Red Bull Rampage 2014: Qualifiers Part Deux Photo Epic
HERE COMES THE SUN
The Red Bull Rampage Qualifiers continued today with a tacky mountain and only a few puddles to side-step and vehicles to dig out. The sound of shovels reshaping and packing lines echoed through the canyon early, but everything had remained surprisingly intact and survived the 24 hours of rain. By the time qualifiers started the sun was shining and everyone was breathing a little calmer to know that the show would go on. Aggy essentially ended the day with a bang, after crashing in his first run on Friday, he stomped his second run and landed a first place qualifying spot for finals. Seeing only a fraction of what's in store for tomorrow, we can't wait for the sun to come up!
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 After yesterday's torrential rain, seeing the venue bathed in warm light at the crack of dawn was a sign that things had turned around for the "Rainpage". |
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| The venue opened at 9am sharp and athlete support vehicles and athletes were soon tearing ass up the road to assess damage on the hill, repair and re-pack landings, and get qualifications in the bag. |
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| Rain in the desert. |
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| Aggy and team arriving. |
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| Three radios and pagers... Yeah, he's the head of safety on the hill. |
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| Mike Hopkins getting ready for his second run, and second chance for a spot in the finals. |
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| Kyle Jameson working over Aggy before practice: "I took a course in massage therapy, when I was 18, but today's the first time I've actually used what I know." Ladies--Kyle will be available by appointment starting Tuesday morning after the Rampage is in the books. |
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| Mitch Chubey, eyeing his line. |
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| Early morning had riders sussing out damages from the rain, which were minimal, and putting on finishing touches. |
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| The dirt is amazing after all the rain. |
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| The site held up considerably well after yesterday's monsoon. Most of the damage was to the big landing zones, which got a little rutted, but most everything else just needed a packing, and some sun. |
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| Spangler and Smutok pack in the Polaris booter landing after a heavy day of rain. Surprisingly the dirt and everyone's runs stayed in good shape given that it poured 3 inches of rain yesterday. |
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| The rain left the venue semi trashed, but for the diggers it was absolutely the best quality dirt available for rebuilding. In next to no time, the venue was good to go. |
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| Gully had some issues with one of his jumps, so he made a new one. |
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| Intern and Semenuk team work. |
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| Aggy scopin. |
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| Van Steenbergen and Herbertson discuss big air. |
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| Taylor, Brad and Ron make quite the team with Aggy. |
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| Todd Barber with the am safety meeting. No, not that safety meeting, but the one where he gives the ground rules on the second half of qualifying. |
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| Chris Van Dine following in on Bourdon's line. |
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| Chubey styling out his step down |
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| Mitch Chubey. |
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| Mitch Chubey 11th qualifier today and will still practice and be on call as an alternate if need be. |
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| Mitch Chubey was .5 points away from getting a spot in the finals. His sticking around though, as he now becomes one of two alternates. "I don't want anyone to get hurt, but if the situation happens, then I will step in and try my best." |
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| Jeff Herbertson dropping in through the Notch. |
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| Jeff Herb, rampaging into the canyon gap and fourth place in the qualifiers. |
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| Paul Basagotia, qualifying fifth today. |
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| Semenuk spent a good chunk of time carving the rollin on this drop so he could creep right up to the edge before dropping this monster. It was huge. |
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| Rheeder. |
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| Rheeder was like a precision instrument out there this afternoon, dialing everything in for tomorrow |
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| Brett Rheeder 270. |
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| Brett Rheeder backflip. |
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| Rheeder. |
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| Brett Rheeder underflip. |
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| Brett Rheeder look through flip. |
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| Rheeder. |
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| Thomas Genon was impressive on course today. Who would have thought that a dirt jumper can so easily and quickly adapt to big mountain riding. |
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| Mike Hopkins dropping in and not getting what he wanted out of his third attempt down the mountain after getting a re-run after yesterday. |
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| Louis Reboul. |
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| Nicolai Rogatkin never hit the canyon gap before his second qualifying run. What do you know, the kid aced it. |
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| Nick Rogatkin putting some finishing touches on his run in the early morning sunshine. |
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| Gully warming up this morning on the soft dirt to make sure his speed will be enough to make the jumps. |
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| Gully. |
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| Gully, one-handed table on the bottom section of the course. |
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| Gully. |
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| Gully was locked and loaded with a big bag of tricks for his second qualifying run. Corked three off his "Zoe" drop. |
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| Bernard Kerr is new to Rampage, and also new to big mountain riding. Bernards's roots are in racing, and his line was a good example of that...Fast and pretty much straight down the mountain. |
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| Szymon Godziak qualifying sixth overall, and looking solid sailing over the canyon gap. |
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| Aggy hiking back up. |
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| Aggy's first drop on his run was big and exposed. Here he is making it look way too easy. The man is an animal. |
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| All I can say is Aggy was king today. Absolutely amazing run to put him where he belongs, on the top of the qualy podium. |
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| Aggy sending it during qualifying and putting down one of the most energetic runs of Rampage so far. |
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| Graham Agassiz's huge cliff drop sequence. |
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| Aggy. |
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| Aggy the warrior. |
