Freeride mountain biking crowned a new king as Canadian Kurt Sorge took the top spot in Red Bull Rampage. France's Antoine Bizet took second and Utah local Logan Binggeli came in third in a thrilling contest that saw huge jumps and flips all over the steep cliffs of Virgin, Utah.
How he got tenth blows my mind. Yes, Sorge's win was legit, but everybody else was questionable. Norbs was the only person to stick a 3, and he did it twice in one run. Everybody was doing backflips, they're way less tech, and pretty much everybody was landing them. The threes were ignored - I don't know who was judging but it was horrendous.
Well one of the judges is probably one of the less teechnical rider/have landed almost nothing in his carreer... I think his name have the word bend in it. Who is it??
3=360. When you rotate around once in the air before you land. May not be as exciting visually for the masses, but landing one in loose dusty terrain is generally considered more challenging. You want to go straight but your wheels want to continue rotating around your vertical axis, so the timing has to be spot on to stick the landing. You also have to remain relatively flat (something Norbs did perfectly) so you don't drop the front wheel (ie Bearclaws attempt). The general feeling is that Kyle Norbraten should've placed higher because the trick should be rated with a higher difficulty.
Is there any comp in any sport anywhere that is more difficult to judge? Not saying they were good, but they pretty much have an impossible task, and I think it's somewhat of a relief that there was one clear winner.
Ok... I agree with Sorge in 1st and Bizet in second... now that I see it again, that's plain. Bingelli was awesome, but I wanna see ALL the runs again, to be sure it was THAT wicked, know what I'm saying? Maybe that's just me..
If Lacondeguy didnt crash on his second run I think he may of got second he is such a cool rider totally rips it up everytime he has come a long way.
Glad Sorge won though one of my favourite riders.
Regardless of the results and final runs, Cam Zink's canyon gap crash was THE MOMENT of Rampage 2012. HORRIFYING to watch, but so spectacular! Glad he is ok. Probably the craziest thing that has ever happened at any Rampage.
I think to be impartial, riders should be given numbers instead of names. That way, there will be no biases on any players when it comes to judging. Even maybe going to the extreme of same colored bikes.
Good idea, but if every thing was identical (bikes, kit etc) you could still tell people apart by their riding style and probably the shape of their bikes. And also if your to far away to see their individual riding styles, then your too far away to judge their riding properly as well.
Sorry to be the guy that points that out mate, but i see where your coming from as there would be no potential bias towards contestants.
Possibly, but they would have to be absent on the build days because otherwise they cold tell riders apart simply by which line they took. If that were to happen then you might be on to something.
Maybe they could do a trial run, see if it works out?
Never going to happen autosmart. Sponsors pay for these comps to be run so that people will see the riders in their bike, their kit, wearing their logos.
Yeah, that's what i meant in my first paragraph when i mentioned "riding style" because part of their individual style is dictated by sponsors, as you said kit, bikes and so forth.
But the point is even though due to several reasons it obviously won't happen, the IDEA is itself is good because it would generate potentially fairer judging.
I agree..I dont know how the coastal crew guy didnt podium...Sorge's run was good but? hard to see the tech stuff in the shadows though...Sorge is sick so can't speculate...some politics I am sure...couple of riders complaining about photographers messing up the landing, which I understand a bit, no room for error, but remember if it wasnt for videographers and photographers these guys would not make shit for money and finally Rampage is getting coverage which helps the sport.. didnt hear the winners whinning about it... you fell... I dont think footprints on the landing made a difference...
Watching this again it is completely clear. Sorge absolutely had the sickest run. Nobody can argue that. We all feel that the rest of the standings should be different,but it's over. Let's all get behind Kurt Sorge. The dude deserves mad recognition. The year of Sorge. First he pretty much steals the show in Where the trail ends, then wins the Rampage. 2012 Mountain biker of the year.
Speaking of MTBer of the year, I really wish Semenuk didn't win the FMB title. Yes, he is one the best, and deserves it, but he couldn't stick a single line in any of the big finals this year. Zero for four. Soderstrom was consistent all year, came second at Crankworx and had a pretty rad run (and what I'd consider a gnarly ride-out) at Rampage. Props to him.
@Bigdan30 - He was consistent in every other contest, whether is was a curse or nerves, who knows. Other wise, he didn't even use his second run in most comps this year
Don't get me wrong, I don't deny that he's good, but it's just like the Vancouver Canucks - sometimes it doesn't matter how good you are in the regular season, if you're not showing up in the finals, you aren't winning the Cup. That's just the way I see it.
i think bigdan shouldnt be neg propped for an honest oppinion. Also, for me too, Sodestrom was more impressing this year at FMB. However congrats to Semenuk, cos at the end of the day its all just a bunch of "buts" and "what ifs", while Semenuk takes a deserved trophy.
