Crazy Urban Downhill Race In The Streets Of Italy

Welcome back, you beautiful people. Well, this didn't go to plan. This is urban downhill racing at its finest. Oh, I'm out of breath. Oh, I'm breaking it for this. No, dude, I'm done. You're done? F*** me. I've been invited out to Italy to take part in the third round of the Serra Baja urban downhill race in the beautiful coastal city of Genova. This is now my second ever Red Bull race and it's great to meet the team behind all these events again. But before I take you along for the ride with me on this weekend of step-shaking, bone-rattling, brain-vibrating madness, let's go check out what the city is all about and figure out why Red Bull have chosen a steep hillside city as their venue to hold a mountain bike race. Do you think this will fit in a Jeep? Look at the size of it. V8 diesel. Whoa. More steps. More of them. Oh, they're slippery, aren't they? This event, this is the first time a Red Bull urban downhill race has happened in Europe. This is the first one in Genova, so hopefully it'll come back. But it's nothing like Valparaiso, where I competed in 2019, which was a bit gnarly. This one's a little bit more tame, but still, not for the faint-hearted. These steps and this terrain is totally different to what you'll be riding out there on the trail, where your tyres work when it comes to grip. Digs into the dirt. There's nothing to dig in here, just to slide on. This is what this is. We are drifting down. More steps, mate. So we're out here. We're walking to the funicular, which is a bit finicky at the moment because it wasn't working earlier. But it is now 2.30 in the p.m. We're heading up to the top for a 3.30 track walk. This is where I am going to count every single step on this track and have a nice round number at the end to show you. A bit of stat, you know? A bit of stat. First stat, though, it's 2.2 kilometers long, which is quite long. Longer than Valparaiso. Valparaiso was like 1.2 or something, so it's like nearly double. That's fine. It's only 1,000 meters of sprinting. We're in a very busy funicular. I don't think there's any more room. Pretty much all the riders but we've got South Africans, lots of South Americans, we've got some Italians, we've got Spanish, we've got Canadians, New Zealand. We're all out. It's like a party, right? It is like a party. A sweat party. It's a sweat box. Wow. Look at this. Incredible view. Start gate. Look at the state of this. This actually looks quite scary because the stairs we came up are slippery and wet. I reckon it's pretty tight here, Channa. Look at this. It's so tight at the gate. Where all the people are. Take a kick left. You could hit your hand real easily on that. Hand, shoulder, everything. Use the wall as a berm. It looks unreal. Step number one. 15 steps so far. We've got more steps to go. Look how tight this is. Straight through, bang, and then off a drop there. Track tester. She's done really well. Hold on. Early, early, early, eh? Right, so, we've done 52 steps into the first major feature. I say it's major, it's the biggest drop so far. We have a little one up there which is a three meter gap, but it's like a wedge drop into a stair set into another one which you've got to slow down really quick into a left-hander which comes into this feature which is two meters, but it's not very big. Come with me. So, there's a big landing up the top there that's just a big flat cheese wedge. The back of it's going to be pretty much there. So, you drop off onto it. So, pretty chill. I would say it's pretty chill, but what's scary is coming into it is going to be not chill. This is literally flat out. So, you've done the drop, you come off, and you're onto this, and because it's weirdly spaced, your bikes can be so unbalanced. You're pretty much not going to get much grip down on your tires because it's like, 171, 172, 173, 174. Okay. Well, that's pretty cool. So, we don't have to navigate through some posts. We jump over them. It's actually pretty cool. Safer. But, before we get there, look up there. It is literally flat out motorway section. Nice one. Nice to meet you, and thank you for marshalling. I feel okay. I'm nervous. Always get nervous because it's an event. So, it's a race. You go fast. Here, we come off the shark fin. So, you come down that real fast section of, I don't know, street, into this sharky here, onto that big landing there, which will get put in front of that bridge, and by the look of that shark fin, I feel like it's going to fling you into the wall. I think he's just going to go off and just push down. Scary. This section here, straight out of the shark fin, onto the pavement. It's going to be flat out. On the bitumen, man. On the asphalt. This is where you're going to get your inner Valentino Rossi. 