First-ever Red Bull Tyne Ride is coming to Newcastle

Red Bull’s inaugural Red Bull Tyne Ride is coming to Newcastle’s Quayside this Saturday.

Taking place on Newcastle’s Quayside, the Red Bull Tyne Ride is an epic head-to-head motorcycle race, taking inspiration from motocross, enduro, mountain biking, BMX and the wider world of action sports.

The event is a collaborative effort between Red Bull and Billy Bolt, a Red Bull athlete and four-time FIM SuperEnduro World Champion. The Wallsend native is the brains behind the course, alongside fellow Red Bull athletes, Dougie Lampkin and Jonny Walker.

Here, Billy speaks to Kate Hewison about the never-seen-before event.

How does it feel to bring such a significant event to Newcastle?

The Geordies are going to love it. The event appeals to a wide range of people – those involved in the sport, those who follow it, watch it regularly, or know the riders. It’s entertaining for them because it’s going to be close racing.

For those who don’t know much about the sport or might be watching it for the first time, it’s going to be exciting because they’re literally going to see bikes flying through the air.

There will be a great mix of features, from the technical sections such as the log matrix and the rock sections to the jump over the finish line, where they’ll literally see a bike fly 40 feet through the air. It covers a broad audience, and I hope it’s going to be very well received!

Can you describe the process of designing the course? What specific elements did you want to include and why?

I watch other disciplines of action sports and have always thought some areas (on the course) would be cool. For instance, you go off the start into the dirt spine – which is BMX style – I don’t know how that’s going to work on a motorbike, but it’s something different for the riders.

I just wanted that ‘wow’ factor. Whether it’s someone who has never seen bike racing before, or someone who knows what they’re doing, they can stand at the side of the track or walk around the corner and see the track for the first time and just think “wow”.

The track is done in a twist, which is not typical for enduro. Enduro races are usually quite low speed with no big jumps but very technical, which is where the difficulty comes from. Whereas this track is the opposite of tame – you’re two shipping containers high in some places.

Which section of the course are you most excited for the riders to tackle, and why?

The sand section and the dirt rhythm section, which is your typical motocross-style. The shipping container feature and the wall ride turn at the end too.

A lot of the course I wanted to be visually impressive and fun to ride. It’s not necessarily that difficult to ride, but that’s going to be more difficult to race.

How will the Red Bull Tyne Ride test the riders’ skills?

The toughness comes from the fact you’ve got to race the track. It’s not the most difficult technically – I think all the riders are going to be able to make it from one end to the other. The difficulty comes from how fast you want to push, how much you want to beat the guy who’s lining up next to you and the intensity that comes from racing these kinds of obstacles.

The obstacles are not particularly difficult to ride through, but to be racing and to be going as fast as possible through something like this is something that will be new to everybody.

What are you most looking forward to seeing during the event?

I’m most looking forward to seeing two bikes go off the start ramp from the shipping container together for the first time.

When all the crowd is there and when the whole track is built, the setting is going to be pretty mad. Also, for the U-turn at the bottom of the track, if we’ve got a close race and two riders hit that at the same time, that’s going to be exciting.

 

Photography: Red Bull Content Pool