{"id":310339,"date":"2025-11-26T17:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310339\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T17:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:03:11","slug":"red-bull-hardline-tasmania-2026-rider-list-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/310339\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull Hardline Tasmania 2026 rider list revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Red Bull Hardline Tasmania<\/a> returns to Maydena Bike Park on Feb. 7 and 8, it will not be a gentle reunion ride. The full podium from both the Welsh and Tasmanian editions is coming back. That includes Canadian winners Jackson Goldstone and Gracey Hemstreet, and the course is only getting gnarlier.<\/p>\n

On a 3.4-kilometre track that mixes 60 km\/h speeds with 10-metre drops, the rider list reads like a who\u2019s who of riders who are either fearless or terrible at saying no.<\/p>\n

Returning names already confirmed include:<\/p>\n

\u2022Jackson Goldstone (Canada)
\u2022Asa Vermette (United States)
\u2022R\u00f3n\u00e1n Dunne (Ireland)
\u2022Gracey Hemstreet (Canada)
\u2022Troy Brosnan (Australia)
\u2022Lou Ferguson (Scotland)
\u2022Charlie Hatton (Britain)<\/p>\n

The rest of the invited field will be announced soon, but this core group alone is enough to guarantee things will get weird, loud and spectacular on the hill above Maydena.<\/p>\n

Goldstone vs Vermette: the rivalry Hardline was built for<\/p>\n

Goldstone comes in as the defending Hardline Tasmania men\u2019s champion after winning the 2025 edition on the same mountain. Vermette pushed him last time and is clearly the rider most likely to steal the crown in 2026. Expect that storyline to run all weekend.<\/p>\n

On a course where the difference between first and fourth is often a single sketchy moment, the Goldstone\u2013Vermette battle could be decided by who commits hardest on the new upper section. Organisers are reworking that top half to be \u201cmore spectacular\u201d and \u201cmore punishing,\u201d which at Hardline usually means bigger jumps, sharper edges and less room for error.<\/p>\n

R\u00f3n\u00e1n Dunne and Charlie Hatton round out a men\u2019s field that looks more like a Rampage qualifier than a normal downhill start list. Hardline is technically a downhill race, but it lives in its own category. Riders are dealing with World Cup-level speed on freeride-sized features where there is no such thing as a safe line.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hemstreet leads the charge in the women\u2019s field<\/p>\n

On the women\u2019s side, Canada\u2019s Gracey Hemstreet<\/a> is back to defend the Tasmanian title she won in 2025. She already proved she can handle everything Maydena can throw at her. Plus she has the kind of calm, composed style that suits Hardline\u2019s awkward mix of high speed and massive hits.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s Lou Ferguson adds serious depth and experience, with plenty of downhill pedigree of her own.<\/p>\n

Hardline grows up in Tasmania<\/p>\n

The 2026 event marks the 12th year of Red Bull Hardline since it started terrifying people in Wales in 2014. The original Dyfi Valley track set the tone. It had brutal speed, sketchy weather and features that made World Cup courses look polite.<\/p>\n

Tasmania takes that formula and drops it into the steep rainforest slopes above Maydena.\u00a0Event organisers are clearly betting on Hardline Tasmania sticking around. For 2026 they have:<\/p>\n

\u2022Redesigned the top section of the course
\u2022Opened spectator access across the full track, with shuttles to the summit
\u2022Expanded the entertainment and riding program at Maydena Bike Park<\/p>\n

Off the bike, it is starting to look more like a festival than a one-off race weekend. On track, it is still exactly what it set out to be: the scariest race most of these riders will ever start.<\/p>\n

No points, no rankingss<\/p>\n

Part of what makes Hardline feel different from any other downhill event is how you get in. You cannot qualify for it, you cannot race your way there on points, and your UCI ranking does not matter.<\/p>\n

All the athletes are hand-picked by industry experts. That mix always includes downhill specialists, freeriders and riders who spend as much time on big jumps and video parts as the others do between the tape.<\/p>\n

Red Bull Hardline is still an invitational, still streamed live on Red Bull TV, and still widely considered the toughest downhill course ever built.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Red Bull Hardline Tasmania returns to Maydena Bike Park on Feb. 7 and 8, it will not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,43062,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-310339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-mtb-features","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}