Oh yes, we are stressed. All the riders in this competition! It would be strange if they weren't - because the Rampage is getting more and more radical. It's the most radical ever to take place in Utah. As a result, our nerves are on edge. Especially mine, because things are not going according to plan. I start as the third rider. Everything goes well until it doesn't at the end. I even manage to catch the over-rotated 360 drop and literally jump off the devil's back. You can't imagine how close I come to falling. A scary moment - no: pure horror! Immediately afterwards, I pull the flatspin too far to the side, come off my line, want to jump back, but miss the jump - crash! Off, over, chance lost!
Now I can only hope for the second run, but anyone who knows the Rampage knows that the wind comes in the afternoon! Wind, wind, damn wind! I have to wait over three hours. I'm sitting on the starting plateau at 1400 metres and the wind is blowing in my face. You can see it clearly in the livestream: My jersey is flapping, my hair is flying, the flags are waving. To stop myself going crazy, I joke around with Brandon Semenuk. He had also fluffed his first run and his crash - like mine - had no consequences. That's a miracle in Utah, with the speed and the rocky terrain everywhere. Now, like Semenuk, I'm hoping for a second chance. He will later say: "I could not live with myself, if I did not get another run down." So true! I can't let my slip-up sit on me either, I've put too much work into this.
And money! It costs between 15,000 and 20,000 euros to travel from Europe with two helpers (diggers), even though there are three of us sleeping in the room. And then there's the drudgery. Shovelling, scraping, hammering a line into the Utah rocks - it's back-breaking work. I wait and the wind makes the windsocks stand at attention. Apart from me, only Semenuk and the two Rampage rookies Tom Isted and Luke Whitlock want to risk a second run, maybe Talus Turk and Adolf Silva too. Paul Couderc, world-class slopestyler and one of my helpers stand at the first drop and cross their arms. No chance, too much wind. The time is ticking. The eight-minute window is melting away. But at some point Paul actually gives the green light - and I roll off: Go Time! My first drop is the trickiest. I'm dreading it; it decides everything.
The jump hangs. I have to drop into the landing like a stone. If I don't succeed and I'm too fast, I hurtle down the steep slope without control. A cliff is waiting for me at the end. I want to spin down here in a 360 drop. GT Fury: indestructible! Did you see how my bike crashed over the cliff on the first run? It fell all the way to the bottom - and stayed intact. I only had to replace the bent rear wheel. It's a GT Fury Carbon. I rode the Hardline Tasmania, the Hardline Wales and now it's rolling with me towards the fat drop - it's a beast, this bike! On the first run, the suspension bottomed out on the landing: klonk! You could hear it on the livestream. Of course I hear things like that too. I hear everything. My senses switch to full reception. It's just me and the now. A boulder rolls over, the wind sweeps the dust aside - everything burns into my retina, my brain registers every detail.
The drop works, the steep descent, the fat 360 drop. Instead of the flatspin, I now do a backflip no foot can. Everything happens in seconds and yet takes an eternity. I like riders who surprise me, like Kyle Strait, who simply dared to do a tailwhip. You don't expect something like that from Kyle. I want that too - and pull a front flip over the step-up. It's been years since I last did a frontflip. The momentum carries me out higher than I expected. Boom! The impact goes right through my marrow and legs because there is no landing. The cushioning doesn't swallow everything, it lifts me back into the air. Front flips are merciless. They leave you no margin for error. A backflip, on the other hand, you can over- or under-rotate, no problem! Backflips are often even safer than a straight jump. But front flips? They are murderous.
This is especially true of the incredible front flip that Tom van Steenbergen dared to do. Tom landed perfectly and still almost fell. That much risk - I would never do that in my life! The probability of crashing was just as high as landing the trick. And a fall could have killed him! I actually manage to finish the second run. A sigh of relief, happiness, relief! The jury: an eternal zigzag course I roll over the finish line and want to slip away. I'm in such a good mood, so happy and proud to have completed the run I'd dreamed of. I don't want to let a bad jury assessment spoil this feeling. So I'd rather celebrate with my friends. But I'm whistled back and the result comes: fifth place (later sixth place). I'm surprised, because the Rampage jury is unpredictable. One year they favour tricks, the next they want to see raw, technically difficult runs.
You never know where you stand - so you can be at the front or at the back - your run doesn't seem to make any difference. This year, Pierre Edouard Ferry was the first European to sit on the jury. Ferry loves rough big mountain lines. But I don't know if it was any good. A lot of things are a matter of taste. For example, I like the way Brendan Fairclough rides and I like his super creative lines, which can't be compared to any other descent. The Rampage is not a slopestyle event - that's true. But the Rampage isn't a hardline either - that's also true. Brendog could have come second or eleventh with his run, I could have come eleventh or even second - nobody would have been surprised.
The jury's zigzag course is annoying, so I've switched to doing my best possible run. And I do it for myself - I almost don't care about the score. And if you ask me about my favourite - it was Tyler McCaul. His run had everything that makes the Red Bull Rampage special in my eyes: steep, technically difficult passages, really big hucks like the violent jump over the canyon gap, but also tricks and speed. My tip: make sure you watch it again in the replay!
