Squeaky Bum Time – Rampage 2023!

Zinks run was clean, and had the big move in it, but to give it 95 killed off the competition, after that nobody was bothered with their runs, not even sure how that run was worth 15 points over Alba, or 11 over Turk, or 8 over Brendans, it did feel like lets give it to the veteran with shouts of USA coming from the judges room 🤣

Zinks run was clean, and had the big move in it,

Bienven’s run had THE big move in it. Then when the judges didn’t appear to spot it, he went back and showed them again (unlike anyone else) and they still didn’t pay much attention.
I will never understand the judging process for Rampage… extra 5 points if your bro commentates, extra couple for living in Utah???
Anyway I like to think that Brendog, Ollie and Deakin were all in the pub 3 pints down watching the final runs.

Disappointed for Godziek too, his run was looking so good.

One thing I liked about the the Formation event was that there wasn’t a ‘winner’.

Having a winner in a freeride event like this seems kind of weird.  If you have to make your riding conform to a certain criteria in order to win then can it still be called ‘free’ride.

Maybe the focus should be on a men’s Formation event rather than a women’s Rampage?  Although obviously the priority should be to get a women’s Formation event up and running again first.

I think there should be no scoring until the first runs are complete then the judges can just rank the riders more accurately.

Early runs always score lower so the judges can leave some headroom.

This year it appears that the judges all went to the bar during the second runs. People went up there and perfected their runs only to see a half point improvement.

Take away the scores and just put them in order of apparent best run. Leaves it open that way. Still think brendog was robbed, again!

I wonder how much was prejudged.  The judges were up there measuring drops and gaps, they knew how sketch or smooth all the runs were.  They know who’s got which tricks in their bags.

They must have talked beforehand about whether, for example, a clean run from Bren with a flip further down was worth more or less than a clean run from Cam on his line with caveman from the top and a whatever else he was likely to do. And then where Bren would be if he flipped the canyon etc.  Must have been more than a rough sketch laid already before they got into the booth.

I’m not sure it matters what the judges think, the internet knows. 

I’m no doubt biased but I prefer Brendogs creative lines over stomping a huge drop or spinning everything.

Hats off to em all though for risking life n limb for our entertainment and healing vibes to those that hurt themselves trying.

Overall it was amazing to watch 😎

Cam on his line with caveman from the top

Did Cam do the caveman?  I thought that was Tom

Cam’s tricks were super smooth though, it may have been they gave more points for that than we naturally would have

Yeah, you’re right, leffeboy.

How cool does TVS bike look?! Love the polished chrome and keeping it real with a 26″ rear mini mullet too 🙂 I’d never heard of Hyper bikes but want one that looks just like that now haha. Bren’s Scott looks awesome too.

Putting aside the scoring, I thought it was a great Rampage over all with some proper creative and gnarly lines.

A few POVs on the GoPro Bike YouTube.. I’ll just leave this one here though:

The only downside with it is that it’s kinda hard sometimes to grasp the actual scale of things and things like Faircloughs gap help massively with that, you looked at that and just went WOW… but some of the other features don’t have a reference/scale that helps to visualise just how big it is.

There’s little doubt though, they are absolutely insane in terms of what they can do on a bike… it’s just fantastic.

I’m not getting my knickers in a twist about the scoring really, but watching the show – it feel like the commentators and judge were significantly more stoked to be watching Zink than anyone else.

He probably did deserve the win, his steep tech bit at the start was bloody impressive too.

And I can’t judge whether Brendan’s run was really better than the 2nd and 3rd place ones – but my feel is that the insane battleship feature didn’t get quite the credit it deserved.

Maybe a five-man podium is the answer, like in DH?

Good article on PB https://www.pinkbike.com/news/9-thoughts-on-red-bull-rampage-2023.html
That first photo of Gee’s drop. I mean, come on!

I’m not sure it matters what the judges think, the internet knows.

Yeah, if you look at the Pink Bike “who should’ve won” article, there’s a reasonably solid view on who should have been on the podiums and in what order. I think Rampage needs to make up it’s mind if it want’s to be  Big Mountain Riding (scary lines and sweaty palms) or Big Slopestyle, (big tricks on a ungroomed track) Or even both and a different podium for each. At the moment it doesn’t know, which is why the scoring is so bent.

nickc
I’m not sure it matters what the judges think, the internet knows.
Yeah, if you look at the Pink Bike “who should’ve won” article,

The Pi9nkbike readers’ vote is super conclusive – way stronger opinions than I actually expected.

The problem is, it had i think 5 different criteria which if equal was 20% each. So it’s Possible Fairclough scored really well in 2… but averagely in others, meaning his score wasn’t quite there.

That however, for me anyway, doesn’t explain how Zink scored so well in the other 3… but then only dropped 2.5 points on the 2 Fairclough aced.. It doesn’t make sense to me still.

