- Deven McCoy
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- bikemag.com
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- March 31, 2025
The French duo of Yoann Barelli and Remy Metailler travel to Arizona for the Sedona MTB Festival. While in town for the event, these seasoned mountain bike pros ride the world's most challenging legal mountain bike trail.
Hardline was recently incorporated into the trail system and links two popular trails in the area. But Hardline is no joke. Featuring a massive 60-foot steep section that requires 100% commitment without any room for error.
Both Barelli and Metailler are comfortable on steep trails, and they take the time throughout the video to comment on this incredibly challenging new trail as they scope out all the technical features. After some spring rain and snow, the trail is even more challenging, but the two navigate all the insane features with surgical precision as they link together full top-to-bottom runs before heading out to explore more trails in the area.
Related: Sedona's Most Technical, Zero-Margin Trail is Now Open for Business
Despite the incredible skill showcased, Remy saw the challenges of Hardline firsthand. In a clip posted to Instagram, the talented rider takes a big slam on the trail's most challenging feature.
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“I ran out of talent, maturity, strength and grip on this one,” Says Remy about the accident before breaking down precisely why he crashed on this feature. “I rode the Hardline before and had a GoPro video where I was going very fast, but did not have a good iPhone clip. With the pressure I put on myself to always deliver the best riding I can for me, my fans, and partners, I was not happy with the clip I had gotten a few days prior. I went back on the Sunday. It was definitely more slippery," Metailler said on Instagram.
"Realistically, this is not a World Cup with a timing system and ranking. If I ride at 90% or 100%, chances are no one but me would make a difference. Yoanni was there, and I told him the rock did not look very grippy, so he decided to not push it,” Remy continues, “I said: ‘Na,h I'll make that work, let's do it’ - I completely under estimated the traction causing me to go too fast and air the last bit. The compression before the drop was huge, and I absolutely did not want to go OTB on it, so I preferred to bounce rather than get bucked. My right shoulder dropped a bit, causing me to jump sideways, and the impact was way too big to hold on to.”
