Something changed last week.
Emil Johansson was a hair away from disaster. And then Adolf Silva went for it…
In case the above embed code from Adolf Silva and Road2Recovery’s Instagram post doesn’t work, the post contains some not hugely surprising news; Silva has no sensation from the chest down.
In the past I have not been one of the hand-wringers as regards Red Bull Rampage. My arguments were kind of along the lines that these riders would be doing daft, dangerous stuff even without Rampage.
But during the men’s event last weekend something changed. I think, like a lot of televised infamy, it was partly due to the instantly-iconic actual camera angle/footage of the horror crash and the instant, total silence that descended on the desert.
And let’s not forget the whole sketchy, panicky, desperation of Silva’s run immediately before the crash. He’d clearly already made up his mind to attempt the double backflip before he set-off from the start platform. This was Rampage; you gotta do something ‘special’ to claim the top spot.
And then, here’s the thing that did it for me, the announcers finally piped up with some hushed words, the event was put ‘on hold’ and they threw to some commercials. Commercials for Red Bull events, shows and stunts. All of which shared the common promotional vibe of risk and/or likelihood of something going wrong.
This doesn’t feel the same as Evel Knievel. The Knievel was the principal risk-taker. He was also the principal benefactor. Rampage didn’t feel like that this year. This year felt like Ancient Rome and the Colosseum. With Emperor Taurine sat on high calling for the next competitor to head into the gladiatorial pit.
Let’s be honest, it doesn’t even feel like Rampage and it hasn’t for a number of years now. As soon as the sandbags arrived, it was no longer true to the spirit of Rampage. It became an event that wasn’t even primarily aimed at mountain bikers anymore. It was now just another viral clip that can also be built into a sizzle reel for Red Bull.
It’s over for me with Red Bull Rampage. I certainly haven’t felt like running the usual post-event result stories and highlight vids on singletrackworld.com this week.
Surely, it’s now over for Rampage. Certainly in its current twisted form at least.
All of us here at Singletrack Magazine hope Adolf Silva’s condition improves. Good luck Adolf.
Road2Recovery Adolf Silva Fundraiser
“Adolf faces an intense and expensive road: daily therapy, adaptive equipment, home adjustments, and ongoing medical support. All funds raised will go toward Adolf’s ongoing medical care, rehabilitation, and transport to Barcelona, as well as adaptive home and vehicle modifications and specialized mobility equipment essential for his long-term independence and quality of life. Your help makes a direct difference in his recovery and stability — giving him every chance to rebuild his life.“
Just reading pinkbike comments, an interesting point made that NFL etc US pro sports are unionised but there’s no rider’s union. Maybe there should be, certainly the balance of $ and power is way over there on the corporate side.
I can’t even remember what I had for tea on Tuesday
deleted – stupid forum code making it illegible
You’ve clearly not read Benji’s article yet, because I’d say that’s his opinion too.
And while there is something in Jameso’s comment too – yes, I don’t really see Rampage as atypical STW’s ‘flavour’ of mountain biking; I do think Rampage is immoral. Always have. And STW shouldn’t have taken up the offer of a freebie to go there last year to cover it.
I’d say it’s got a lot in common with The Jeremy Kyle Show. Mark from Hebden Bridge (plucking a name out of thin air) might be a bit of a wrongun and a bit of a risk taker anyway but the producers for Jeremy Kyle don’t pop him on telly and let him get carried away in the moment and say yes to DNA test to see if he’s the father of his brother’s girlfriend’s baby in front of a audience of millions because it’s in Mark’s best interest. Even if at that moment Mark thinks that what he really wants to do. They do it because it’ll make good and cheap telly and they’ll sell loads of ads. If the DNA test goes the wrong way and Mark ends up ostracised from his whole family and lives an altered life for the rest of his days it’s collateral damage AFTER the cameras stop filming and not really their problem.
To steal a line from from that infamous sage, Agent Angelo Pappas – these riders are young, dumb and full of cum. They’ll do stupid high risk shit in their own time because they are wired that way. But for me at least that’s very different to putting them in a cauldron of testosterone, encouraging them to do their thing turned up to 11 for crumbs off your table whilst you watch the real money flow in.
