Watch Red Bull Hardline British Columbia 2026 Live: Start Time, Riders and Course
Watch the Red Bull Hardline BC final live right here, Friday, October 16 at 12 PM Pacific. Here is who seeded where, what the Cypress Mountain course throws at them and how a run is won.
The Red Bull Hardline British Columbia final is today, Friday, October 16, at 12:00 PM Pacific (3:00 PM Eastern, 8:00 PM UK), and you can watch it live right here on BuildMTB. Weather messed with the schedule, so Red Bull bumped the final up from Saturday.
Hardline is a timed downhill race down a course packed with huge drops and jumps, and this is the first one on Cypress Mountain above Vancouver. World Champion Jackson Goldstone seeded first. Two past winners, Asa Vermette and Ronan Dunne, never got a clean time on the board in seeding, which makes the final a lot harder to call.
who should you watch?
Seeding was Thursday. Everyone got one timed run, which sets the start order for the final, and only 16 men made it down with a full run on the clock.
| Rider | Seeding | Why watch |
|---|---|---|
| Jackson Goldstone | 1st, 3:46.405 | Got red-flagged on his first run, went back up the mountain and held on when a gust hit him on the last jump. Has won Hardline before. |
| Bernard Kerr | 2nd, +5.847 | Another past Hardline winner, and the fastest rider from outside Canada. |
| Tegan Cruz | 3rd, +7.224 | Pulled up short on the Canuck Drop in practice and cased it (landed short of the landing). Seeded third anyway. |
| Asa Vermette | No time | A broken rear wheel ended a seeding run that was on pace for the best or second-best time. Won Hardline Tasmania in February. |
| Ronan Dunne | No time | Wind kept him from hitting the final jump on his seeding run. Was second at Tasmania, 2.132 seconds behind Vermette. |
| Gracey Hemstreet | Full run, time not listed | The only woman to complete a seeding run. Won Tasmania in February. |
Johnathan Helly didn't start seeding because the cut on his knee opened up again, and Finn Iles is listed as disqualified after a rear flat. Anyone who completed a full lap in practice can still race, so check the start list on the stream.
Lina Frener and Tayte Proulx-Royds also rode the course in practice, and Frener crashed on the Canuck Drop and got up. Hemstreet is the only woman with a full seeding run so far. The others had until Friday morning's practice to get one in.
Our call: Goldstone. He was almost six seconds clear of everyone in seeding, which is a big gap on a 2 km course. Vermette is the one who could change that. His seeding run was on pace for the best or second-best time when his rear wheel broke, so if he strings a clean lap together, it is a real race.
what does the course look like?
The course is 2.08 km of drops and jumps. The biggest drop is 35 feet straight down and the biggest jump is 80 to 100 feet. Red Bull says the design borrows from dirt jumping and BMX, with rock gardens and steep sections mixed in, and Gee and Dan Atherton had a hand in it.
Three features matter most. The Canuck Drop is a wood-to-wood drop with a landing the riders describe as a five-foot window: land short and you case it (come up short of the landing), go too deep and you miss the wood and hit soft dirt. The second rock garden had riders stopping to work out a line. And the finish jump is at least 80 feet, so riders were checking a radar gun in practice to see whether 66 km/h (about 41 mph) was enough speed to clear it. By the end of the day they were hitting it at 68 to 72 km/h (about 42 to 45 mph) and whipping it.
how is Hardline won?
It is a stopwatch race, so the fastest time wins. Riders have to ride the whole course, every feature, in practice first, and a timed seeding run sets the start order for the final. Men and women ride the same course and are ranked separately.
will the weather hold?
Red Bull moved everything up a day because of inclement weather, so practice and seeding happened Thursday and the final is today. Forecasts from earlier in the week disagree on whether Friday itself stays dry or gets afternoon showers, so open the player early.
what are they riding?
A downhill bike is a full-suspension bike built to go down only: long travel, heavy-duty parts and no climbing gears. Lachlan Stevens-McNab is on a Trek Session prototype with a RockShox Boxxer fork, a RockShox Vivid Air shock and 200 mm brake rotors. He runs a 29-inch front wheel and a 27.5-inch rear, which is a mullet setup. Pinkbike has the full bike check. He did not post a seeding time.
Vermette won Tasmania in February, running a prototype 5DEV crank, which we cover in our AV3 crank post.
Want a bike that can take a landing like these? The Builder lists the fork, shock and wheel standards for each frame, so you know what bolts on before you buy.
common questions
- What time is the Red Bull Hardline British Columbia 2026 final?
- Friday, October 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM Pacific (3:00 PM Eastern, 8:00 PM UK). Red Bull lists the finals window as 12:00 to 3:00 PM Pacific. The final was moved up from Saturday, October 17 because of weather, so some older listings still show the wrong date. You can watch it live on this page.
- Where can I watch Red Bull Hardline BC live?
- Right here on this page, in the player at the top. The broadcast is free and also streams on Red Bull TV and the Red Bull Bike YouTube channel.
- How is Red Bull Hardline won?
- It is a timed downhill race, and the fastest time wins. Riders first complete a full run in practice, then a timed seeding run sets the start order for the final. Men and women ride the same course and are ranked separately.
- What happens if the weather cancels the final?
- Red Bull says that if conditions are not right for racing, the event is pushed to a later date. At Hardline Tasmania in February, rain cancelled the final and the seeding times decided the winners: Asa Vermette and Gracey Hemstreet. Red Bull has not said whether Cypress would be handled the same way.
- How big is the Red Bull Hardline BC course?
- The course at Cypress Mountain is 2.08 km long. The largest drop is 35 feet vertical and the largest jump is 80 to 100 feet. Seeding times ran from about 3:46 to just over 5:03.
want a bike that can handle a big landing?
Pick a frame in the Builder and it shows the fork, shock, wheels and brakes that fit it, so the parts you buy are the ones that bolt on.
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