Red Bull Rampage Diary 3: Go Big, But Come Home

Today was the last day of practice for the women, tomorrow is showtime. But when you watch Red Bull Rampage on the TV, with all the Loud Hype Stoke production values, you’re seeing a teeny tiny tip of the iceberg. You’ve missed the days of digging, and of climbing up and down the hill on narrow tracks more suited to goats. It’s really not possible to overstate just how physically exhausting that is. Both previous days, I’ve been on site for less time than the riders (media shuttles leave long before the evening riding finishes and it’s a long hot walk out if you miss them), and while I’ve walked and climbed plenty, I’ve not been wielding a shovel. Both days, I’ve crawled into bed by 9pm, head pounding from the heat and dehydration – despite drinking many litres of electrolyte drinks. One of the diggers told me they were drinking nine litres of electrolytes per day. The sun is baking. The wind is warm. The shade is warm. Nothing is cool, never mind cold. I know I’ve said this all before, but this year is particularly hot – it hasn’t really cooled down at night. It’s against this backdrop of exertion and endurance that the riders line up to hit the last of their features and string them together.

Yesterday was all about nibbling off a feature at a time. Today has been about hitting those that hadn’t been hit, and then joining them into the sequence. In many instances, it’s the biggest features that have been left to last. As one rider explained, you want to ride them enough to feel confident you can hit it in your run and know what speed to be at, but you don’t want to ride it too often. More hits is more fatigue, and more risk.

The morning was really windy, as the relatively cool night air in the shadow of the cliffs got sucked out by the rising warm air in the sunlit valley beyond. Luckily, some lower parts of the women’s course formed sheltered bowls, allowing them to continue ticking off features.

Vero and Vinny started out at the top of this lander…

…Vinny rolling through…

…both comparing notes about the speed and feel of the jump…

Vinny starts to stitch it together, dropping in to the lander as intended…

…then rolling through into the final trick jumps.

By the time the temperatures levelled out to an even setting of ‘toasty’, the women were starting to string their runs together, in thirds, halves, quarters and even a full run for Vaea Verbeeck. Chelsea Kimball put together her mid section, leaving just her final big drop – the one that Cami crashed on in the first day of practice. Cami, by the way, is out – a concussion diagnosis has meant she’s not allowed to compete, despite having returned to the hill to ride this morning.

Robin Goomes and Georgia Astle worked on their tricky slow speed entry to their big drop. Georgia crept through…

…then Robin knew it could take more speed…

…so Georgia pushed back up for another lap.

Some big features remained unridden, and judging the right speed for a new feature is a collaborative process. Riders think back to other features with similar shapes – at different scales. They talk to other riders, and the diggers, gauging opinion. They run and roll up to the edges of take offs, visualising the speed and trajectory that will take them to their desired landing. Photographers gather, waiting to catch the moment, adding pressure to the rider still figuring out their next move.

Here’s Chelsea, in the middle of her process – she was about to hit the drop that Cami had crashed on. She kept running up to the edge, hands positioned as if on handlebars, then she’d squat and mime a pop. Back up at her start point, she repeats the process, talking to herself all the while. Back to the take off, back up to her bike, until the sequence of movements she’s about to execute are clear.

And then, it’s time to hit it. There’s nothing more to be prepared, no landing to be given an extra packing, no adjustments to be made. Whoops and screams of joy erupt as features are unlocked, and with it is the moment that it’s all about for these riders. The moment where you know you’ve got it is the rush that they’re looking for. Every single feature is a win, and with that win comes the buzz of nailing the trick or the feature, of pushing their skills and achieving. Practice days are bursts of that buzz between the tension and the fear. Competition day should be hit after hit of that achievement buzz – the fact you’re watching on TV is the last thing their thinking about.

Along with the whoops of joy comes a whole pile of new and useful information is unlocked for the next person to hit it. Faster, slower, more pop, less… Of course, with Cami out, it’s only Chelsea who will be hitting this drop tomorrow.

The others have a variety of different lines down into the final trick jumps at the bottom. Here’s Vaea getting comfortable and planning what tricks to throw.

The women’s site is more condensed than the men’s, and all on new terrain. Building big features like the takeoffs and landings needed for things like canyon gaps takes time, and the narrower women’s site gave fewer gaps between the rock fingers over which a canyon gap could be built. Chelsea Kimball had hit a canyon gap at Formation, and spotted an opportunity for one on the site here, but decided to conserve energy and time – leaving that opportunity for another year, perhaps.