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| Not an easy job--judging the Rampage. |
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| Judging... |
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| The qualifiers, with Aggy on top. |
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| Qualifier podium. |
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| Aggy goes number one! |
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| Tippie and Connor Macleod, the 'Just the Tip' team, coming in hot to Red Bull Rampage.T |
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| Tippie and McGazza, having a laugh during practice. |
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| Norbs, cracking in a couple of practice runs with steeze as usual. |
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| Andreu is in the zone. |
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| Andreu Lacondeguy. |
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| McGarry and Van Steenbergen. |
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| Brendon Fairclough slogging to the top during the finals practice following the conclusion of the qualifying round. |
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| Brendan Fairclough across his canyon gap. |
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| Brendog on the first part of his double canyon gaps. |
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| Brendan Fairclough nailing his step on step off gap jump. Brendawg's line is intimidatingly technical; this move is the crown jewel, but just getting to this move is insanely difficult, and the moves on the other side of the judge's ridge are just as challenging. |
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| Brandon Semenuk hiking up to try out his intro drop. |
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| Brandon Semenuk's huge cliff drop. |
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| Kyle Strait's dad was out in full support! |
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| Kyle Strait, pulling out the guns off the Razor jump. |
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| Style for miles: Kyle Strait with a gun fighter's salute suicide no-hander. |
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| Kyle takes the first shralp of a very, very pretty berm. |
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| Cam Zink is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get after it in pursuit of another Rampage win. |
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| Zink's second time round on this gnarly, gnarly drop. He touched in a good meter and a half shorter than the first time. It was very evident that he had it in the palm of his hand after this one. Yaaa Zink! |
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| Cam Zink tests out his massive drop halfway down the course diving about halfway down his landing. |
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| Cam Zink finally came out to play, and the first thing he did was send his biggest feature. |
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| Cam Zink sending it HUGE. He landed outside of my frame. |
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| With the biggest drop on his line dealt with, Cam Zink makes easy work of the rest of his line. |
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| Andreu and Aggy strategizing. |
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| The view from the lip of Aggy and Andreu's massive drop. The diggers buffing out the landing zone quite literally look like ants from that lip. |
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| Jeff Herb has come a long way this year. Just two weeks ago he was sending sixty-foot jumps in BC, now he's placing fifth in the Red Bull Rampage qualifiers. 'Atta boy! |
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| Not content with first in the qualifiers, Aggy joins the afternoon jump session. |
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| Andreu has no end of style, and loft. |
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| Morning warmup with Aggy. |
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| Aggy was looking dialed during his practice session. |
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| Jeff Herb dialing in the canyon gap during practice. On his first attempt he overshot the landing as far as Kelly McGarry, but somehow managed to save himself from disaster. On his second attempt he nailed it. |
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| Lacondeguy. |
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| Lacondeguy. |
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| Aggy and Zink during the afternoon practice session on the Razor jump. |
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| Brett Rheeder applying for some frequent flier miles on the RZR step up. |
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| Last light session on the Razr booter |
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| Brett Rheeder, no look-back flip. What?! |
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| Brett Rheeder abides by the flip. |
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| Andreu Lacondeguy and his flat spin three's are a work of art. |
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| F*****CK Buddehhh |
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| Take it eeeeasy bra. |
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| Aggy all smiles at the end of a good day. |
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| Rampage 2014 was not meant to be for James Doerfling. Guess he'll have to show up earlier next year to pick the line he really wanted, but never got a chance because it was taken when he arrived. |
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| Everlasting light. |
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| Stay tuned for the finals... |
The start list for Monday's Finals at:
1. Ramon Hunziker - SUI - 29 (Trek)
2. Carson Storch - USA - 21 (Diamond Back)
3. Brendan Fairclough - GBR - 27 (Scott)
4. Jeff Herbertson - USA - 25 (Pivot)
5. Szymon Godziek - POL - 22 (Dartmoor)
6. Louis Reboul - FRA - 21 (Scott)
7. Kelly McGarry - NZL - 32 (Diamond Back)
8. Tom van Steenbergen - CAN - 18 (Trek)
9. Geoff Gulevich - CAN - 27 (Rocky Mountain)
10. Kyle Norbraten - CAN - 28 (Specialized)
11. Brett Rheeder - CAN - 21 (Trek)
12. Cam Zink - USA - 28 (YT)
13. Mike Montgomery - USA - 27 (Mongoose)
14. Kyle Strait - USA - 27 (GT)
15. Brandon Semenuk - CAN - 23 (Trek)
16. Graham Agassiz - CAN - 24 (Kona)
17. Andreu Lacondeguy - ESP - 25 (YT)
18. Paul Basagoitia - USA - 27 (Scott)
19. Pierre Edouard Ferry - FRA - 32 (Commencial)
20. Thomas Genon BEL - 21 (Canyon)
Check out all of our images from the Red Bull Rampage 2014 here.
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That is a f##king awesome epic set of pictures.
Awesome awsome job
Bring on the finals!!
www.redbull.com/en/bike/events/1331639895289/red-bull-rampage-2014
Brand-new- Element of surprise or how rideable a line seems aren't criteria for the judges... there's absolutely no disadvantage to showing your line before the comp, as evidenced by every rider practicing and making sure they have their whole line down before the comp.
What Time does it Start?
CAN WE GET A GROUP PHOTO OF ALL THE RIDERS, DIGGERS, COMMENTATORS AND ORGANISERS. Just one please?
Cheers!
err yeah sort off...... But bike park wales is not quite the same lol.
Thank you photo people, you were a source of entertainment at the "event". Good times
ep1.pinkbike.org/p5pb11467932/p5pb11467932.jpg
The line assigment system most be improve or the same people always will get the best line
Sucks for James Doerfling riding for Knolly. Thats a bit of a disappointment. Regardless, awesome event, good coverage, and epic pics!
You get a good look at his drop in the background of Brendog's sequence photo. Plus Chubey's drop just underneath.
check the list of the finalist, those guys are the best.
So yes its a pitty, but its like this since years, even Gracia made his first backflip there in 2003 to take the win.