When Red Bull Hardline landed in B.C., it was a historic day for many reasons. Cypress Mountain hosted the first-ever Hardline in B.C., after a long wait for many Canadian riders that have thrived at the outsized downhill events. Among those historic notes is Tayte Proulx-Royds. The Kelowna, B.C. rider became the first junior woman to drop into a finals run at a Red Bull Hardline event.
Proulx-Royds wasn’t the only junior woman at Hardline B.C. this year. Norco adidas Race Divisions Lina Frenner also worked through the massive jumps during practice. But a hard crash on the Canuck drop saw the Norco rider opt not to start finals. Proulx-Royd’s dropped in, but, like several Canadians, her run didn’t go the way she’d hoped. A flat tire ended the race run early. But history had already been made. The Polygon racer had to complete a top-to-bottom run in practice to get into the start gate and, having done so, is the first junior woman to start a Hardline finals.
We caught up with Proulx-Royds to see how her first Hardline played out. How it compares to her usual World Cup racing. And how a past at freeride events, like Casey Brown’s Darkhorse in Revelstoke, helped prepare her for the unique demands of Red Bull Hardline.
Tayte Proulx-Royds performs launching one of the larger, rowdier drops during practice at Hardline. Photo: Andy Vathis / Red Bull Content Pool
Canadian MTB: First off, how was your first Red Bull Hardline experience? What were you expecting and how did the week go?
Tayte Proulx-Royds: It was really fun. We spent a lot of time understanding the features and how they worked before actually riding them which I quite liked. It’s definitely a slower race week compared to World Cup, which I was expecting. But to actually be doing it, it did feel a little odd. In the grand scheme of things, I was very grateful for the extra practice time in general. The week was honestly the best it could’ve ever been. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to be there
Canadian MTB: Was there any single feature that was more challenging? Or was it connecting everything?
All the big features were intimidating to hit first try but I think the most intimidating for me was the rock garden on the finals day. The first day it was still very scary, but I managed to tick it off the first day and yeah, just trying to stay consistent on that line was very hard. Most of the actual features were pretty manageable once you got over the fear of doing them.
Canadian MTB: Were there any features you thought would be a bigger challenge that you ended up not having a problem with?
Honestly, most of the features. I kept on seeing these small Instagram clips of the wood to wood, for example, and it was terrifying. Once you see so many riders doing it perfectly fine, it’s hard to see a reason to not want to do them. I’d say the most challenging one to get over was the last big jump. I knew I was capable of riding it especially seeing Gracey hit it so many times perfectly. I knew I was able to do it just like getting over the fear of how big the gap was and how much airtime you’d have was hard. It ended up being one of the easiest features on track.
Tayte Proulx-Royds casually soars off the Stevie Smith drop during the Whistler World Cup.
Canadian MTB: This isn’t the first time. you’ve mixed big jumps in with your racing. You’ve done events like Darkhorse in the past. Did that background help at all on Cypress? Or did it still feel more like a race?
I feel like I’ve kind of grown up on jumps. Despite how much racing I’ve done I’ve always been a jumper. Having events like Darkhorse or Hang Time or Gracey’s new event Project 17 has given me so much confidence going into Hardline. Gracey’s event, especially, as her final jump at the bottom of her line was about 80 feet. Going into Hardline it was a similar size jump just built differently, so I knew I had confidence to do a jump that size.
Canadian MTB: Before the event, you were at Gracey Hemstreet’s pre-Hardline event on the Sunshine Coast. How was that? And how did that help prepare you for Hardline? What was it like having Gracey on site going through the course at the same time?
Yeah, like I said it was a huge help. I’ve never hit jumps that big so having a somewhat low-key event like Gracey’s was huge for my confidence. To be able to work through the track with her at Hardline was really cool because as much as she has way more experience in the Hardline side of things in comparison to me. It was really cool getting to tick things off together and talk to each other about what worked on track. We hit things at different paces and helped each other through the entire line and it was super beneficial to both of us I think. At the end of the week it ended up just being me and her in finals so it was kind of a full circle moment.
Canadian MTB: Is this something we’ll see more from you in the future? Or is the focus more strictly on World Cup as you move into elites?
I’d absolutely love to come back to Hardline and get a bit of redemption next year. Obviously it didn’t end the way I was hoping it would with a flat in my finals run this year so I would absolutely love to come back and show everyone what I’m capable of and start making history with Gracey. Seems like the Canadian women have a special connection with Hardline!