5 Things We Learned from Red Bull Rampage 2022
1. Rigid TV structure & wind still don't work well together
It was business as usual at Rampage with wind once again playing a major role in disrupting the competition. Despite shifting the event to a slightly earlier time it was not enough to allow riders to take a second run. You can't blame the organizers for the weather as that is out of their control, and even the backup weather day had a worse forecast for wind than Friday.
After the conclusion of the event, riders said that the gaps between runs were bigger than ever before. Tyler McCaul has vented his frustration on social media saying: "I wanted a second run really, really badly. I ran back up to the top ready to get redemption and when I got up there I was told there was a 30-45 minute TV break. We knew the wind was coming and I knew our window of good weather was shrinking with every minute that went by. I was pissed to be stalled out like that when I was ready to ride. I felt like it was more about the TV show and less about the riders and their riding."
It was business as usual at Rampage with wind once again playing a major role in disrupting the competition. Despite shifting the event to a slightly earlier time it was not enough to allow riders to take a second run. You can't blame the organizers for the weather as that is out of their control, and even the backup weather day had a worse forecast for wind than Friday.
After the conclusion of the event, riders said that the gaps between runs were bigger than ever before. Tyler McCaul has vented his frustration on social media saying: "I wanted a second run really, really badly. I ran back up to the top ready to get redemption and when I got up there I was told there was a 30-45 minute TV break. We knew the wind was coming and I knew our window of good weather was shrinking with every minute that went by. I was pissed to be stalled out like that when I was ready to ride. I felt like it was more about the TV show and less about the riders and their riding."
Here is Tyler McCaul's full statement from social media:
 | Lots of frustration with this bobble towards the end of my first run that didn’t allow me to hit the last feature and get a clean one top to bottom. I wanted a second run really, really badly. I ran back up to the top ready to get redemption and when I got up there I was told there was a 30-45 minute TV break. We knew the wind was coming and I knew our window of good weather was shrinking with every minute that went by. I was pissed to be stalled out like that when I was ready to ride. I felt like it was more about the TV show and less about the riders and their riding. I’m sure it’s great for the viewers to see all the behind the scenes stuff and augmented reality line previews before we drop in…but while the viewers are at home watching all that filler, we’re sitting at the top anxious to drop in while watching the winds pick up. Once TV was ready for us to drop for our second runs the wind had arrived, and none of us had a chance to get a second run. I’m sorry to all the viewers that were tuned in to watch us ride. I was in the exact position I didn’t want to be in sitting at the top with everyone watching, trying to decide whether or not it was worth dropping in to battle the winds for a chance to get my run. I was up there with some of my best friends and they all told me they didn’t wanna see me drop in the wind. I knew they were right but it was a tough pill to swallow. As viewers…would you rather watch a shortened less elaborate production, or would you rather watch us ride to our full potential in the safest conditions possible??? I’m probably going to get an earful for being so transparent about this, but it’s how I feel…and I feel strongly about it. Massive respect to all the riders that stomped their first runs and put on such a good show. In the end it’s my fault for making a mistake in my first run, but I as well as others would have loved to have had a second chance. |
2. Canadians & single crowns continue to rule Rampage
Brandon Semenuk brought back the return of the single crown bike to Rampage in 2021 and just a year later we see another win, this time from Brett Rheeder, against the still popular choice of dual crown bikes. Not only did we see back-to-back single crown wins but Canadian riders have now won the last seven Rampages - you have to go back to Andreu Lacondeguy's win in 2014 to see a different country for a winning rider. Rheeder hasn't placed outside the top two at the last three Rampages that he has entered (Brett missed the event in 2021). Looking at the bigger picture, Canadian riders have dominated the event since the first year with a massive 11 Rampage wins. USA riders have secured three while France and Spain tie for one win each.
Brandon Semenuk brought back the return of the single crown bike to Rampage in 2021 and just a year later we see another win, this time from Brett Rheeder, against the still popular choice of dual crown bikes. Not only did we see back-to-back single crown wins but Canadian riders have now won the last seven Rampages - you have to go back to Andreu Lacondeguy's win in 2014 to see a different country for a winning rider. Rheeder hasn't placed outside the top two at the last three Rampages that he has entered (Brett missed the event in 2021). Looking at the bigger picture, Canadian riders have dominated the event since the first year with a massive 11 Rampage wins. USA riders have secured three while France and Spain tie for one win each.
