Finals Photo Epic - Red Bull Rampage 2017
The morning of finals started with an incredible show as athletes tried to recoup lost practice time from the day before. After being shut down by wind, most had left the canyon in the afternoon and still had sections of their runs that they had yet to hit. Riders wrapped up any last minute line adjustments and final speed checks, and by the time the sun rose above the mountains the venue was full of fans, music, and excitement as people eagerly anticipated the big show.
Two wheels or four? Why choose? Zink and Strait get prepped for the day of heavy moves ahead.
Kurt Sorge surveys the kingdom that would be his by sundown.
Sorge's victory kicker... precision with a good helping of inversion required.
Carson Storch was the last to leave the site last night and was still back at it for the break of dawn.
Sorge guinea pigs the fresh lip he and his dig crew put together in the high winds of yesterday evening with flips in mind.
Sorge practing what would become a winning line.
T-Mac making the most of sunrise.
Rheeder dropping in just as the sun starts to make it over the ridge.
Why so serious? Because Rampage finals.
Reed Boggs and Connor Macfarlane both withdrew from the event due to crashes that they suffered during practice, but the event went off without any broken bones or catastrophic injuries, something that had seemed unavoidable in the past. The wind cooperated to allow the competition to continue without delays - also a first in recent history - and also to allow the competitors the freedom to throw down everything they had envisioned. Watching the riders tackle their lines all over the mountain, each with their own unique combination of building and riding style had the crowd in awe from start to finish.
Even with the crowd pulling for you it's up to you alone to ride your line. Darren Berrecloth is no stranger to the complete focus required at Rampage.
 | We’ve never had the entire field have almost perfect runs down, so it was extremely hard to differentiate between every run, but in the end, I am 100% confident that we got the order right – and if you feel otherwise I’m happy to answer your questions. |
Cam Zink
Ethan Nell
Bas Van Steenbergen
Logan Binggeli
Kurt Sorge
Brandon Semenuk
Lyle
Kurt Sorge showing off the biggest backflip of the day.
Brett Rheeder
The Kelly McGarry Spirit Award winner, PEF.
When the dust settled, local Ethan Nell was in third place. The relative newcomer came up a little short on his first run but secured a podium spot on his second run of the day by tricking out some of his more exposed line up top. The commentators could be heard often talking about how much big moves higher up can impact your score. We can expect to see a lot more out of this 20-year-old in the years to come at Rampage.
Zink tucks into the most heinously steep and prolonged chute in Rampage history.
Storch stomped his 360 extra clean in run one but unfortunately came unstuck the second time around.
Lily pad drops were in full effect this year. Brandon Semenuk charged his.
If there's anything we know to expect from Brandon Semenuk it the unexpected, like this flatspin 360 nac-nac.
Andreu's bicycle superpowers temporarily escaping him on the final jump.
Bizet's second run was somewhere in between full enduro (check the pack) and 90s slopestyle (check the one-legger extension).
The Claw, stretching out for the fans.
Ethan Nell carving his name into the Rampage history books.
Bearclaw
Cam Zink
Tommy G
| I’ve made a lot of good memories out here and today at the end of the first run I was extremely emotional; I was just about tearing up at the bottom. I was just so relieved after the whole ten-day build and a lot of mental stress. Seeing my family; my four-month-old and four-year-old, my wife, my dog. But then the second run – the gloves were off. I was trying to win. |
Cam Zink, who won in 2010, had an incredible goose-bump inducing run that included a straight line down the chute off the top - also referred to as 'the scar' - and a backflip off his massive drop before the road. Sorge would be the only rider to bump him off the hot seat and push him into giving a balls-out second run. Unfortunately, when he opted to add a front flip on the last jump, it got away from him and he crashed – solidifying his second Rampage second-place finish.
R-Dog, came for the steeps, stayed for the jumps.
Semenuk couldn't quite match the brilliance of his first run (before his crash) in run two.
Tyler McCaul escaping his own sandstorm off the noblin.
TVS signature front flip radness.
When everyone expected a rematch with the 360 that spoiled Zink's 2016 Rampage, we were treated to a flip.
Rheeder goes from flat-drop flip to spin in the midsection.
Antoine Bizet's flow was well rewarded by receiving the People's Choice Award.
Pierre Edouard Ferry's hard-charging style and inimitable enthusiasm won him the McGazza award and the respect of every competitor.
The crowds were on-hand to see if Semenuk would be able to hang onto his crown and become the first rider to secure three Rampage victories. Unfortunately, this was not his year.
The word you're looking for to describe this jump is "exposed." Brandon Semenuk, fully committed.
I overheard this turn being called, "the most consequential berm in mountain bike history" since blowing off it would mean a tumble over a 100-foot cliff. Semenuk's crew sculpted it perfectly for success.
T-Mac finds a way to bring some freestyle into a run, otherwise filled with gnarly exposure on the rider's left ridgeline.
Sorge's ticket to ride included a double loop and altitude to spare.
Kurt's winning run was fast, powerful and included technical moves like this flipped tuck no-hander.
Cam Zink's all-out bid for the win in his second run went down in flames within sight of the finish paddock.
The winning run for Sorge included from the top a massive flip-drop, a suicide drop, and a corked 360 transfer at the bottom. History was made when Sorge became the only athlete to have won the event three times (2012, 2015, and 2017).
| It hasn’t really sunk in, but it feels amazing. It was a lot of hard work the last couple of weeks and I can’t thank the people who have helped me out to get to this point enough. I knew that we had a good contending run, and the whole run went really well. I knew I just had to keep throwing down on every feature I had. When I got down to the bottom I had a good feeling. I was really stoked. |
Your 2017 Rampage legends.
