I don't agree that it's like slopestyle. The scale and conditions and bikes are very different.
It's a shame Brendog is a Monster rider though...
If you look at Semenuks run compared to Brendan's it's pretty clear that the judges see it as a kind of slope style competition. In fact Brendan came nearly last out of the riders that managed to complete the run they wanted to .
They were both amazing runs but completely opposite in their style and it's a shame the judging isn't open enough to reflect that .
If only Brendog had accepted that can of red bull as he sat in finish arena, cracked it open with a big gulp for the cameras and a winning smile - he'd get a score of 100.
And lost his Monster sponsorship...
I enjoyed that. But is it just me or was there a mass loss of confidence in all the riders for second runs? It was breezy but it didn’t look too bad (IANACanyonGapper).
I completely understand that Brendog stomped his first run and therefore didn’t feel he could improve but I’d have thought E.g. Godziek might have challenged Brandon, and the third podium spot was definitely up for grabs.
I completely respect all of the riders for making that decision - I’m more interested that the danger levels seem to be reducing the spectacle of the event.
Sucks for Szymon, thought he had that in the bag with bigger features than Semenuk and that mad double backflip at the end! We all knew Brendog would be scored low but this seems excessively low to me. Shame Isted didn't get his second run as well.
If you read Hannah's piece, I got the impression there was quite a backlash from the riders over how the live event was run. It's so exposed and so dangerous in even light winds that riders not risking lives over a comp they couldn't win was a good call imo. However the riders have had 8 days for practice and building features - building a takeoff on finals day is taking the p.
I do think the format needs to completely change next year, after the debacle over Brendon's line. The line build also needs to be part of the overall judging (not just have an award for dig team), how unique the line is is and how many other riders use each of the features. It seems exposure, technical skill and originality are no longer part of Redbull vision for rampage.
According Cam Zink himself on an insta reply he has broken ribs and punctured lung, feels lucky to have not broken his back.
I find it hard to objectively judge how semenuk has evolved his run year on year, it seems like the same level of spinny jumps every time, whereas fairclough adds difficulty and features to his line every single time. It's hard to understand how he was scored so much lower than the previous year unless the judges claim the winners progressed significantly more than him compared to previous years. That's probably my own bias though, since I'm much more likely to watch fairclough and remember what he did the year before.
Just caught the second runs this morning.
Bloody hell I'd hate to see Semenuk's face if he lost, he seemed miserable about winning.
Probably a bit embarrassed as he expected Godziek to win still. I can see how BS's tricks were insanely technical, but it's like he honed in on one strand of the competition (the opposite to Brendog) and was unduly rewarded for that.
Feels like a jumping (and flipping and spinning) the shark moment for Rampage. There's going to be big reputational damage over Brendog in particular. I don't think they can come back without significant changes to the scoring and possibly a public apology.
Delinks riding style produces the images the sponsors want to use for promotion which is what the whole event is about. It stopped being a free ride event years ago
Uh oh, the freeride police are in. I'd love to know what your qualifications are to be always telling people what freeride is, is not, or is supposed to be.
Also instant dismissal of flippy, spinny tricks from people who can't even bunnyhop is a bit rich.
I don't think anyone is dismissing spinny flippy tricks but are questioning what the event now is. If the event is now about trick complexity, riders like Brendog and Gee cannot win.
Rampage has lost its identity. The organisers need to take a step back and re-evaluate for the events reputation and riders sakes.
Maybe if there is more transparency upon invite and before line digging as to what will and won't score, the riders can make more informed decisions.
I'm sympathetic but the writing has been on the wall for this for years. Do big tricks, get big score. It's like turning up to the dressage event on a racehorse. It's all very impressive - but you wont win the game. It's fine to go along anyway, but you can't really be sad about not winning.
Uh oh, the freeride police are in. I’d love to know what your qualifications are to be always telling people what freeride is, is not, or is supposed to be.
isnt this every thread, just swap 'freeride' for whatever the current thing is 😀
There is no doubt that Rampage is a spectacle, but the nonsense of judging really diminishes it for me. Comparing Semenuk and Fairclough's runs is a total 'apples and pears' situation. Hardline is now the more enjoyable viewing experience IMO. Even then, I still get much more edge-of-the-seat entertainment out of the WC DH racing over the course of the season ....when it is possible to watch it (but that is another thread).... 😉
I enjoyed that. But is it just me or was there a mass loss of confidence in all the riders for second runs? It was breezy but it didn’t look too bad (IANACanyonGapper).
When a guy that has done a 110ft back flip says "it ain't safe, I'm not going to risk it" I think it's fair to say shit's ****ed!