2001 Wade Simmons CANADA
2002 Tyler Klassen CANADA
2003 Cédric Gracia
2004 Kyle Strait
2008 Brandon Semenuk CANADA
2010 Cameron Zink
2012 Kurt Sorge CANADA
2013 Kyle Strait
2014 Andreu Lacondeguy
2015 Kurt Sorge CANADA
2016 Brandon Semenuk CANADA
2017 Kurt Sorge CANADA
2018 Brett Rheeder CANADA
2019 Brandon Semenuk CANADA
2021 Brandon Semenuk CANADA
2022 Brett Rheeder CANADA
3. The first grind at Rampage
Despite the wind issues in finals we did get to see plenty of creative lines including a sneaky grind from Dylan Stark. Offering something different from the other riders, Dylan Stark brought in influence from outside of mountain biking for his run with a wild grind to drop near the end of his run. To keep this trick a secret until finals and to make sure no one would stop him, Dylan's dig team dug a hole next to the takeoff and buried the rail the night before finals. The dig team then had to quickly dig it and get everything set as Dylan was making his way down his line. Now it has been done once we will be interested to see if Dylan or anyone else pulls something unique out at the last minute in the future.
Despite the wind issues in finals we did get to see plenty of creative lines including a sneaky grind from Dylan Stark. Offering something different from the other riders, Dylan Stark brought in influence from outside of mountain biking for his run with a wild grind to drop near the end of his run. To keep this trick a secret until finals and to make sure no one would stop him, Dylan's dig team dug a hole next to the takeoff and buried the rail the night before finals. The dig team then had to quickly dig it and get everything set as Dylan was making his way down his line. Now it has been done once we will be interested to see if Dylan or anyone else pulls something unique out at the last minute in the future.
4. Judging Needs Reworking
Ignoring the wind and the production structure one thing that continues to not work for Rampage is the live judging. Putting aside everyone's own opinions about what a winning Rampage run should be, it's clearer with each year that both fans and competitors are getting more frustrated at the current method of scoring runs.
It's hard to see one obvious solution, and even slopestyle competitions often have similar issues, but maybe we need to hold the judges' scores until they have seen every run then they can better order them after seeing what everyone has to offer? Then they can adjust based on what riders can add for the second runs and score after each rider as they do now. If they don't want to completely shake things up, then I think just a short comment from judges could help provide a reason why one run scores higher or lower than another. There is already a camera in the judge's, booth so why not add a mic in there for a quick response about each score?
Ignoring the wind and the production structure one thing that continues to not work for Rampage is the live judging. Putting aside everyone's own opinions about what a winning Rampage run should be, it's clearer with each year that both fans and competitors are getting more frustrated at the current method of scoring runs.
It's hard to see one obvious solution, and even slopestyle competitions often have similar issues, but maybe we need to hold the judges' scores until they have seen every run then they can better order them after seeing what everyone has to offer? Then they can adjust based on what riders can add for the second runs and score after each rider as they do now. If they don't want to completely shake things up, then I think just a short comment from judges could help provide a reason why one run scores higher or lower than another. There is already a camera in the judge's, booth so why not add a mic in there for a quick response about each score?
5. Szymon Godziek's run was the clear fan favourite
As we found in our poll, everyone had strong opinions on who they thought should have placed higher. But one person who seemed to top out the voting was Szymon Godziek who secured nearly 900 more votes than Brett Rheeder on who deserved to win the event. Szymon was also sitting in second place for his actual result of 2nd and stormed to the top of the best trick polling with 1906 votes. Luckily we don't have to imagine how big a second run could have been for Szymon as he put everything on the line in his first run and seemed pretty happy at the bottom of the hill with some of the huge moves he was able to fit in on the way down the line.
As we found in our poll, everyone had strong opinions on who they thought should have placed higher. But one person who seemed to top out the voting was Szymon Godziek who secured nearly 900 more votes than Brett Rheeder on who deserved to win the event. Szymon was also sitting in second place for his actual result of 2nd and stormed to the top of the best trick polling with 1906 votes. Luckily we don't have to imagine how big a second run could have been for Szymon as he put everything on the line in his first run and seemed pretty happy at the bottom of the hill with some of the huge moves he was able to fit in on the way down the line.
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Surprising they didn't name the graphic arrow the winner.
As soon as I got through skipping all the garbage to see their runs, I looked at the time on the bottom of my screen & knew there were no second runs and skipped right to the end.
Rheeder & Semenuk winning on spinners sucked. Symon three-ing the run in to the canyon was insane.
And why was TVS allowed in the finals to just roll down? Shouldn't someone fighting for a spot have had that place in the finale?
Agreed too on Rheeder & Semenuk or rather: Godziek effing clean flip over the canyon was pure insanity, easily the baller-est move of them all. I didn't think Stark had the cleanest run, but - a f*cking 55 - after jumping that canyon? That's a 70 mimimum alone. even with a foot off after that grind. Apparently the judges don't like canyon flips b/c Fairclough's absurd actual / mostly free-ride moves in 2019 - less dug / more natural trail than anyone's followed by that flip was ridiculous. I'd say he got robbed but - he got super robbed.
