Who’s gonna win? Who’s going home in a ****ing ambulance?
Always a great event but always makes my bum twitch when the videos start to filter in and you get an idea for the size of these features.

Live on Friday evening it seems.

Red Bull Youtube playlist.

One of the highlights of the year for sure. Sadly it seems only a matter of time before someone is very seriously injured or killed.

It’s an amazing thing to watch live- in highlights, sure, you get the tricks and the crashes but live you get a better impression of the sheer implausability of the thing. Love it. Quite a lot of chat this year about a return to technicality and more natural lines which’d be great if it happens and if the judges can deal with it.

Quite a lot of chat this year about a return to technicality and more natural lines which’d be great if it happens and if the judges can deal with it.

Would be good to see. Some might say it’s been won by throwing the biggest trick off the biggest drop the last few years without much regard for the run as a whole.

It’s an amazing thing to watch live- in highlights, sure, you get the tricks and the crashes but live you get a better impression of the sheer implausability of the thing.

Agree with that. You get a much better impression of the mental processes the riders go through before their runs too when watching live.

more natural lines

didn’t I see a piccy of a massive pile of sandbags as the base for a ramp that some-one had built?

If we are going for more techy, natural lines that would be great. I still think Gee’s run was the coolest to watch despite no major flips or whips.

Much prefer the natural lines* rather than one big trick off the Iron-Bru kicker (or whatever)
Every year there seems to be more wooden contstructions built and even bigger dirt ramps

*They’ve been line building since the origins of the event. Even Gee’s more natural line in 2010 took a few days of digging (and was then beaten by one big trick off a ramp).

It seems like there’s a bit of a divide between riders who want to conquer the mountain on bike and ones who want to conquer it by pick/shovel/sandbags.

I much prefer the former. Some of the pics make it look like they’ve built a trail centre. I can still appreciate the riding, but there are other events that serve that better imo.

I’d prefer to see someone inelegantly struggle down a sketchy line vs smoothly approaching massive drops with a smooth line to the next one.

But I guess everyone knows what won it last year (and the years before).

Brendog ftw! 🙂

Have you seen ‘Brendog FairClaw’s’ pull up? I thought he had gone the wrong way just as he started. F that.

This one for e.g.
.

I know if you’re going to drop a cliff, you’re going to need a good runout, but you may as well bring a big wooden ramp with you.

This one is like a pachinko (sp) game:

Still pretty man-made, but much more ‘rampage’ to my eye.

dragon – Member

If we are going for more techy, natural lines that would be great. I still think Gee’s run was the coolest to watch despite no major flips or whips.

Lacondeguy’s runs were pinned too, but with tricks. I’d like to see him win again. I’d prefer to see Brendog or Kerr winning but can’t see it.

I still think Gee’s run was the coolest to watch despite no major flips or whips.

Funnily enough that’s what I was thinking of. One of the best Rampage runs I’ve seen. Just so fast and smooth. Didn’t he get a podium spot for it?

Worth another look…

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBARTxHzyZ0[/video]

Of the ones I’ve seen so far, Nico Vinc’s looks the most insanely naturalish one:

Lacondeguy’s runs were pinned too, but with tricks.

Fair point, maybe I just don’t like tricks all a bit too bmx for me. I’d far rather watch something like the Red Bull Hardline than a Crankworx comp.

Here’s Gee’s from 2010 – he came second
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBARTxHzyZ0[/video]
The Wall-ride is awesome at the end (camera angle doesn’t do that gap to it justice)
And the Atherton project covering the event
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1NyDxyFf9s[/video]

Lacondeguy’s runs were pinned too, but with tricks.

Watch the POV of his run and apart from the first 50m everything has been smoothed out and massive ramps built up
The start of Kyle Straights run in 2013 is much more interesting before it gets all big kicker ramps half way down

spawnofyorkshire

Watch the POV of his run and apart from the first 50m everything has been smoothed out and massive ramps built up
The start of Kyle Straights run in 2013 is much more interesting before it gets all big kicker ramps half way down

Smoothed out is a very relative term. Compared to others doing similar lines with tricks, Lacondeguy was flying. Not taking anything away from him but in that clip of Gee from 2010 you can see his line is very well groomed too.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylMTaiz02N0[/video]

Don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer to see more natural stuff, but big tricks pretty much win the competition and he’s riding accordingly, only better.

I think its all utterly amazing – and I wouldn’t dream of even commenting on, let alone criticizing anyone’s line choice or style until I had launched into oblivion myself. Must be some pretty big kahunas on this forum.