The results men
1 Brandon Semenuk (CAN) 92.73 pts
2 Szymon Godziek (POL) 91.66 pts
3 Tyler McCaul (USA) 90.66 pts
4 Tom van Steenbergen (CAN) 89.33 pts
5 Kurt Sorge (CAN) 87.16 pts
6 Thomas Genon (BEL) 85.83 pts
7 Carson Storch (USA) 85.00 pts
8 Adolf Silva (ESP) 83.50 pts
9 Ethan Nell (USA) 82.33 pts
10 Kyle Strait (USA) 78.66 pts
11 Brendan Fairclough (UK) 76.00 pts
12 Reed Boggs (USA) 74.66 pts
13 Talus Turk (USA) 72.00 pts
14 Luke Whitlock (USA) 70.66 pts
15 Tom Isted (UK) 50.53 pts
16 Bienvenido Aguado Alba (ESP) DNF
17 Cam Zink (USA) DNF
The full replay of the Red Bull Rampage 2024
Strong performance: Women's Rampage
Seven of the best female freeriders in the world competed in the final of the first Red Bull Rampage for women. The scene of the action: Utah/USA - of course! Not far from the men's competition area, the women were given a terrain in the red rock desert that they could make rideable with their three-person construction teams. Nerves under high tension: among the athletes, the spectators, the commentators. What would happen?
The same rules applied in the final as in the Rampage: two runs are planned (often only one takes place due to wind), the better run is counted - a competition jury judged the runs according to the following categories:
- Linechoice
- Height of the jumps (amplitude)
- Technical difficulty of the tricks and manoeuvres (Technical Difficulty)
- Clean driving & jumping (Execution)
- Overall impression
3 o'clock our time: The women's Rampage gets underway!
At 3 a.m. on 11 October, Red Bull TV broadcast the women's final. It was supposed to be live, but the competition was recorded and later broadcast virtually live. According to the organisers, eight riders were allowed to start, seven did. This was because the favourite to win, Argentina's Camila Nogueira, crashed so hard in training when she was trying out a big drop on her line. She broke her nose and suffered a concussion.
Robin Goomes under pressure
New Zealander Robin Goomes was therefore the first to roll through the starting gate. Not an easy task for the young woman, as the whole bike world was watching her and was curious to see whether the women would prove themselves in the tough, steep Rampage terrain. In the run-up to the competition, the women's Rampage had been the subject of controversy in the scene. Some people said: No-one wanted to see women rocking through the terrain like amateur bikers and certainly no-one wanted to see women falling off cliffs. Therefore: maximum tension! Even the loud, chatty pair of commentators (ex-snowboard pro Tina Dixon and freeride star Cam McCaul) seemed to hold their breath - as did we - when Robin Goomes began her descent.
Nerves of steel
Robin Goomes kept her nerve and showed an impressive run that silenced all doubters. Robin performed fat drops and spun two high backflips over kickers, leaving spectators with only one thing to be: impressed. Robin's run was to remain the highest scoring of the competition. But that didn't take the excitement out of the show, which was mainly due to the late nominee Chelsea Kimbell from Arizona. The wiry Specialized rider on her stylish pink-painted demo was determined to do anything. She had chosen a particularly fierce line for this. Unfortunately, her front wheel slipped off at an unspectacular spot. As the terrain was steep and crumbly at this point, Chelsea slipped a few metres and her bike also whirled down the slope without a rider.
But the American recovered her bike and climbed back up the slope to continue the descent. Now came a massive drop, which she jumped perfectly. This drop - we estimate a vertical height of around 10 metres - makes all the macho hobby freeriders in the world upset with their "we could do that too" attitude. Because: No, you wouldn't be able to do that. Those days are over. Women's freeriding today is at an incredible level. The freeride women have proven this at events such as the Red Bull Hardline, the Darkfest in South Africa with its monstrous jumps or at the big mountain slopestyle Proving Grounds. Casey Brown, Vinny Armstrong, Vera Sandler, Vaea Verbeeck and Georgia Astle also showed confident runs, but it was Chelsea who kept the tension high.
Suspense until the end
In the meantime, we were told, a strong wind had started to blow, which is typical for Utah at this time of day. The wind cancelled out the second runs. Only Chelsea Kimball didn't want to let her flop in the first run spoil her Rampage debut and therefore started the second run. Irony of fate: at exactly the same unspectacular spot on her run, Chelsea Kimball's front wheel slipped again, ruining her Rampage performance. Robin Gooms, who had also climbed up to the starting gate as a precaution to make a second run in an emergency, threw her arms up in relief. Because now it was clear: the first winner of a women's Rampage was Robin Goomes.
Red Bull Rampage 2024 - Women's results
- Robin Goomes: 85.00.
- Georgia Astle: 79.66.
- Casey Brown: 77.33.
- Vaea Verbeeck: 72.66.
- Vero Sandler: 71.00.
- Vinny Armstrong: 64.00.
- Chelsea Kimball: 62.33.
We will add the men's results here once the runs have been completed.
The replay in the video
Dimitri Lehner
Editor
