Rampage Diary 4: Location Location Location

I’m loving these videos of Bren slowly ticking off his lines. Just incredible

Yep.  Watching this stuff is part of Rampage now.  You get a much better view of the lines and an even better appreciation of just how good the riders are.

Without water, you can’t build, because everything is soft loose dirt. That gave the early days a raw feel, as did the fact it was only the riders digging

But it’s supposed to be free ride and natural terrain. That was the whole point. Now it’s build teams gallons of water to make a smooth slopestyle course out of the mountain. I would rather they rode natural lines without the big jumps and tricks and focused on line choice

I love the way in these threads, WC threads, EDR threads you always know better than the riders and organisers. You’re never even slightly open to debating that what you think may be wrong.

Your bottom bit of ‘i would rather ‘ now that’s fine, you’re showing a preference, I can get onboard with you there.

For me though, seeing peoples riding like Fairclough, Isted etc will be far more preferable to save Bienve hitting another backflip, but I can massively respect both.

I think this year’s Rampage will be the best we’ve seen with massive variations in riding styles.

There have been more than a few topics where rogue builders have been completely castigated so how is this any different?

isnt the usual concern that it will lead to more animosity towards mountain bikes and risk having access removed?

But it’s supposed to be free ride and natural terrain. That was the whole point

That was 25 years ago FFS!

How many times would you watch the world’s best freeriders bomb down a scree slope? I bet you’d have them all on Kona Stinky’s as well.

Give the riders dynamite for all I care. You still wouldn’t be able to see the trails with the naked eye unless you knew what to look for.

HOW THE F*** DO YOU LEARN THAT IN CORNWALL?!!!….  has got to be the quote of the year from Ollie Wilkins in Deaks latest video here, said about Tom Isted testing a run.

i enjoy their videos. Their irreverent style is a contrast to the North Americans’ seriousness.

I would rather they rode natural lines without the big jumps and tricks and focused on line choice

id prefer it to me more like that, but I doubt that there are any natural lines that could be ridden without some trail building.

With the exception of sandbags, nothing they’re doing will be noticable in 20 years, the only bits of the older stuff that are recognisibly “altered” or “vandalised” or whatever are the bits that still get ridden. Apparently there’s a commitment to remove all sandbags and structures when the “zone” gets retired but inevitably some’ll be missed or impractical to remove. There’s a lot more digging and “damage” than there used to be but it’s still an absolute flyspec.

So I think it more or less comes down to whether you think there’s something sacred about the exact shape it was before, but the whole landscape is a product of constant erosion, so equally if you don’t build trails then come back in 20 years it’ll also not be the same as it was before.

(as an interesting side effect, the old Rampage site, which is state owned, was put up for sale and had oil and gas drilling licences granted. Both the sale and the licences were subsequently cancelled and mountain bikers were given a large part of the credit for that- they were both the largest body of protests, and also helped raise awareness and funds to support the local communities in their own actions)

The camera work this year is really good. Some great runs so far.

Robbed again.

Yup. Best most creative line yet. The crowd let the judges know.

I don’t think it was better than Godziaks run but they just criminally underscore technical and creative lines, not just Bren suffering from that either.

T-Shirts

Thanks for this article and perspective. And its an interesting read of the comments. I wonder if the question around the appropriation of the land for this kind of spectacle is better examined through the mentality of the athletes. I’d be curious to hear their take as to whether it comes out sounding like ‘it’s about conquering the mountain’ or ‘working with nature / in flow with nature’… I’d suggest these might reveal more about the underlying motivations and genesis for how this event has become what it is, and the relationship with the land.