Not once, not twice, but three times... The Hoff makes history.
The day went to the man from a little north of the border.
Mission accomplished for the local newcomer, Nell at 20-years-old.
| When they asked me to go to the finals corral I was like – 'I’m 16th or something,' so I didn’t really know why. And then I realized it was for this award. They started asking me questions and stuff – and obviously I started crying because Kelly was like my brother and I really love him so much. For me, it means more than winning. I’m really, really happy about it |
The rattlesnake trophy for 1st place is sweet but with as many wins as Sorge has a mythical multi-headed hydra seems more appropriate.
Three times lucky.
Must Read This Week
178 Comments
I can’t put my finger on it why, but this year it all looked calmer.
-Why no Brett Rheeder in the top3 after that phenomenal second run?
-Whats up with Steezburgers caveman getting no love?
-Bizet?
Thanks!
Rheeder - slopestyle run much?
Bizet - slopestyle run much ?
Again this is big mountain, not slopestyle. Line difficulty, air/amplitude, fluidity of the line, tricks/style. You have to hit all 4 boxes. Rheeder and bizet only hit 2.
1. Bizet 2. Lacondeguy 3. Rheeder 4. Kyle strait - the most stylish guy for me that day 5. Steenbergen
We wasn;t there so probably pinkbikers are wrong
I'm not debating the final judging but, Rheeder an Tommy G definitely should've scored in the 90's
The riding was so beyond judging anyhow, they all smashed.
Zink is a legend. Dude really has it all going for him right now. Amazing career. Rad family. Riding like a monster... etc. He lands that flip and it's hands down the best run in history. There's no possible way he doesn't win. Without it... Zink or Sorge both had equal claim to it. I leaned towards zink. Others towards Sorge. But both runs were insane. Quite honestly... all 18 runs were nuts. Don't even bother looking at R-Dogg's score. That run was so fun to watch. T-Mac. Tom's cave man. Tommy G's back to back 3's going regular and oppo. No body is doing that. That run was so sick.
Watching all these riders pull for each other is amazing.
Thank you for your ongoing support of mountain biking, the World Cup coverage is great and Rampage is awesome.
Just one thing, can we have a new venue next year please? A blank canvas, new lines, the unknown.
Thanks again, Al
Ps. Sorry but I don't really like that drink you make, even with vodka it's a bit too sweet, stick to action sports
And where do you think they get the money to pay for it from? What do you actually think Red Bull is?
Every single event that Red Bull supports has been paid from sales of that sweet drink. If people stopped drinking it, there would be no Rampage, the Rampage is basically a long and expensive TV ad for their drink, which is their only source of income.
As long as we have dentists riding mtb we will have events and sponsors. Redbull isn't the only company out there
I guess Coke started it all when they turned Santa red.
FYI, more than 6 billion cans of Red Bull (not sure if that includes their other drinks such as Red Bull Cola) have been sold in 2016. Considering it's not available in every single country, that's pretty much one can per every person who's able to buy it.
You're right that it tastes horrible and most people don't like it, but that's exactly what they've been so successful at - using their marketing activities to make people drink it despite the fact that it's disgusting and it's effect are comparable to a cup of strong coffee with six spoons of sugar. People drink it because it's cool, not because it tastes good, that's the whole point.
I can't believe after lurking on ON for 5 years this is the comment that made me join.
Show me some numbers to see how Red Bull makes money from their sports events. The TV stream is not pay per view, so they don't make anything from the people watching Rampage at home. I couldn't find the 2017 ticket prices but 2016 tickets were apparently $30. If you look at the photos, there wouldn't be more than a few of thousand people on that mountain so realistically, how much could they earn from the ticket sales? $100k max? One helicopter with a camera would probably cost you more than that if you need it for two days.
Rebull Media House is the marketing company who make those great videos,and yes, they sold TV/commercial time to his customers,not cans.
Is not so hard to go and check how the company describes themselves
homerjm (Oct 29, 2017 at 5:56) "Redbull is a media business company"
www.redbullmediahouse.com/products-brands/online/red-bull-tv-online.html
Can you see the DH bikes there?
www.redbullmediahouse.com/content/movingimages.html
Redbull Media House is like youtube or this web site but no only whit bikes, also music.skate,fashion and whatever they can show. They got the TV/media rights of UCI world cup. Cans have nothing to do here,Redbull Media house don´t sell cans of Redbull.
www.redbullmediahouse.com/company/about.html
homerjm (Oct 29, 2017 at 5:56) "Redbull is a media business company"
Can you see anything about a "Media House" there?
Btw: www.redbullmediahouse.com/imprint/disclosure.html
"Red Bull Media House GmbH is wholly owned by Red Bull GmbH"
It's OK to make a mistake, it's not OK to keep denying your own words (especially if they've been written down so everyone can see what you said) when someone points it out and trying to make it look like he's the stupid one.
Either way, I'm happy he won the People's Choice. He had a cool run and he seems to be having fun which is a great thing to see too.
Rampage is so gnarly! Margus' photo of Sorge's backflip and Nathan's photo of Zink riding down the guts are just amazing!
They say they have the best jury for this event, but it dosen´t mean that we have to be agree with the shit they making every Rampage.
#POTY
...then he Chuck Norris his bitch.
It was just a casual thing to watch, NOT much excitement.... 90% of the riders chose to ride the same f*cking line with very little changes... i'm sorry but even if compared to last year a rider adds 2 backflips but on the same line it doesn't really impress me anymore...
Innovation must be forced with a new venue every year. RB RAMPAGE rules should change