And to say that Rampage has suddenly changed is odd. Semenuk has won this thing how many times?
I thought Fairclough deserved a better position. His line was novel. But he also puts a tremendous amount of effort into building the hype. I wonder if that detracts from the novelty or even creates a bigger gap between public expectations and judges perceptions of what is worthy of high scores?
This is what the winning bike looked like in 2001. It's really no mystery that the whole event and the riding has evolved in the quarter century since then.
Early freeride was light on tricks because no one was doing tricks on old DH bikes. I bet you a million quid Wade Simmons would have done a flipwhip if he could.
There didn’t appear to be any clear agreed scoring criteria that all riders knew they would be scored against.
Many of the riders didn’t understand the scores as they were awarded.
It appeared the judges had already decided a ranking of placement and then just jigged around a little
It felt really unprofessional
I'd quite like them to ditch the scoring altogether, share the money out among all the riders, and just run it as a spectacle. I imagine most of the riders and sponsors would still want to be involved.
Maybe keep public votes for best line/run/rider and best trick?
On one hand it almost sends a waste (or abuse if wanting to be provocative) of the natural landscape just to smooth it all out like that. On the other, where else can you do that to that degree?
I missed a lot of it, and yes flips and stuff are all very impressive (woohoo I'm allowed to be critical because I can bunny hop) and way beyond my skill level, but when I went back and watched Brendogs run, it just had that gnarly edge that tricks on motorways just don't have.
And lost his Monster sponsorship…
which is why he will never win the event. The judges aren’t going to let a rider sponsored by the opposition especially they want the gig next year
it just had that gnarly edge that tricks on motorways just don’t have.
For me the issue is that the big manicured lines could be anywhere, they are imposed onto the landscape, but those lines could be built into any environment. Brendan builds lines that can only exist in that environment, they use the nature and contours of the environment far more, those sketchy chutes should be why they go to those destinations to then not reward the lines that use them rather than the ones that flatten them feels jarring.
The wind was pretty crazy all afternoon. As well as the windsocks, the sunshades in the crowd are a good indicator of what’s going on - no one wants to take a sun shade down, but if the wind is blowing a bunch you eventually give up wrestling and have to take it down! It’s not just the strength of the wind - it’s also the direction and consistency. And it can be still at the bottom and whipping at the top. At one point during second runs there were little swirling dust devils all over the place. Tom said the windsock by him was dancing in every direction, and then whenever it did settle to be consistent it was blowing straight towards the hillside. If you set off when it seems to be a gap in the wind but isn’t, you can get blown off a feature by a random gust.
To defend the more slope style runs, there was very little room for error in them. When you're landing a 40ft back flip drop onto a rideable piece of track a meter wide with scrub, rock, and dust to either side, the consequences for failure are pretty big.
Fairclough's line was the one I liked best but Semenuk's second run was spectacular.
“ which is why he will never win the event. The judges aren’t going to let a rider sponsored by the opposition especially they want the gig next year”
Last years winner was a Monster athlete.
Brendon’s score was a joke though, even if he didn’t win, should have been top 3
should have been top 3
I don't think so. I've a huge amount of respect for every single one of the riders, compared to the rest of us, all of them have bottomless talent, but in comparison to his peers at the event, he's not doing the things he needs to do to score highly. It looks amazing fo'sure, but I don't doubt that any of the top three riders could've styled out Brendan's line better than he could've.
but I don’t doubt that any of the top three riders could’ve styled out Brendan’s line better than he could’ve.
Not sure on that, the big wide smooth landings means that there is margin for error, and quite a few of the other riders were making full use of that, they went long (a couple came up short on more inconsequential bits) or were over-rotating. Bren had to be super precise and he greased his line. The canyon backflip had to be accurate to get stopped and turned in for the next section, he put it down absolutely on the lip, same with the step up and the step up onto Dwayne Johnson.
Gutted for Bren and Godziak. I think Godzy should have won it for sure.
Bren was obviously never going to attract high scores but the creativity and exposure of his run and the resultant score felt like a bit of a kick in the teeth.
Definitely the people's choice. 🙂
which is why he will never win the event. The judges aren’t going to let a rider sponsored by the opposition especially they want the gig next year
This is demonstrably untrue but you keep repeating it anyway. Every time you post it on Pinkbike people tell you it's untrue. You're not just repetitive you're wrong.
I'm starting to think you're a bot.
I still thought it was an amazing spectacle. Whatever you think about the contrast between exposure and tricks I do think Senenuk’s ride was spectacular. I’d have had the same top two but B Fairclough third for his novel and more natural line.
