Racers go big in Bolivia at the 2012 Red Bull Descenso del Condor urban downhill race

Stick a downhill race on a mountainside where riders face steep gullies, high-speed pistes and jagged rock gardens, and the general public don’t care. But bring the racers to a city and make them ride down a few steps and they bloody love it!

Okay, so Evil’s Filip Polc had to do more than just negotiate a few steps to win this year’s Red Bull Descenso del Condor in La Paz, Bolivia – he also had to dodge lampposts, squeeze through alleyways and take on some sizeable drops. None of that seemed to faze the urban DH specialist though – he took victory by a massive 14 seconds.

Check out Polc’s winning run:

Source: Extreme downhill trail Descenso del Condor in La Paz Bolivia from Filip Polc

And the official highlights vid:

Source: World’s Highest Urban MTB Downhill Race – Red Bull Descenso del Condor 2012 from Red Bull

Now, feast your eyes on these great pics from the folks at Red Bull:

Saturday's race started in the city of El Alto, 4,085 metres above sea level... Picture by Luis Vidales/Red Bull Content Pool

... and ended 1.6km later in Bolivia's capital La Paz, at 3,600m. Here Chile's Enrique Genova gets some air under his wheels. Picture by Patricio Crooker/Red Bull Content Pool

The course mixed city streets and flights of steps with patches of wasteland. Brazil's Bernardo Neves gets his drift on around a gravelly corner. Picture by Patricio Crooker/Red Bull Content Pool

Some big manmade drops were added to spice things up. Filip Polc made short shrift of them, though. Picture by Luis Vidales/Red Bull Content Pool

Turn the page for more great pictures from the 2012 Red Bull Descenso del Condor…