Here’s an example of the kind of thing being built on the men’s side, where the landscape has already been shaped in years gone by.

Having stood at the top of the take off for Cami and Chelsea’s drop, I’m under no illusion that it’s small. But there’s something about jumping out across the void that goes against everything your brain thinks is sensible. Having watched the women build their features, and build up to hitting them, it all seems strangely normal by the time they get to the actual moment of trying one for the first time.

Over on the men’s site, I’ve yet to see anyone hit one of these stomach lurching gaps. Yesterday’s rescue of Clemens Kaudela had damaged the landing of Tom Isted and Tyler McCaul’s gap, so that remained new and un-ridden. Tom says they’re planning to ride it tomorrow afternoon, after the women’s contest is over. I’m anxious enough over that gap that I don’t think I want to know they’re going to hit it until after it’s done. Luckily for me, it’s way up high beyond the media access zone, so I probably won’t have to watch.

What I did see was T-Mac hitting a giant drop that seemed impossibly narrow and close to the cliff from where I stood. Big whoops all round when he nailed the landing.

And then, at the end of the day there was a whole sequence of riders suddenly throwing tricks off the front of an absolutely massive drop and into a series of trick jumps. My jaw dropped at the sight of Kurt Sorge doing and Indian Air, and Reed Boggs doing a double back flip, and then a Sui off the even bigger drop one rock layer up in the cliff. The light was incredible too, changing from yellow glowing rays through the dust filled air, to a very flattering golden glow.

I’d say it was awe and wonder I was feeling. Watching these guys fly through the air, I wasn’t accompanied by the same sense of tension and relief that I’ve had watching people do much lesser features back home. Yes, the consequences of getting it wrong are huge, but the probability of getting it wrong doesn’t seem that great when you see the ease with which these riders are hitting these jumps.

Obviously sometimes it does go wrong, and we’re told that Clemens Kaudela is stable in hospital, but won’t be competing. No further information has been released as yet.

Back to tonight’s riding, and on the other side of me, the only Rampage first timers for this year’s men’s line up, Tom Isted and Luke Whitlock, were figuring out their lines. After a couple of rolls in the dirt, and a spectacular bail from Tom, it sounded like they still have more digging to do to get things shaped right.

And then, the rush to leave the site before darkness fell. It all starts all over again tomorrow morning, with shuttles running from 5am and the women’s practice starting at 6.30am. These riders are working hard, but I don’t think they’re doing it for your entertainment. They’re doing it because it’s there, and because they think they can. For the women, tomorrow is their chance to show that they can create some incredible features from and incredible landscape, and then ride down it with incredible style. After watching all the build up and process behind it, the prospect seems entirely credible.

• Women’s Broadcast: Thursday, October 10th at 9pm ET/6pm PT/2am BST simulcast on ESPN+, Red Bull TV, and Red Bull Bike’s YouTube channel.
• Men’s Broadcast: Saturday, October 12th at 12pm ET/9am PT/5pm on ESPN+ in the U.S. and on Red Bull TV in all other countries.

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2024 Red Bull Rampage Women’s Roster

1. Robin Goomes (NZL) 
2. Casey Brown (CAN) 
3. Vinny Armstrong (NZL)  
4. Georgia Astle (CAN) 
5. Vero Sandler (UK) 
6. Vaea Verbeeck (CAN) 
7. Chelsea Kimball (USA) 
8. Camila Nogueira (ARG) 

2024 Red Bull Rampage Men’s Roster

1. Cam Zink (USA)
2. Tom Van Steenbergen (CAN) 
3. Carson Storch (USA)
4. Brendan Fairclough (GBR)
5. Talus Turk (USA)
6. Kyle Strait (USA)
7. Ethan Nell (USA)
8. Bienvenido Aguado Alba (SPA)
9. Adolf Silva (SPA)
10. Brandon Semenuk (CAN)
11. Clemens Kaudela (AUT)
12. Kurt Sorge (CAN)
13. Luke Whitlock (USA)
14. Reed Boggs (USA)
15. Szymon Godziek (POL)
16. Thomas Genon (BEL)
17. Tom Isted (GBR)
18. Tyler McCaul (USA)

Thanks to ABUS for contributing to Hannah’s travel expenses.

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