BIKE: Thomas, you spent days digging, building and taking risks – and then you couldn’t even get the race started. How bitter is that?
Thomas Genon: Of course I’m disappointed. A Rampage line like that involves an enormous amount of work and even more stress. So when it’s all over before you’ve even had a chance to set off from the top, it really hurts.
Why wasn’t the final simply postponed by a day?
You’ll have to ask the organisers about that. Just moving the camera equipment from the women’s venue to the men’s is likely to take a whole day. That’s probably why it was hardly possible to reschedule at short notice. What’s more, it carried on raining for the next three days. About an hour after the event was called off, there was another spell of good weather. But nobody could have foreseen that at the time.
Clemens Kaudela once told us that taking part in Rampage costs around 15,000 euros. Now you’ve got all the expenses, but no run. Is there anything left to do but swallow it and carry on?
Apparently, the entire prize money is to be divided equally amongst us riders. Financially, I might even be better off than if I’d come fourth or fifth. Nevertheless, the feeling remains: we’d already got all the unpleasant parts of the process out of the way. Only this one final step was missing. Perhaps the Holy Grail would have been waiting at the end. Perhaps not. That is precisely what we will never know.
What was the mood like amongst the riders who were unable to start – Cam Zink, Tomas Lemoine and the others?
It’s incredibly frustrating. Competing at Rampage means a great deal to us. If you’re not allowed to run, you don’t just miss out on a run – you also miss out on an answer: would the line have worked? What would it have looked like? How would it have fared against the competition? All these questions remain unanswered.
Will you be able to ride your line again next year? Will the event take place again with the same field of riders?
Nobody knows that at the moment. It will probably be a few months before we find out more. Until then, all we can do is wait and see.
Which race was the highlight for you?
As a rule, I don’t watch any races before my own start. Otherwise, I just end up getting unnecessarily nervous. This time, however, there was a catch to this strategy: my start never came.
What do you think of Szymon Godziek’s massive jump at the end of his line?
That was a bloody big deal, mate.
How would your performance have compared to Godziek’s? Would victory have been possible?
There’s no serious answer to that. You only find out whether a line looks good and is competitive once you’ve ridden it all the way through and landed it cleanly. On paper, anything can look like a winner. Unfortunately, the mountain doesn’t read paper.
Were you able to follow what happened during the break from the start line up there?
We were in direct contact with the organisers. If the event is suspended, we speak to them live and receive the information straight away.
Last year there were some serious crashes, including those involving Adolf Silva and Emil Johansson. Many fans felt that Rampage had gone too far. Were the riders more cautious this time?
That’s what I’d expected. I thought everyone would plan and ride a bit more conservatively. It certainly didn’t look like that, though. It felt like a perfectly normal Rampage – if you can even call Rampage ‘normal’ at all.
The women had better weather. Did you get to watch their races?
Yes, I watched the broadcast. The women really gave it their all. Hannah Bergemann was incredibly fast; her run looked impressive. And I was absolutely delighted that Chelsea finally went all out and completed the whole race.
Dimitri Lehner
Editor