It won’t. 99.99% of their customers won’t know about what happened let alone care
Yeah, I’m not entertained any more by it. And it’s the weird mix of not wanting someone hurt to entertain me, the way I cannot predict voting / winners because at times it seems unfathomable, and the whole RedBull/Extreme gnar/fake Brett Tippie ‘YE-HAAAWWW approach.
Thing is, Redbull exists within the “attention economy”.
Case in point, I go on that there YouTube and the Al Gore-Rhythm, having correctly identified me as a middle-aged, middle-class British bloke with an interest in MTBing serves up suggestions which include shorts from rampage and some longer form videos.
YT, IG, Tik Tok etc will do the same across the globe and will target the “content” to adjacent groups, people with a general interest in extreme sports or who love the general spectacle of people taking huge risks with their health…
The “just ignore it” argument used to work when we had 3 TV channels, no internet and the decision tree ended with ‘go outside’ or ‘play with meccano’. But we’re not that society anymore…
what I do note is that the Al Gore-Rhythm hadn’t pushed me any content on Adolf’s incident or status before I saw this article…
This is how I see it. It’s the highly cynical way the organisers and sponsors deal with risk, reward and responsibility that I find highly uncomfortable.
You can’t purposefully create an environment that invites, endorses and mutually rewards high risk activity, but then turn around and say “it was your choice" when it goes wrong. That’s just immoral.
Many if the comments on Pinkbike make me roll my eyes. Purposefully or naively missing the point. “It’s their choice". Yes it is, but that also doesn’t tell the whole story and doesn’t mean that improvements can’t be made to the format of the event that would improve things, and that Red Bull et al shouldn’t be sharing some responsibility.
The lack of nuance is depressing, albeit not surprising for modern discourse
Ignoring it also seems the nuclear approach as well. I’d rather push for a more responsible event so there is still opportunity for riders than hear that someone died/the event shut down at a later date.
It’s like F1 in the 70s then? Redbull events need a Jackie Stewart figure.
At the same time, there’s a whole second tier benefitting from these events. Just out of interest I thought I’d search for “redbull” on the STW homepage.
In typical STW fashion the hits aren’t sorted in any discernible order, but there were articles dated as far back as 2014 at least, related to Redbull associated events including Rampage. The first page appeared to have returned about 40 results and there were 3 pages of returns. So I would estimate Redbull have provided enough source information for about 100 Single Track articles over the last decade or so, Pinkbike have probably done even better from them.
Those second and Third tier organisations adding to the ‘stoke’ and sticking to a “positive vibes only” policy when miserable gits like me gob off probably need to at least review their position on these sorts of events.
I was very aware the ST push of fluff was especially strong for Hardline this year, which is in a similar realm to Rampage (IMO); an invitational event with elevated Risk/Reward elements generating content for the Social Media machine…
I’m not saying it’s all bad, but the exploitation of the most extreme flavours of various sports primarily for the promotional benefit of fizzy piss-water corporations, could do with some more balanced examination by the media associated with those sports… A reasonable start here I guess Ben.
We are interested because it’s (sort of) our sport. The vast majority won’t question who’s paying the medical bills, the repatriation, the physio and rehab and any longer term consequences.
Red Bull has so much coverage in so many sports (mainstream and niche) that the coverage and brand will ultimately prevail.
If I watch a clip now I wince at the potential consequences more than I’m entertained. The penalities for errors in some spots are off the charts. Mind you there’s plenty of amateur/ bike park stuff that’s capable of delivering life changing injuries.
I’ve only been watching this since before COVID.
I was watching it on the livestream.
Godziak went down ..and got up like a warrior ..which set me up thinking that yes there is risk but these guys are 100% on it and my riding is probably more risky to me…Silva went down and I swore and covered my mouth ..even then I was naieve enough to think, he’s ok…probably a few cracked ribs ..he’ll be fine ..what a champ….
And then that news yesterday…I said to the girlfriend that I feel bad for even watching it now, for helping fund it…
If rampage is to continue there must be some cap put on the “reward" for the riskiest choices…to make it not even an consideration for the competitors ..
I’m also shocked by the go fund me…what?
Surely there is a whole line of insurers coughing up on this…red bulls own…..silvas own….