That Pinkbike article was good and especially have to agree with this:

The FPV shots are great, almost nothing got missed, and it did about as good a job as you could in showing the scale here. The broadcast is a collaboration between Red Bull’s production team, Freeride Entertainment, and a few other experienced folks, and they deserve a lot of recognition for bringing us a brutally difficult event to capture

The shots were really good apart from what looked like a near miss with the drone on the very first run.

Also – ‘grampage’ 🙂

Darren Berrecloth’s shared quite an informative video, which explains the judging criteria and decisions pretty well.

I think I’d rather ride Rampage than have to judge it, TBF.

TBH it was mostly flannel/filler/crap for me… He argues some points but that misses the point of some of it. Discussions about the Battleship being a fairly easy jump, well yes, if it was in a park, my lad would send it.. but it wasn’t was it, it was as high as a bloody skyscraper with a cliff…. Whilst i get the technical side of the ‘jump’ wasn’t all bad… the consequences outweigh that… Same as the Brendog gap Sui.

I kinda see some bits about the Bienve flip and the top of his run being a bit dull… but as with all ‘judging’ i don’t think everyone will ever agree. They made their decisions and nothing is going to change that though… But if the reason Fairclough isn’t going to go back is because they judged him badly, then that’s a shame.

If he’s not going again because he’s proven all he needs to do, then sure, that’s cool 🙂

Has he said he’s not going back again? I missed that.

Has he said he’s not going back again? I missed that.

Yeah Pinkbike lass did an interview afterwards while he was sitting with Olly/Deaks and asked him, he basically said no. Of course that may have been in the heat of the moment type thing.

I think it’s unfair to say Claw is calling the battleship easy, he’s just saying it’s an easy move (for a pro) but in an absolutely terrifying location.

I think the stuff about the technicality of the run-ins, landings etc. is quite illuminating.

Easy jump… 😆 Anyone who seriously said that should be made to go up there with their bike 🙂 (oh, unless its Berrecloth, cos he probably would! 😛 )
I’ll never forget Brendog hitting that and swerving away from the edge a couple of times on that ridge. One of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

I think it’s the most-impressive and iconic feature from this year’s event, and it’s a bloody shame Brendan didn’t get a podium, but I’m willing to accept there’s a logic to the scoring that explains this.

I still feel they probably undervalued that feature because there was no big air or tricks.

P.S. I thought Clemens dropping off to the side of the battleship was just as impressive. Such a tight and precise move.

Btl on the Berrecloth video over on pb, somebody brought up the subject of  line ownership at rampage sites.  I didn’t realise the amount of politics there are in the digging and line prep.

If people are going to use the same lines at each visit to the site, they should be judged accordingly and those who are shaping fresh  lines need far more recognition for their originality. I don’t want to say Glass Ceiling, but I’m having a hard time finding a more appropriate analogy.

Has he said he’s not going back again? I missed that.

Pretty sure he said the same last time he went (2019?) and again his tech line was scored low. He’s also said that he would rather retire than race a 29er.

He’s one of if not the top mtb earner on youtube/social media and always had a fan club that belied his result sheet perfromance; he’s lovely and outgoing and personable and he knows how to work up a virtual crowd.

@weeksy he seemed to be telling us he was done: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyWjERvsErj/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

So I take that to mean he’s done as much as he thinks he can achieve in terms of riding at Rampage, rather than he’s sulking about the scoring.

I’m sure he probably thinks he could have been scored higher as well, but all this “Brendog was robbed” stuff is arguably better for his profile than the 3rd step on the podium anyway, eh?

That drivetime 7 is a great video, and some really good insight. The whole kids first birthday on the day of rampage being in the back of Brendog’s mind the whole time has to factor in for deciding whether to go back too.

He’s one of if not the top mtb earner on youtube/social media

Not even close!

He has done/does do pretty well with his actual riding contracts, but in the socials sense, he is absolutely miles away from the big boys.

Bear in mind he has just over 100k subs on YT, there are quite a few 1M+ channels out there (and in the case of someone like Fabio Wibmer, 7M+ subs.

Love the Drivetime vid. Particularly enjoyed around 24 mins about the tippy tappy internet fingers. Yup.

The video is also in Podcast form as the latest Ride Companion episode.  I’ve listened to most of it now and think he and the team come across very well and reasoned in their thinking .

Clearly they didn’t quite get their fill of danger at Rampage… 😂

https://youtu.be/6qMLHjHHtD4?si=zBnli39wO4iqxTTZ

Oh yeah, where was Lacondeguy this year?

Rally car racing

Berrecloth can talk some crap.

Everything he said pointed to Bren & Bienves runs being top and a 10 year old trick scoring low. The last few sentences were pure arrogance; don’t like it? tough. I know best.

Also agree with team UK that the politics of the digging & sharing lines sucks.

Time for a comparable Euro event with impartial judges.

Rally car racing

Semenuk was, not sure Lacondeguy was? Either way if you want some of Lacondeguy’s recent riding:

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/lost-in-chile-featuring-commencals-andreu-lacondeguy.html