Semenuk won 6 straight, I'd say that was pretty consistent. Martin is the man, love his style but Semenuk deserved the FMB, just a bummer to not roll out on top at Rampage to claim the FMB. Soderstrom crashed at both Crankworx(final run) and Rampage and it was when he was going big. Semenuk was the same, I cannot fault a rider for trying to progress. ie - Martin's double whip or Semenuks flip off the flat drop. Its just to bad he couldn't hold on to that back flip or we wouldn't be talking about this!
I'll be that guy and say the 250 class AMA outdoor Motocross season was off the chain this year. Tomac vs Barcia vs Baggett, every race was pinned from the gate with insane action. I still like MTB more, but moto is a close second. Seriously, if you didn't see the outdoor 250 season this year, you have to look it up.
@hypermoto I completely agree, it was such a crazy season for those guys, even young ken roczen was up battleing with them! To bad villipoto couldn't race but he will be back for supercross, but it's a tough choice between moto and biking for me, absolutely love em both!
I thought he won with it, I was there and crowd loved him for even being able to do a second run much less kill it. They left a lot out. He crashed so hard he had to hike his bike down alone at that. Then he came back flipping way up top in the chute
1) Remove the wood work. It's played its part but this is a Big Mountain event and it just didn't really ring for me this year. Bren'n'Bran' showed riders could build their own big mountain canyon gaps and drop-in transfers, and these excited me far more.
The woodwork was in danger of becoming a mandatory feature to score high.
2) Run two starting points in order to maintain a wide range of lines without forcing riders to traverse and get scored down for doing so.
3) I'd also like to see the first women's event. Whether this is a proper comp with prize money or an exhibition with "first female champion" as the reward I couldn't say; but there are a few girls out there who could ride a line like Nico Vink's (for example) and I think that would be amazing for the sport.
4) Generally I was OK with the judging.. surprised by the points disparity, but not entirely upset with the finishing order, with the exception of Norbs. There's probably something to be said for a review of this though - as others have suggested, perhaps an element of rider input would help.
Rider input wold be great but then they would have to be available to view everybody's whole run. Getting the next rider up to the start would be a big delay.
i dont get why people are still complaining about woodwork- go count it. Icon sender 2 wood options yes, the big wooden gap over the wallride area down low and thats it unless you want to complain about wooden ramps which all looked good or presented chances for points. ramps arent 'woodwork' they are ramps and the places they seem to be look like they help make an otherwise featureless area usable
I think the judging criteria needs to be clearer for both the riders and spectators. Honestly when I think of rampage, I think of whose doing the riskiest/ ballsiest line. In that case C-Mac shoulda brought it home. But still stoked for sorge and bizet, both threw down podium runs. Ranking the two is damn near impossible. Had semenuk finished though....
Surprised to not see any comments about Logan Binggeli's bike. I believe it was a 27.5er correct? If he did well on one here, I'd be excited to see them raced where the time is the deciding factor, not line choice, difficulty, and style. And thanks to Pinkbike for doing such a great job covering the Rampage!
Norbs got robbed.. we all agree, 3's should have been rated higher.. we all agree, but his 3's were regular and then opposite... did ANYONE catch that?? i feel like that just puts it on such a higher level. Props to all the riders, going wayyyy bigger then I think anyone would or could. Rampage is the sickest, most OG contest!
I'm pretty sure that in his second run, he did one oppo 3. I replayed his second run to check. I think this highlight reel showed his first run. Norbraten's runs were high speed, smooth, and with 2 smooth 360s (oppo or not) it deserved to rank way better. Especially when we saw 360's take out many of the other top contenders.
Well I've gotta take my hat off to sorge what a flawless run! Although like peeps keep saying the judging was extremely questionable!.. I think sorge is definitely a worthy winner!... Until next time.............
Norbs should be 3rd or 4th. Seems like he had a similar run to Bingelli. I say to 3's beat 2 backy's but what's gnarlier? Icon sender or Gee's QP transfer? Regardless Norbs got screwed. Something like Rampage should be judged like a Big Wave contest. Scores are not set in stone untill the end of the day when both runs from each rider can be compared side by side.
ok- Rampage is big bad and rad, but is anyone remotely concerned that Under Armour is getting it's hands on MTBing? does it mean "mainstreaming" or "commercialization" etc.? just wondering
Sorge's been sponsored by them for a few years, and now it seems to be paying off a bit. I'm not a huge fan of the brand, but I won't deny the comfort; I don't see a problem with another brand to choose from. They make hunting equipment too, but I have yet to see that get "mainstream." We should be safe
Brendog screwed his knee up in his first quali run.... I think he did the second as his score improved... but he must have done it on pure adrenaline as once the moment had passed and he rested for a bit I guess he realised how bad his knee actually was. :-( Gee first crashed in practice on a 'simple step down' rested up and was riding again on the Sat all seemed fine till he had another crash... and that was one too many for a stuffed foot!
Most epic event in mountain biking... you just shake watching the video. The horizon view as the riders go down the mountain is just... I can't grasp it enough.
there is no sport better than biking.