Not that it’s an accurate reflection on scores but my 14 year old is moderately into mountain biking. He flitted in an out of the coverage but was rooted to the sofa whenever Brandon Senenuk was riding.
There is no doubt nobody else in the world could have ridden that. Plus basically on a single crown bike that’s pretty similar to what many of us ride on a day to day basis.
On a completely different note, I just discovered this and thought it was so wonderful it deserved sharing.
By the old Rampage site there’s a bunch of camping spots, particularly down by the creek, where loads of people go to camp, ride an D.C. party. It’s completely undeveloped, so no toilets. Down there today, I came across a pair of portable toilets on a trailer:
something of a literal oasis in the desert for the dusty camper:
even more amazing, they’d been put there by none other than women’s Rampage competitor, Chelsea Kimball.
Love it when you discover rad people are good people too!
That's awesome.
I thought Chelsea was the most impressive rider at the whole thing, with those two scary crashes in the same spot.
That footage is up there with Rogatkin's famous crash for WTFness.
“I thought Chelsea was the most impressive rider at the whole thing”
Crash, tumble, catch herself, track down her missing bike, get back on it and then send it off the biggest drop. Incredible.
Brendog’s line was amazing - I’m not sure anyone else there could have navigated/controlled a bike like that, riding natural terrain is so different to slopestyle bits there. His score should have been way higher! But Semenuk’s second run was spectacular - that lily pad chute trick drop thing felt like the winning feature.
I’m a fan so clearly biased but I think part of the issue is that Semenuk is so good he makes things look too easy.
I do agree that Brendog’s line was great and deserved to be scored much higher, but at the same time I think riding that line would be well within the skill set of Semenuk.
I do agree that Brendog’s line was great and deserved to be scored much higher, but at the same time I think riding that line would be well within the skill set of Semenuk
No doubt. I still think Brens crew were easily the most creative though but I suppose they don't reward that.
Interestingly, it was Semanuks dig team who won the dig team award too I believe.
They moved a lot of dirt for sure but again, I feel like the sheer creativity of Bren, Deaks and Ollie should have been recognised there.
As others have said on Brens Insta, a lot of people don't remember who won it last year, but they sure remember Brens insane and creative line on the Battleship.
I’m a fan so clearly biased but I think part of the issue is that Semenuk is so good he makes things look too easy.
That was exactly what the red-faced judge guy said on the live feed but about Brendan not Brandon.
Along with things like how they have to balance up the fact that Kyle Strait managed to **** up a trick badly but didn't spanner himself. I mean fair play it was an incredible 'save' but how do you get points for that!?
Watching Semenuk again he was absolutely pinning some of it.
Yes the judge did say that about Brendan although I’m not sure I agree - his line did definitely showcase how extreme the terrain is and didn’t look easy at all. Agree last year his run was memorable but not rewarded. There’s definitely a lack of consistency - the year Bienve didn’t get rewarded for the canyon front flip they said it was because the rest of the run wasn’t exposed or extreme enough - this year they fail to reward Brendan for it.
I think the problem with run's like Semenuk's (and various others) is not that it's just slopestyle, but that the bits we remember are the slopstyle bits. There is also a load of sketchy as **** terrain he also came down -- the descent after his opening caveman thing a few years back was particulary insane, for example.
In contrast, techy, sketchy, exposed ground is the focus of Brendog's run, and while I agree that he was wildly underscored the level this year was so high I'm not sure it was a podium run, probably just a top 5.
Even Pinkbike had a go at the judges this year and did a highlights reel counting down through the top 11 runs in this order:
10th. Kyle Strait
9th. Ethan Nell:
8th. Adolf Silva
7th. Carson Storch
6th. Thomas Genon
5th. Kurt Sorge
4th. Tom Van Steenbergen
11th. Brendan Fairclough
3rd. Tyler McCaul
2nd. Szymon Godziek
1st. Brandon Semenuk
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-mens-finals-highlights-from-red-bull-rampage-2024.html
I wonder if part of the judges' problem is now some sort of sunk cost thing. They've been underscoring Brendon for so many years that if they changed now, it would be a massive omission.
No idea how much Brendon’s income comes directly or indirectly from ‘clicks’ but none on this is doing him any reputational harm. World + dog knows Rampage judging is a sham and everyone’s talking about our guy, just like last year…
Brendan and his score is the main point of discussion, but I'd like to give a shout out for Tyler McCaul. Having shown up for years (decades?) and put in fairly conservative mid scoring runs seemingly just to pad the run time, he dropped an absolute banger this time, well worthy of his 3rd place.