14 meter double. Sorry, sorry. 14 meter double. Not many stairs though. No. Only a 200 so far. Yeah. 200 stairs. Oof, 14 meters. All right. Allez! Fast through here. This is pretty serious now. So, we're jumping across the road. We're going to navigate our way through that really fast section up there, which is quite narrow, so judging your speed is going to be quite crucial, into this really crazy step down over some railings, but there is going to be a landing over here, where everyone is. They haven't built it yet, which is a bit crazy. We're doing track walking. They can't really build everything because this is a living city. People are living here, so we don't want to jeopardize their way of life because we want to ride our bikes down it. We've got Bernard here. We've got Winn. We've got Tio. We've got all these South Americans, which literally are rapid. And yeah, and there's little old me, looking at this going, what am I doing here? Now I'm nervous. Should we crack on? All right. This is the first place where we get introduced to a lot of fans, or a lot of fans, a lot of spectators, because up there, there's nowhere to spectate on those really tight streets. What's your sketchiest bit? Just those fast stairs. Yeah. Those are going to be, oh. Yeah. It's like, if you no-brake from the top, even if you're not pumping or doing anything crazy, you could do like 80k's from the top. Yeah. A bit like Valparaiso, where you jump out that building at the end of the finish line into the big finishing corral. This is what it feels like right here. Actually got goosebumps, too, because that was a hell of a race. Scary for me. My first ever race I've ever done. This is my second one, and it's still no better. Still hard. We've got some steps to finish off. So are you ready? This will give you the result. If you did guess, the number is 564 steps. That's, it's not that many, but there we go. 563 steps on this course. So if you were close, well done. There's the finish. Good idea. Straight through off that, and we're done. With the track walk done, it's time to get some rest and focus on practice tomorrow. I've really got to imagine how I'm going to get down this track. It's a different sport, urban downhill racing, and it can go wrong at any point. It's hard, it's rough, and it's super fast. Small mistakes will only mean big, big consequences. Right, here's practice now. The weather has started to come in, which is not great because this place turns into an absolute ice rink. But the cool thing is, right, we've got FSA here that's helping out with all the athletes. Down the bottom, there's going to be a zone here to work on your bike. You zone at the top, zone at the hotel. So there's zones everywhere, so your bike is in pristine work in order. It's actually a huge thanks that I'm out here at this race to FSA. They have supplied me with their brand new EMTB certified wheels, the Carbon I29s, built to withstand more than just your regular wheel set. With an artisan build, entirely by hand, and an alloy PRA hubs, they should hold up to everything I'm going to be throwing at them this weekend in the city. Windy, wet situation, so thanks for coming. I'll see you tomorrow. The free riding session will be tomorrow morning. So, practice is cancelled. Not good, because everything's now on race day, which is pretty scary. It's raining still, but we're going to go down and see how slippery it is. And we'll see you at the bottom. Remy, are we chilling? I want to see how slippery this is going to be. Follow me, I'll show you. Okay. Go on, Channa. Oh, this is not nice. Yeah, this is horrible. Whoa. Nice. Really f***ing savage, bro. It's like 30 foot to your death below. Yeah, you definitely want to go in the middle. Hey, Remy, what do you think of it? It's all right. It's big, eh? That's the type of s*** I like to ride, but it's too long. Yeah, at least for the first try it's too long. Okay, my perception is different. I've just come from Rampage, so everything looks different. Everything looks different. Can you make it bigger, please? Yeah, can you make it down to over there, please? I think when it's right, it's going to ride really well. It's super easy. Yeah, yeah. It's easy, yeah. It's so slippery. Oh, I don't want to turn on it. Mate. Dude, this is crazy. This is the slipperiest brick. That's fast. I was like, can you make it in, too? No way, can you make it in? F*** no. It looks like just a drop. Yeah, it does. Not often when you can't see the landing at all. Like, that's like knuckle stairs. You can definitely overjump that, for sure. Overjumping that would be really horrible. Oh, what do you think? If it wasn't like this. Yeah, it's literally like this. Because you can't see the landing. Yeah. So it was like slanted K-Stab. Or just like