If you haven’t watched Red Bull’s urban downhill mountain biking, you’re in for a nutritious, stoke-fortified MTB treat.
Based on what we’ve seen, the wild sport takes place on a mind-melting plane of skill and adrenaline. No terrain is out of bounds on courses that beeline through long, tight stair sets, drop off of structures, and even go straight through houses.
The Red Bull Monserrate Cerro Abajo kicks off the 2022 urban downhill season in Bogotá, Colombia, on February 5. The course starts at nearby Cerro Monserrate (10,341 feet) and then sends riders down a 1.5-mile crucible, over 1,000 steps worth of stair sets.
Here’s everything you need to know to get ready for the race and catch all the action.
Event Date, Time, and How to Watch
Tune in to Red Bull TV by 10:20 a.m. EST on Saturday, February 5, to catch the start of the race. To watch it for free online, visit the Red Bull TV website.
Note that it is a live event; the site works just like old-school TV — if you snooze, you lose. (You can stop the player in the browser window, but it drops you back into the stream in real-time once you hit play again.)
If you’re on the go at race time, download the free Red Bull TV app from the App Store or Google Play Store. Give yourself a few minutes to set it up; you’ll have to sign in, and then get through a few prompts.
Casting through Chromecast is also available. Once you’re in the app, enable Bluetooth and you’ll be in business to watch Red Bull TV on any Chromecast-connected screen.
If you manage to pull a faceplant and completely miss it, there may be hope for you yet. Full replays of most live events, such as the recent Natural Selection Finals at Jackson Hole, eventually become available on the site.
Key Riders To Watch
Red Bull has not released a roster for the 2022 Monserrate Cerro Abajo. But lists from past years indicate that big names promise to show up on it again.
Top downhillers and enduro racers from around the world have raced in previous urban downhill events in South America. Pedro Burns, Filip Polc, Brook Macdonald, Wyn Masters, Johannes Fischbach, and Tomáš Slavík have all populated race cards.
Red Bull says many of the events are “open to all,” though some require qualifying for entry. The South American races also tend to spotlight talented locals who may be less prolific on the global circuit. For instance, Adrien Loren won last year’s Monserrate Cerro Abajo, and Chile’s Pedro Ferreira took top honors in a stacked field at the 2019 Valparaíso Cerro Abajo.
2022 Urban Downhill Mountain Biking Season Overview
The Monserrate Cerro Abajo kicks the season off, and the first Red Bull-sponsored Valparaíso Cerro Abajo in 3 years follows it on February 27. Valparaíso, Chile, is a port city and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Its urban downhill course clocks in at just over a mile, depending on where organizers place the starting line. Throughout the sport, its steep course is known to produce fast races.
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Ferreira returns to defend his title from the last time Red Bull organized the race. Meanwhile, Slavík seeks to reclaim it after winning it twice in 2017 and 2018.
After that, the series shifts to European stops and out of Red Bull’s purview. It says the European races are popular, but they tend to attract more modest crowds than the South American ones.
You can see how that would be the case, based on the 2018 Valparaíso crowds as seen through Macdonald’s helmet cam. Listening to the Kiwi pump up the crowd with colorful language is almost as fun as watching him rip the course.
