You can’t have missed that the Red Bull Rampage went down in Utah this weekend with the usual dollop of massive gaps, huge drops and ridiculous stunts.
The 13th edition of the Red Bull Rampage went down in a windy Virgin, Utah, the iconic venue attracted 19 of the World’s riders to do battle.
2900 feet of descent and their own hand-built lines sat between riders, that coveted Rampage title and being part of mountain bike history.
Photos courtesy of Red Bull Content Pool.
So what did we learn from this year’s event?
You are unlikely to win unless you’re Canadian.
Of the thirteen editions of the Red Bull Rampage the only winners to not hail from Canada have been Cam Zink, Kyle Strait, Andreu Lacondeguy and Cedric Gracia. Eight of the thirteen winners have all hailed from Canada, and five of these are by Kurt Sorge and Brandon Semenuk.
Gee Atherton and Antoine Bizet have come close, both racking up a pair of runner up medals apiece.
Andreu Lacondeguy was the last non-North American to win the competition in 2014.
You’re unlikely to win if you drop in early.
This boils down to how the points are allocated and how they are presented to the rest of the field. As each successive rider drops in, they know full well what certain runs have scored and can adjust accordingly.
With that in mind, barring crashes, mechanicals or a change in conditions, there is no reason for the score not to climb through the competition.
If you are scheduled to start first, you will have to lay down a run so insane in order to win, that the riders that come after you simply can’t beat it. Failing that, you will simply have to watch each rider one-up you as they come down the hill.
Points judging isn’t flawless.
Every year or so, the judging at the Rampage comes under harsh criticism. That’s usually after a rider lays down an absolutely flawless run that for whatever reason fails to impress the judges.
Brendan Fairclough’s run this year was evidence of that this year, both McCaul brothers have fallen foul in the past as well.
What we can safely say is that there are few riders and builders better set to make a call on who is doing what on the hill. It seems odd to hark on about “returning the event to it’s big mountain roots”, and then not scoring that aspect higher though.
Did Brendan deserve to win? Perhaps not, but his score was undeniably low for a run that contained all the necessary ingredients.
The envelope can, and will, be pushed.
To win Rampage you have to think big and outside the box. Yes there are parameters set by the terrain, but if you can essentially ride whatever you can build within the allowed time, then the World is seemingly your oyster.
Back in the day, it seemed to be all about the biggest vertical huck, but times have changed.
Who can forget the legendary Kelly McGarry flipping the 72ft canyon gap?
Tom van Steenbergen set the record this year for the biggest flat drop backflip in the Rampage’s illustrious history, shooting himself to the summit of the best trick mountain in the process.
Winning runs tend to be the biggest spectacle.
While Brett Rheeder’s run was no doubt flawless, with two 360s and a one-foot can-can flip thrown over some seriously sizeable features, there were other runs that stood out as making a more technical battle on the mountain.
Big, technical lines don’t look that great to the mainstream, while even Joe Bloggs can see that a backflip is impressive.
This feeds back into the parameters set and given to the judges on what to award points to and clearly is weighted towards slopestyle moves over line technicality.
