be honest, I am quite nervous about that.
Out of a whole course so far that is the scariest bit.
Hang on a minute, we go on someone's roof.
Look at- We're on someone's roof!
(Metal crunches beneath him) Hey?
Where does it go?
And then you go down there into someone's back garden.
(Audible exhale)
Flippin' horrible things, even scary to walk down
let alone ridin'.
(flat slap the floor, men talk in Spanish)
Underneath the grapes, nice Chilean grapes.
And then, through someone's house.
What?!
(sound of feet slapping the ground)
That ceiling is flipping,
Oh my gosh look at that view, that is what you call blind.
That is a blind drop, and that is the,
the steepest landing.
(sound of hand thudding against chest)
That is the steepest landing known to mankind.
Hopefully Granny doesn't come out her living room
and into this hallway.
So you jump out of Grandma's house then you
land on this landing, quite steep.
From up the top it looks steep,
from here it doesn't look too bad.
But then, this is the first bit of dirt that I've seen.
Through Grandma's front garden,
the lawn's been destroyed, sorry Grandma.
And then you're gonna come into this dirt burn.
Now this looks, this looks nice.
I'm at home with that, not with steps.
A big drop into a sharkfin, and by the looks of it,
'cause I'm only course walking,
that sharkfin looks like it pushes you into the wall.
Let's go down there and take a look at that.
(background live street sounds)
They're still working on it, still welding bits to it,
so it don't fall apart when we're riding.
And then you're introduced to this cool sharkfin
lookin' thing, and that drops off down onto
the next street.
Sharkfin, so I'm guessing all of this here is the landing.
That's gonna come down here.
Apparently there's going to be a wall right over here.
But there's no wall ride, I've got practice
in like 25 minutes now.
There's no wall ride.
Some guy stopped and said, "Oh yeah don't worry, man.
We'll build this tonight."
Tonight. Race day's tomorrow, mate.
(electronic music continues in background)
(sound of panting breath)
Wall ride, wall ride, wall ride, jump out, bomb.
(dogs barking)
(screams)
Valparaiso's quite well known for it's
graffiti in this bit, real narrow street.
Super cool, look at that tiger.
I'm guess, I'm guessing it comes here,
look there's still ramps here.
This does look cool though, maybe you do fire outta here.
Well you can't fire out here, you'll hit your head on that.
Maybe these ramps are to go down
that street there which is very busy.
We have twenty minutes 'til practice.
First, quick bite to eat and then it's time to drop in.
I got like ten minutes.
(crown cheers)
All kitted up (audible exhale) bike set up.
Plan the now is to just wait for our uplift,
which is gonna pull up any second,
and then we're gonna jump on that and
they're gonna send us to the top.
And then we're gonna, we're gonna session
certain obstacles on the course.
The whole course is not fully open,
cause the rest is pretty much flat out down the road.
- How you feelin'?
- A bit jittery, like
(sound of a hand thumping a chest)
I am nervous, you know, I don't do this sort of stuff.
I only, you know, mess around in bike parks or
free ride sections, but this? Hell no.
We can't ride that bit,
cause there's no landing for that bit.
(sound of bike wheels hitting off stairs)
(sound of bikes moving at high speeds)
One.
- Seems like he landed in the landing.
- Yeah. It was chilled through here,
it's like he rolled, huh? He braked a bit.
- You think?
- Yeah, he went (makes sharp brake sound)
Phew.
(sound of bike moving at high speeds)
- He's a really good rider.
- Is he?
- Yeah.
- It's literally giving you tunnel vision
because of the walls,
you're going fast in a small area
it just feels like you're going Mac10
so you wanna brake but you don't
really wanna go too short on this.
I reckon I'm just gonna roll in
(panting breath)
Man, this is the worst bit, man.
- Libre, okay.
- Yeah (audible exhale)
(mumbled speaking)
(sound of bike moving at high speeds)
(heavy bang)
(fast electronic beat music)
- This (bleep) so gnarly
- Yeah
- Like there's so much
(talking over each other)
- So that's it, three practice runs, done.