@JimJam – i’m on about his 2014 winning run

Don’t get me wrong, the big tricks and speed is incredible. I just have a preference towards the Gee style of run. That won’t win you rampage though so it doesn’t happen anymore

ndthornton – Member

I think its all utterly amazing – and I wouldn’t dream of even commenting on, let alone criticizing anyone’s line choice or style until I had launched into oblivion myself. Must be some pretty big kahunas on this forum.

It’s easy to land a 60ft drop just long as the landing is smooth donchaknow 🙂

It’s a valid enough point of discussion though since the riders themselves are always debating natural vs built at each event. No different from people debating the DH, or F1 or anything else for that matter.

Of the ones I’ve seen so far, Nico Vinc’s looks the most insanely naturalish one:

I’ve looked over this for a while but still can’t work out what is going on in that pic that will in any way be remotely rideable.

I think he’s going to ride down a cliff, then jump off a cliff.

I’ve looked over this for a while but still can’t work out what is going on in that pic.

A HUGE really really really extra difficult drop. 😯

I love it.

Watching someone try and front flip a 60 foot gap live on Red Bull TV really takes some beating in terms of sheer ball shrinking, hand in mouth spectacle

A HUGE really really really extra difficult drop.

Is he supposed to be coming in from that narrow path(!) on the top left then somehow hip-dropping into the landing middle bottom?

ndthornton – Member

I think its all utterly amazing – and I wouldn’t dream of even commenting on, let alone criticizing anyone’s line choice or style until I had launched into oblivion myself. Must be some pretty big kahunas on this forum.
I’m commentating purely about what I like watching. Lets face it Rampage exists mostly as a spectacle.
I’m sure I must be in the minority (in liking the natural trails) though as clearly RedBull know what they’re doing.

Yep, if Vink makes it then he should win….it’s the most nuts ‘line’ I’ve seen in a long time!

Brendan last year was incredible….proper big mountain riding….but no tricks, shame really as it’s become a Slopestyle event that just happens to take place on a mountain now.

Gee’s 2010 run was great too, as someone else said though, I’d rather watch Hardline….or have the Rampage riders and dig teams collaborate on building a line then all ride it….that way you can fairly compare riders on the same turf so to speak…the childish squabbling over lines this year (see Pinkbike) has been disappointing.

Brendan last year was incredible….proper big mountain riding….but no tricks, shame really as it’s become a Slopestyle event that just happens to take place on a mountain now.

I thought the camera angles did him no favours – the canyon gaps he did didn’t look like gaps at all!

Here’s the PoV:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIXuC8uQyig[/video]

Yep, if Vink makes it then he should win….it’s the most nuts ‘line’ I’ve seen in a long time!

What he said…but I’m not sure he’ll get the score he should do for it.

I have been watching “life behind Bars” Brandon Semenuk’s Redbull TV series on, um, Redbull TV. Its great and gives you a good idea about the amount of work going on even before the even starts. Digging plays a huge part of the event, even stuff that looks natural has been dug to allow it to flow better, be safer etc.

I love all the huge canyon jumps, people front flipping stuff, all the huge 360s down 50ft cliffs, it makes for a great event. Its the direction Rampage was always going to go. Crusing gracefully down the course is great and good to watch but when someone throws in a front flip on a 70ft gap then they deserve to win! I am not a judge though so who am I to say whats good and what isn’t. Apart from front flips, they are awesome.

Some might say it’s been won by throwing the biggest trick off the biggest drop the last few years without much regard for the run as a whole.

If that was the case wouldn’t Cam Zink or Kelly McGarry have won recently?

grum

If that was the case wouldn’t Cam Zink or Kelly McGarry have won recently?

They would have it they’d completed smooth runs and tricked some other features.

Cam Zink won the best trick award last year with that huge 360. His run was pretty much geared towards that. Still made it down the mountain though.

Looking forward to it, looks like Fairclough is using the same mad on-off canyon gaps as last year with a few new features which should be rad! Does sound like new-comers who don’t already have a line are having a harder time of it as people are being protective of their existing lines, which is kind of understandable as I think there’s $100k on the line for the win?

Digging is part of most of the riding lines these guys do all year, Rampage no different its just seen beforehand due to more media. Some of the Kamloops, Gobi desert or wherever is ‘just’ riding down steep natural chutes but its a minority of their riding shirley.

Claudio preview up on PB 😀

Link to Claudio’s preview

LMAO

Claudio’s preview is bloody funny and bloody scary at the same time. I actually thought he was going to go off that massive kicker, but even the small jumps are massive!!

Link to Claudio’s preview

LMAO

This really brings home how insane it is.. hard to tell when you are watching the competitors.

i found it much more scary to watch than the others.

The canyon gap on that video 😯