extended landing. Yeah. I reckon that's it. How sick is this? This is actually all right. Yeah. Are we allowed to hit it? No. Oh, OK. This is the bumpiest bit. No, this is disgusting. Oh, oh, oh, that's... Yep. Is that it? And flip that. Flip that. Set up. So unfortunately, today was cancelled because of the weather. It's been super rainy. It's raining still now. Tomorrow is going to be an incredible busy day. We've got practice for an hour. Then we're going to do some seeding and then we've got finals. So it's all on the plate tomorrow. So we're going to chill. We're going to chill tonight. Everyone's down here. We're in the bar. We're chilling. Race day. This is going to be an experience because we haven't really tested the track out. We haven't tested the obstacle. But we've got a couple of minutes to do so now. An hour or so. And hopefully the wind, because it was absolutely windy last night, has dried the track up. Let's go, cold turkey. Let's do it. They're just testing. These are the test... Well, I would say the guinea pigs. Are we? I'm learning how to ride street racers. Yeah, I've been pinched the morning of the race. Yeah, it's intimidating. You stand there as blind as... Dude, it's kind of scary. He didn't make that lesson or ranking. He went looking. I don't like looking at people test stuff. I'd rather do it. He was flying into me. It's just nerves. Nerves kick in every time. I always say, every time I get just to the race line, start line, nerves kick in. The amount of whispers going around right now is crazy. What you viewers don't see is how nervous everyone is right now. Everyone, like these guys are top riders in the world for Downhill World Cup and they're scared of racing down some steps. I'm just like, whatever. Let's just ride my bikes. Look at them. Everyone's saying, why are we here? What are we doing? I think we just wear our bikes, huh? Yeah. Straight, half a crank. Hit the sharky. Oh, you can follow me if you want. Or follow Bernard. I'll follow you. Yeah. He just winded, right? He just winded. Okay, I got you. I got you. He's just winded. He's communicating. You're all right, bro. You're all right. Breathe it out. Wait, okay. He's just breathing. He's all right. Just winded for now. That was savage, bro. Take your time. Where is the pain? Just in my chest, a little bit. Okay, okay. Oh, what's happened to Blake? Oh, really? You haven't heard anything? Oh, Bernie told me something. Oh yeah, usually. We're all just trying to chase that first left shark off the bridge. Bernie, Blake, me, and then like four other riders behind me. And as Blake went off, I think he maybe just went off a bit too high. And he got like stuck here and then landed skew and just head smacked on the floor. And then he was out of for a bit. I like, because I like landed behind him, I just stopped. The GoPro will be hilarious. I'm like mounting on top of him. And because there was just riders smashing into me because it's like a five man train. And then he was just winded for a bit. He was like, ah! Okay, a while he was winded. And then I think he got a bit knocked out because he asked what happened about five times. He came to and he was like, yeah, I'm feeling better. And then they just put him on the backboard precautionary and took him down. But he seemed like he was all good. He just, he definitely, I think he just like landed bang on the ground. But he took it like a champ. Was that the first time he hit it? Yeah. Well, he's a strong boy for surviving that. Yes. Like I said at the beginning, this did not go to plan. I took a bit of a tumble, but these things happen in the sport. Now I've absolutely loved this. Now this is my second Urban Downhill Race. The first one was Valparaiso, as you've seen a few clips from that in previous years. But wow, I actually loved the whole experience right up until I hit the ground. And a big thanks to Tio and Bernard for looking after me on the floor. Tio covering me whilst other riders just piled into me. This is just a small glimpse of what it takes to race Urban Downhill Racing. It is unreal fast. The consequences are really high, but it is super fun. And I was well looked after by Christina from Red Bull. She looked after me everywhere. And I say big thanks to Red Bull and FSA Wheels for helping me race this race. And I look forward to coming back. Congratulations to Slavic for taking the win. This sport is not for the faint-hearted. It's bloody fun. I absolutely loved it all the way until I hit the floor. I definitely will be back if they want me to come back. Big thanks to all the Sarah O'Bacher team. What a great show. And hopefully I'll see you soon. I need a cup of tea. I need to stop talking. Hopefully you enjoyed this video. Give us a thumbs up like. And I'll see you later. See ya.