Let's go back to the hotel.
(slow electronic beat music)
(sound of brush sweeping against the pavement)
(sound of crowd cheers intercut with city silence)
Coming out it looks alright, not going in.
- This jump too wide, is quite narrow that taper.
- Yeah, you could definitely mess up 'at, eh?
- Oh yeah.
I would pull hard first time on that
- Yeah
- Slow, and roll in and 'av a look.
- Yeah
- And stop on this take off.
- Look how close them cables are.
So you don't wanna land in the middle?
- No, like, what I feel like,
if you kinda land the middle or the high,
you're lower-
- Lower, and then
- So, what you wanna go is like, in the bottom
and then going high wherever you want.
- Oh, okay, yeah.
- And then you can go in high towards the middle.
- Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh, I get it.
- (bad audio) -you go high too soon, and then you just-
- Oh yeah, you just drop down.
Blind choice, it's key.
(laughter)
- Survival is key.
- Yeah
(laughter)
Survival is key, yeah.
This is the last drop.
(up beat brass instruments)
Look at this cable.
(background talking)
I feel sick, man.
(crowd cheering)
Yo!
(whistle blows)
Right, top section done,
now this is the section we ha-
Oh my gosh! He crashed so hard!
It's so slippery, he skidded, I'm-
He nearly went off the frickin' drop.
No lie, that was so damn frickin' scary.
Right, let's go look at this obstacle
that's just been built for us.
Um, top section, super fun, after practicing.
I quite enjoyed it.
Now the nerves kick in, cause this is quite a big feature.
- Don't hit this thing too far.
- No, you can't. What's the gap like?
- Looks okay, you just have to-
(whistle blowing and shouting)
(sound of bike on wooden slats)
- Whoa, pedal off it? What?
(laughter)
- It doesn't look too bad.
(whistle blowing)
(repeated bikes hitting the wooden platform)
(sound of bikes landing, and whistles blowing)
- Alright!
(repeated bikes hitting the ground, crowd talking)
- Gah, oh, it looks real ramp.
(whistles blowing, bikes moving at fast speeds)
(crowd lets out a surprised groan)
- What the (bleep)
- Wow
(nervous laughter)
Wow. That's real gnarly that bit, eh?
(whistle blows)
- You need to be like in the middle and then-
(whistle blows, sound of bike against wooden slats)
- Or go high like Eddie did.
- Nah, that was too high I think.
- And you pop out too close to the crowd then.
- Yeah, if you like, localize a bit
(upbeat electric guitar music)
- Back
(crowd groans)
(upbeat electric guitar music)
(whistle blows)
(crowd cheers)
(soft brass music)
- This is the top of the course.
This, my friends, is where qualifying happens.
Right now, I'm ready, I've done a few good runs.
I feel alright, a bit nervous,
I just know that I am not a downhill racer,
so I wanna get down this hill,
as fast as I can, within my own means.
There's no room for error.
For sure, no room for error.
Like, if we go off track finished.
And you have to hit every single obstacle.
If you don't hit an obstacle with both your wheels,
both tires, you're disqualified.
So, you know when you're just aboutta drop in,
you do get those nerves, you're like,
Right that doors gonna open, you're gonna go
through that laser beam, it's gonna beep,
everything is going crazy at the start,
but when you get through into the course,
you kind of start to chill out a little bit.
And you can start to hone in.
(electronic music)
Ready. See you at the bottom.
I can hear my heart in my helmet.
- Cinco, cuatro, tres, dos, uno, go!
(crowd cheers)
(sound of bike hitting the ground, whistle blows)
(crowd cheers)
(electronic music)
(crowd cheers)
- What's up (bad audio quality)
- D'you mate, dreams do come true.
When I was a kid, I dreamt about racing
through the streets. And look at this!
I'm in Valparaiso, whoo!
And I got the results as well from the race,
I got last! Yes! 25th! I survived though!
If you wanna see, let us know,
what other challenges I should do.
Maybe another race, maybe get Neil to do this event.
Let us know in the comments down below.
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See ya!