I wish the guy the absolute best ..he was putting on a show for me and you and then this happens …
And likewise emils accident ..both super shocking
Back to the event itself ..I know it’s not slopestyle…but surely isted should’ve been on the podium…everyone loved the hip spin thing he did…. Maybe that’s the way rampage should head..higher scoring for slopestyle tricks and less scoring for risk
Where is that “is crowdfunding the new holiday insurance?" thread? We had lots of posters jumping on that, accusing the folk involved of being negligent, and that was just for a wee holiday trip.
Not for me. Definitely not for me.
But yes, given there would be no commercial gain without this stuff not having a viewing audience, culpability probably needs to be spread to those that ‘need’ more and more risk to satiate their desire to watch too. Using Benji’s headline analogy – does the audience crave more and more gore in their gladiatorial battles? Does the emperor take all the blame for giving it to them?
I didn’t extract Rampage because it didn’t sit well with me.
Insurance? How much would the premiums be? Would anyone me prepared to under right an event like that?
Insurance works for low risk, high consequence things. This is high risk. Uninsurable IMO.
I have to search hard to find cover for going touring without a helmet.
At least if you crash and injure yourself at Redbull you can win an award for it.
“Aiden Parish, a Rampage rookie from the USA, crashed during Saturday morning practice on October 18 while attempting a massive 67-foot diagonal step-down — a feature he had successfully sent to 92 feet just two days earlier. Coming up short on the landing, he was pitched over the bars and impacted hard down the slope, suffering a broken femur and cracking his helmet. Alert and giving a thumbs-up while being stretchered out, Parish was airlifted to a nearby hospital and later received the “McGazza Spirit Award” for his determination."
https://www.singletracks.com/community/8-mountain-bikers-brutally-injured-during-red-bull-rampage-2025/
Same, but I CBA watching it like I CBA watching other things that don’t interest me. Plus I don’t like feeding the algorithms so it’s a kind of algorithm-antithesis – you keep serving me this shit so I’m avoiding clicking any of it bc you’ll just keep serving up the wrong stuff if I do.
If that’s the case (idk) then Rampage isn’t sustainable. It’s like accepting that Deliveroo isn’t sustainable if they’re forced to pay riders properly and not exploit them. So.. Red Bull and Deliveroo .. different bikes, different demand, exploitation in common?All in all, the player and the game and the audience are all in this together, can’t really lay fault with one aspect alone. Bc of that I think it just has to be fair on all involved. I get to watch if I want to, free – they get ad exposure. Red Bull and all other sponsors need to cover the rider risks.I read that RB do support their own riders well – maybe they could insist all other rider sponsors do the same as an entry term (maybe they do?)
I was thinking about people who take risks w/o the big publicity and thought of what some climbers do, real life and death serious stuff away from the cameras. The instinct or need is innate. Then I thought of Climbing For Dollars in the Running Man which is more how Rampage looks at times : )
What’s the situation at Hardline re. injuries, insurance?
The vast majority of climbers climb in a risk managed way. Not least because if they didn’t they’d not survive being a beginner. I don’t think that the same is true in mountain biking. The “just send it, bro” mentality pervades the sport IMO.
I got the impression that the fundraising was more about all the specialist things Silva is going to need after hospital. His home will have to be modified, years of rehab and physio, etc.
I’m guessing the immediate medical stuff will be covers by either his or Redbull’s insurance. But breaking your back can take years (if ever) to recover from. Here in the UK we’re very lucky and the NHS and government will pick up a lot of the costs, but in the US and S America I think you’re pretty much on your own.
Hmm there are some significantly large groups out there with differing interpretations of risk managment. Think of people learning to climb grit venturing onto the easier, unprotected classics+ Risk management there isn’t so high, it’s really the grade doing that forthem. Compare to a group of grit olød timers doing a circuit of classic solos up to about E3 (tech 5b solos). They’re relying on years of training and experience to keep them out of trouble, but sometimes…. and finally a group of boulderers working there way thro’ some highballs.
It’s not so different
If extreme events like Rampage continue, but increased safety measures were imposed to prevent (or minimize) life changing/ending injuries, what would that look like? How would it change the event?
IMHO there is a gulf between the risks i took climbing as an amateur without audience and the modern world of clicks and sponsors.
I think Rampage is like a soloing competition. You keep soloing harder and harder roues. Until all but one person bottles it or falls.
Healing vibes to Adolf. Loved the whole contest this year. Emiles crash was gnarly as **** too. Its all omelette and eggs. All of us into extreme sport know the risks.