The Red Bull Cerro Abajo city downhill series is coming to Germany for the first time and has chosen, of all places, Stuttgart—the capital of the “2-meter rule.” An event like this is a hit in Baden-Württemberg, too. And how: 90,000 spectators watch the races—crowds like at an open-air concert, a very large one at that—and VFB Stuttgart would need several games to draw that many visitors.

Germany’s top downhill biker, Nina Hoffmann, isn’t about to miss this and takes on the rock-hard course. On the men’s side, there are no top downhill riders at the start—only those who have passed the peak of their World Cup careers.

Nina Hoffmann handles the unfamiliar terrain well, finishing second ahead of Italy’s Vero Widmann, also an experienced World Cup downhill rider. The fastest rider was Chile’s Paz Gallo Fuentes, who is both the downhill and enduro champion in her country. She can now also call herself the first-ever Cerro Abajo champion. 

Here is the replay of the women’s final runs. The organizer did not post a complete results list on Sunday. Only the top 3 were listed on the event website.

The course from the Teehaus down to the Heusteigviertel was a succession of tight turns and stairs, as well as wooden walkways and jumps. And while the crowd screamed their heads off during the jumps and spectacular stair rides, the many sections requiring pedaling were at least as crucial to victory. So, too, was finding the right grip on the smooth asphalt, the cobblestones, and the stone slabs of the Teehaus.

In the end, the Spaniard Alex Marin won the race by a hundredth of a second, ahead of the Brazilian Roger Vieira and the New Zealander Tuhoto-Ariki Pene. Vieira was able to console himself for narrowly missing the win by claiming the Cerro Abajo annual standings title.

Here is the standings for the men’s competition, featuring a few familiar names, and here is the replay of the final runs. If you’d rather hear Rob Warner’s commentary, check out YouTube. The runs of the three fastest women are included at the end.

It remains to be seen whether Red Bull Cerro Abajo will return to Stuttgart in 2027.