Scottish mountain bike rider has made history in Wales.
The 29 year old completed a timed seeding run today becoming the first female rider to qualify in the event’s history.
Red Bull Press Pool writes:
As well as testing the riders to their limits, Red Bull Hardline has gained a well-earned reputation as an event that pushes the progression of the sport.
In the event’s 11 years, a female rider has never completed the course in full – mainly due to the scale of the jumps and challenging terrain. Lou’s incredible accomplishment means that she is the first female rider ever to qualify for the finals at Red Bull Hardline UK.
On completing Red Bull Hardline UK, a clearly emotional Louise Ferguson said, “I feel so much pride. All the girls have worked so hard over the last few seasons and it hasn’t been easy. Getting the opportunity to come to Red Bull Hardline and progress each year has made such a difference. I’m a small part of it but it feels so good to do it for all the girls and it’s not going to take long before there’s more of us completing the course.”
“The run is a blur. I just tried to focus on one feature at a time to get through and it worked out. It’s so much harder than any other event and it takes so much courage to hit even one of the features let alone all of them back to back. I can’t explain how slippery some of the rocks were – it was such a mental battle to put a full run together. I just tried to focus on what I could control and trust in myself.”
“The community at this event makes all the difference – all the men are so supportive and it feels like there’s no divide between the categories – it has an incredibly special support network and vibe. I can’t wait for tomorrow”.
Louise is originally from Fort William, Scotland, but now calls Queenstown, New Zealand, her home, where she’s immersed in the thriving mountain biking scene. She is currently ranked 14th in the world and recently won the British National Championships the week before attending Red Bull Hardline UK for the second time.
Red Bull Hardline UK has five of the world’s best female riders in attendance this weekend; Louise Ferguson, Vaea Verbeeck, Kirsten Van Horne, Cami Nogueira and Hannah Bergemann who have been pushing the limits during this week’s open practice sessions. Louise was targeting completing a full run and has made her dream a reality.
Red Bull Hardline UK is hailed as one of the toughest downhill mountain bike races in the world, never to be conquered by a female rider before. Designed by MTB track pioneer Dan Atherton, the course is notoriously difficult and an extreme test in skill and nerve. Fastest down the hill wins and Louise has confirmed her spot to challenge in Sunday’s finals and pit herself against the most elite downhill mountain bike riders in the world.
Louise will join defending champion Rónán Dunne and downhill mountain bike legend, Gee Atherton, on the course in Dyfi Valley, Wales, which will be broadcast live on Red Bull TV and on Red Bull Bike YouTube from 9am BST, Sunday 27th July
How to watch
Red Bull Hardline UK will be broadcasted live on Red Bull TV and Red Bull YouTube on Sunday 27th July for fans to enjoy across the globe:
Fair play, that course looks brutal
Remember seeing Louise riding some of the steepest parts of the Naughty Northumbrian a few years ago and the group I was riding with all said at the time she was absolutely f****n rapid. If anyone hasn’t seen the latest and is planning on watching it live the race is now starting at 9am instead of 2.30pm due to the weather forecast
Absolutely superb! I assume she’ll get the same prize money as the men if she does it again tomorrow?
Awesome, just awesome.
Thanks for the heads up, @pothead.
Her reaction on Warners track walk video after clearing the huge jumps for the first time is eye opening. Seeing how stoked she was and how challenging they clearly were, to then do it as part of a full run is amazing.
Gnarly!
What time will Lou’s run be today? I might try and watch it with my daughters
Coverage is now 11am.
So I’d expect her to be first down about 11.15
It’s great to see that progression in the ladies ranks. There’s a piece on the BBC sport site interviewing Tahnee about the recruitment of female riders for this year’s event.
Awesome! That is so good to see.
She looked really composed on all the massive stuff, and Matt Jones crashing after showed just how slick it all was.
She smashed her race run. Super impressive!
Excellent run yesterday and a really mature run today. The most important thing was to finish today. Superb stuff
Sounds like timings made it a really tight window for women to clock a full run. It was a good Hardline. RW’s track walk gives a proper view of the scale of the course, even with his usual superlatives.
Anyone know what happened with Brendan Fairclough’s DNS?
Word on the street was that he disagreed with the judging 😶 [think he had some kind of family emergency]
And Kaos’ DSQ?
Wrong side of one of the poles.
Absolutely incredible. So hard to comprehend dropping in to more or less any feature on that course.
Mad respect. 👏
I think my favourite bit is how much harder her run makes it look, if that makes any sense? The guys don’t make it look easy, exactly, but they do make a bunch of the track look basically straightforward for them, even when it’s not. But on her full run it really drives home just how horrible pretty much the entire bloody thing is. (this year’s drone footage has helped a lot with that too, I think more bits that look like “just riding along the track" from a trackside or onboard cam, are really obviously steep as all hell, drops and tech bits that more or less got skipped past seem to be getting more attention?)It reminds me a bit of the first time I ever raced at fort william… The night before I sat down with some race footage to try and learn some lines and it was the first time i ever realised the pros just don’t ride the same track as I do, I’m “how do I deal with this super awkward rock" and they’re like “have you considered taking off 20 feet earlier and just flying over it?" As the skill level goes up so it also gets harder to really understand what the skill level even is, the nearly impossible becomes everyday so fast.
We had that there with Hatton, it’s a tight left handed, into a drop
“Oh we land between them 2 ricks down there"
“What, them all the way over there???"
“Oh no, the next one "
Faceplant
Funny part is, the boy is now landing on them 2 lol.
It’s when the pros are planning on landing on the backside of some super technical feature to pump out of it for extra speed that makes me realise that I’m never going to be close to their level.