Red Bull Rampage 2012 - Saturday: 66 Nugs
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 It's time for the heavyweights to saddle up |
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| Site shuttle mayhem |
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| Smart man footwear vs dumb man footwear. Good luck with those flip flops |
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| Water, you can't seem to get enough of it. No matter how much you drink it can't match the dry heat of the day |
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| The Wizard, Sean Cruickshanks, working over Brandon Semenuk's bike in the pits |
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| Nor is Semenuk the only recipient of the Wizard's touch - Kyle Strait's rear shock alongside a custom shim stack to handle the big hits the Rampage dishes out |
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| The final day of practice was more about fine-tuning lips and lines than it was about riding, although plenty of riding was done today |
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| Semenuk's team of workers have been incredible... including a visit from his Trek team mate, Rene Wildhaber |
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| Pressure cooker. Rampage finals ask a lot of the riders: Find a line. Get some buddies who can take a week or more off to help you build it. Session it until you're confident you can clean it. All under a blazing hot Utah sun. Add snakes, spiders, cactus, 3.2 beer, and mix well |
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| Tyler McCaul putting the finishing touches on one of his big gaps |
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| The Claw has built one hell of a line. Building a line is a personal thing and consequently, riders can be pretty territorial about the line they build. It's understandable, it's not just their sweat that went into the build, but their creative vision |
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| Claw makes some last minute adjustments to his line in the lower part of the course. Rumour has it that he will front flip or 3 into the lower canyon |
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| Lacondeguy has easily the best looking digger |
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| Monster lip? Guess that is what the sponsors are for |
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| Riders who had to qualify are at a significant disadvantage compared to the pre-qualified riders - they have had to focus their energies on piecing together a line that would get them to the finals. Now they're in, the time to build a second line is very limited. Most are frantically trying to add onto their original line to make them creative enough to take home the win. Pierre Eduard Ferry compares notes with Ramon Hunziker to work out the best options for tweaking their lines for finals |
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| There's only one track on this line. For now. Mike Kinrade predicts that "you're likely to see a lot of poaching going on tomorrow." |
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| Sterling and the other photographers have arguably put in the most miles this week, trying to chase light and predict riders' movements |
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| Thomas Vanderham's last minute step up build in full effect |
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| Vanderham's last upper mountain hit before dropping heading to the Oakley Sender |
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| Sending the Oakley Sender deep |
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| He's about to find out that he needs to build a bigger step up after this hit... |
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| But the step up is a f'n monster |
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| Cam has been hard at work building and practicing. And he's looking strong and confident here at Rampage |
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| Cam McCaul's step down just before the canyon |
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| Cam, midway across... |
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| The ridgeline traverse with the beautiful peaks of Zion National Park on the horizon |
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| And sending the canyon gap on the newly renovated lip |
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| Gee Atherton went down fairly hard in practice today, but he's okay. The big question is whether he will be able to ride in the final? |
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| Logan Bingelli, 650b backflip |
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| Bigger wheels don't mean you can't still flat if you land it too hard though... |
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| Zink on his last ridgeline hip before descending to the canyon gap |
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| The drop into his canyon gap run in is almost as hairy as the canyon gap itself |
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| Cam scared himself and the whole crowd with this mid flight eject, not great when you're going 80 feet out... |
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| It was a huge relief to see him make it onto his feet and limp away. He is a fighter and we hope he can compete Sunday |
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| This is the where Cam landed. There's no crater here, that earth is rock hard |
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| Nobody likes watching riders go down, Cam's crash stunned the spectators |
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| Mid-day siesta |
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| Soderstrom taking the time to give his fans some love |
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| The media is non-stop. Helicopters, TV announcers, Maxim girls, videographers, photographers... you get the idea |
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| Andreu Lacondeguy gets ready to drop in |
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| And there he goes. This move may look simple, but the consequences are big |
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| It looks like Andreu has his line figured out, but it seems like he has been holding back. Maybe he has something big planned for his final run tomorrow? |
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| Brett Rheeder was super-amped to have made the finals and was practising hard |
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| Rheeder is the real deal. The kid has been sending it all week, and today's line from the finals gate is insane - he powers along the ridge airing everything in sight. What you need to remember is that the ridge is at most 2 feet wide at most points, narrower in many. He included a stepdown bar spin... |
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| Brett Rheeder, boosting huge air out of the wooden quarter |
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| The Oakley Sender is a bit of a magnet out there in the middle of the venue. Geoff Gulevich speed checking and contemplating |
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| Gotta get up to get down |
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| Gullevich's line was all about flow and fun |
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| Kurt Sorge testing out a new line, or a new booter into and old line, depending on how you look at it... |
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| Sorge has been here before though and it is showing... |
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| James Doerfling bought Robbie Bourdon's entry line off the top start gate for an undisclosed amount after Robbie busted three vertebrae on it, and couldn't compete. That's class |
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| Doerfling with a trial run to the lower mountain gap to quarter |
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| Semenuk stomped this huge transfer-cliff drop in practice It was breathtaking to watch/shoot. One of the gnarliest lines ever? |
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| Kyle Strait hasn't been riding a lot here at Rampage, but whenever he gets on his bike he kills it. Here's hoping he has a solid clean run tomorrow, it would be sick to see him on the podium again... |
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| Martin Soderstrom is the king of whips |
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| Darren Berrecloth soaking in the last rays of the day, everyone is looking forward to seeing him ride his line tomorrow |
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| Traversing the rampage site, Berrecloth t-boned Ryan Howard's moto mid mountain because is was inappropriately parked. No parking tickets here, just justice |
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| The Oakley Sender, waiting in the wind... |
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| Wil White owns the Oakley Sender |
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| Tyler McCaul shreds past sundown |
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| Kyle Strait getting his bike tuned up after today's course inspection and practice |
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| Chris Van Dine's bike getting some attention after an end of the day compression on the last big hit at the bottom of the venue |
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| And the sun sets on another day at Rampage. It's go time tomorrow |
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| This place never sleeps, something seems to be happening at all hours of the day. The grass filled parking lot has hundreds of people camping out |
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1. Semenuk
2. Doerfling
3. Cam McCaul
(Zink to have a light off after nac flipping the canyon gap and not landing perfectly enough to hang on). I've got a lot of time for Cam Zink. He's not the kind of guy who rides within himself, if anyone can be said to be doing that at Rampage. He's a real rostrum or hospital kind of guy. Legend. Did you see how hard his head hit the ground on his 360 practice crash last time? If that happened to me, I would have never touched a bike again (not that I would have been jumping off the icon sender in the first place, mind).
I want to start predicting based on pictures, but some of this is just so beyond the pale that I have no idea how to even begin a podium guess, much less how they do it.
This is already the best Rampage yet, and it hasn't got anything to do with manmade or not-manmade, or any of that... they are SO committed... and it freaks me out a bit.
CAN'T WAIT!!!
Where is Gwin? I saw an interview with him last year in which he said he'd do it if he could, but he'd have to find something like Gee found because he hasn't got any tricks.
Anyway, he's sponsored by Red Bull and he's the reigning WC champ, he could definitely have got entered if he wanted. So where is he?
Was ages ago since I was last on the west coast.