It isn’t at all sane to be a professional downhill mountain biking racer—barreling down a twisty, rocky, tree-gnarled mountainside at 40 miles per hour, risking crashes, dislocations, breaks, and worse for 5.5 minutes of glory. Neither is it wise.
But at 29, champion downhill racer Rachel Atherton seems to have been born for it. The Wales native, coming off a perfect winning-streak season in 2016, has already won 15 UCI Downhill Mountain Biking World Cups in a row, 33 World Cups in total, and taken home gold at four World Championships. Despite the grueling competition, Atherton is the most dominant female downhill mountain biking racer in the history of the sport.
With a possible win against 14 other elite female racers at the UCI World Cup this Saturday, the Red Bull athlete is on track to become the most decorated downhill mountain biker—female or male—of all time. That is, if she doesn’t eat dirt first.
Tune in to Red Bull TV live this Saturday 1:00 PM (EST) to watch this raucous race of grit and insanity. Catch all of the action from each World Cup stop LIVE and on-demand on Red Bull TV, running through the summer until August 27th.
