{"id":18433,"date":"2025-07-30T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vermette-wins-red-bull-hardline-wales\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:04:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:04:40","slug":"vermette-wins-red-bull-hardline-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vermette-wins-red-bull-hardline-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"Vermette wins Red Bull Hardline Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=5e7d1c32-92b8-5328-8a75-f3f36d15eb6d&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1440\" height=\"2160\" alt=\"Durango\u2019s Asa Vermette became the youngest winner of Red Bull Hardline with his victory at Red Bull Hardline Wales earlier this year. (Courtesy of Nathan Hughes)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Durango\u2019s Asa Vermette became the youngest winner of Red Bull Hardline with his victory at Red Bull Hardline Wales earlier this year. (Courtesy of Nathan Hughes)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Asa Vermette didn\u2019t think it was enough.<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old downhill mountain bike sensation was the final rider to hit the Red Bull Hardline course in Dyfi, Wales, on Sunday. He knew England\u2019s Charlie Hatton had put down a great run before him.<\/p>\n<p>He knew the top of his run wasn\u2019t the fastest and he made a small mistake. That mistake didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as Vermette crossed the finish line, the timing screen turned green and he became the youngest Red Bull Hardline winner in the event\u2019s history, beating Hatton\u2019s run by 1.681 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>It was a bounce back effort for Vermette after he finished second at Red Bull Hardline Tasmania in February.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt really good after Tasmania; I just wanted to get the win, pretty bad, for sure,\u201d Vermette said. \u201cSo to do it there was insane. Also, I wasn\u2019t really even thinking about being the youngest person until it happened. So, I\u2019m stoked on that; it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Durangoan completed his final run in two minutes and 24.477 seconds; Vermette\u2019s final run was over four seconds faster than his qualifying run. Hatton finished in second in 2:26.158 and Ronan Dinne was third in 2:29.396.<\/p>\n<p>Like in many of his World Cup runs, Vermette built up his run by starting slower in the first split and then built his speed and a gap to his competitors. He was fourth after the first split and then had the fastest splits in Split 2, 3 and 4.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZkeTM-HkqT4\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Rain was in the air in Dyfi the night before the qualifying and race day. Vermette didn\u2019t grow up racing in the rain and mud in Durango but he\u2019s gotten used to it doing the World Cups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy riding style for all the technical rock gardens was actually pretty good because at Purgatory we\u2019ve got a bunch of those; it\u2019s just doesn\u2019t usually rain,\u201d Vermette said. \u201cSo the track was something I was pretty familiar with the steep chutes, corners and big jumps \u2026 having a slippery top section was something \u2026 to adjust to was some slippery rocks. But other than that, the track was pretty suited to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A big difference between World Cup tracks and Red Bull Hardline are the jumps. The jumps at Hardline, with drops up to 90 feet, according to Vermette, are a lot bigger than anything he\u2019d see at a World Cup. The difference suits Vermette as he enjoys hitting jumps.<\/p>\n<p>Vermette had one final jump to nail before crossing the finish line at the bottom. He felt like his run wasn\u2019t enough because of a couple mistakes. Reflecting on the moment, Vermette realizes that on the bike, every mistake feels like it\u2019s bigger than it is.<\/p>\n<p>After hitting the final jump, crossing the finish line and realizing he won, Vermette was mobbed by camera people and his competitors congratulating him in front of a huge crowd.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=b0cab9f5-23a2-5f9c-8c05-5bde84f7c983&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Durango's Asa Vermette is embraced after his winning run at Red Bull Hardline Wales on Sunday. (Courtesy Nathan Hughes)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Durango's Asa Vermette is embraced after his winning run at Red Bull Hardline Wales on Sunday. (Courtesy Nathan Hughes)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">NATHAN HUGHES<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>It was an insane feeling for Vermette, one he struggled to put into words as all the fans were stoked to watch a run on such an entertaining track.<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 World Cup season has been tough for Vermette so far. He crashed in the first two rounds, is without a win and is fourth in the men\u2019s junior downhill World Cup standings. His Red Bull Hardline win could turn the tide on his year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019ll help for sure, just for the confidence,\u201d Vermette said. \u201cIt\u2019s a totally different field and different track, but just the confidence of knowing you did it the weekend before or whatever will be nice to have. Hopefully we can just keep building and going on for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=ea65f4b0-abea-57ae-8182-fa559585c550&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Durango's Asa Vermette celebrates his Red Bull Hardline Wales victory on Sunday. (Courtesy Nathan Hughes)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Durango's Asa Vermette celebrates his Red Bull Hardline Wales victory on Sunday. (Courtesy Nathan Hughes)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">NATHAN HUGHES<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Vermette has a quick turnaround to defend his men\u2019s elite downhill USA Cycling Gravity Mountain Bike National Championship in Big Bear Lake, California, from Thursday-Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-9035c419cb3c88a7f71ff75516da317a\"><a href=\"mailto:bkelly@durangoherald.com\">bkelly@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Durango downhill mountain bike star made history becoming youngest winner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[657,950,28,977,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-18433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cycling","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-mountain-biking","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20586,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18433\/revisions\/20586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18433"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=18433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}