Red Bull downhill racing - Valparaiso
On our first Sunday the 2 March in Valparaiso, they had the Red Bull mountain bike inner city downhill race. It was pretty incredible, the mountain bike riders were flying down the hill off jumps and facing a range of challenges. For those that did not race, the atmosphere was really exciting, everyone was cheering and watching the mountain bike stunts. There was music, food and drink everywhere as local entrepreneurial people were selling things on their front lawn.
We arrived a couple of days before the Red Bull race, so we got to see the change in the city before and after they left. You could tell when they came because the streets where full of people with very expensive cameras and very European clothes. Later you could see, people with very expensive mountain bikes riding around the city. I think the city quite enjoyed the influx of people in their town noting it was for a short amount of time.
We ended up right next to the track where the atmosphere was electric. The air B & B we were staying in was only a street away which was good because we could just go home if we needed anything. I will say it was quite crowded at parts of the track because Valparaiso is not a super big city, and the track was in very steep, localised areas. I will put a picture in below with the official track from the Red Bull website.
My stepdad and I started walking around the track to see what was going on at about 12 pm when they were doing their warmup rides. Even their warmup rides where incredible just the pure skill involved in executing some of these manoeuvres. Ended up being so impressed that we ran home to grab my mum and brother.
We watched the qualifiers and walked up the side of the track until we couldn't go any further because it didn’t allow access past a certain point. As there was a brake between the qualifiers and the finals, I went home to eat something and grab my camera so I could take some epic photos of the riders. Valparaíso does have a lot of regular pick pockets and robberies, so I was keeping a very close eye on my camera. When we were in an area where I did not feel safe walking around with a camera, I would put it away.
After my break, I took my camera, and we went further up the hill to get a different view. This time it was a very steep hill so there was definitely a lot of huffing and puffing by the time we got to the top. At the top we got to see the riders fly through a house which was like nothing I have seen before.
In the end it didn’t matter who won. They were all really talented riders which was really cool to see.
Stay tuned for the next blog where I talk about Giuliano the cool little cat we met.