Rheeder & Semenuk are insane, it was all smooth & whatnot but I just don't see how Godziek didn't easily get highest scores on that run but hey, we all have our opinions.
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hahaha
@takeiteasyridehard I must have skipped that context on TVS. I just went to his run, they talked about his injury, he straight aired and I skipped the next arrow session.
And I'm with @threesixtykickflip "Arrow Graphic" was robbed.
Respect that.
The Canyon gap, while being a really long jump, isn't a technically hard feature to complete. Flipping it was a huge feat 10 years ago when Kelly McGarry first did it. Nowadays people are flipping jumps that size every Fest event. Spinning into the double drop was hugely ballsy but if you're good at spinning drops and just 360'd a bigger one prior, then it's a fairly easy feat to pull off. The lead up to the drops/canyon, and the section after the trick jump in Godziek's run were tame in comparison when you look at the jam packed run of Rheeder's. His first drop was short, steep and super exposed, then he tricked back to back huge features straight down the mountain with exposure to the right down half the run. Don't let the helicopter camera angles fool you, that was a super steep, super gnarly line and to throw massive tricks in as well is gnarly as hell. The judges spend all week looking at the lines, they're more than capable of deciding what the best line's of the day are compared to a load of people who haven't set foot on the hill before...
Watch the top ridge again, literally right from the gate, which has the most exposure with tech. Godziek flashed that better than ANYONE, including Rheeder. And then he manualled!
Sure, some guys can ride back wheel in their sleep. You get mega bonus points if you beast one there.
I get that judges are actually thinking of shit we're not - fine, But I think there should be a separate online or whatever ranking & see how that plays out. Ah but I piss in the wind…
Good points on what judges know / see vs a ton of hacks (Im one) but the risk of falling in that canyon does not at all equate to the urban Disney jumps of Fest - risky but not approaching Utah death-chasms. If it was really that easy then everybody would’ve had a canyon backflip in their runs.
Rheeder has finesse, amp, and single-crown tail-whip/spins for sure but was it really that different from anything we see in his slopetyle? It was pretty predictable just bigger. Maybe the same can be said of Godzieks run too - both fast on the ridgeline but Godz’ manuals w/ exposure & wind were purely raw… Godz & Rheeder both had good speed on that ridge as well while Semenuk had some slower sections
Anyway - not to bust on you, I like all comments here, but the judges did say that risk and exposure was a huge part in scoring - Godz score didn't seem to reflect that risk & while Rheeders line had risk but it was pretty expected / normal (IMO) vs Godz’ line
But you know: crying over spilt milk & but it would be cool to 1) get explanations from the judges and 2) have the viewers vote for their winners - flea market as that would be, bc yearly, what fans perceive is pretty much nuked by judges and the gap in that perception - at least without much explanation - leads to mistrust, judgement and hypebole (which Im guilty of btw)
If anything, an anonymous riders choice award would be the real winner of Rampage. But then you can say people would play the popularity card.
As soon as we're standing around on TV timeouts, we're completely losing all of that. Great vibe out there amongst these riders. Keep the energy up and watch what they can do to push the limits of this sport. We must honor their dedication to this pursuit with commercial perversion, yo!
LONG LIVE HURLEY'S TRAILS
Red Bull's coverage is not even in the same conversation as ESPN and Disney.
But you're 100% correct on the rest.
Also, I think most people watching rampage are mountain bikers. We don't need made-for-TV broadcasts, back stories, drawn out 3d course visualization, etc. Most of us skip over that stuff anyways. It is not like the Olympics where almost every person watching doesn't do that specific Olympic sport, so you need to add all the filler to the general public engaged. Heck, I don't even think they do all this filler in the Olympics. Why does rampage need it.
junky.
As for the timing of the event... this in my opinion is a relatively easy fix and here are the easiest 2 options.
1- Start earlier. Remove ALL the made for TV crap out of the LIVE broadcast. This will shorten the event time and should allow for safer seconds runs. If the conditions are reasonable more guys will take their second runs.
This will create better content for the fans and greater opportunity for the riders without feeling like they need to push their luck on their first runs. Tyler very easily could have gone for that wall ride knowing his chances of a second run were limited but it would not have been the right choice.
Edit in all the made for TV stuff and include it in the follow up broadcasts and what gets posted on Red Bull TV and ESPN+. That does 3 things... it streamlines it for the live viewers, increases the odds of 2 full runs, and still allows you to put in all the made for TV stuff on the follow up broadcasts. More than likely you'll get a percentage of people watching it twice. That's good for those outlets and good for the athletes.
2- Do the event over 2 days. You can do your pregame TV crap in the morning. Then get guys riding. Do their first runs. They then have 2 hours after everyone has ridden to walk their lines and clean them up. NO RIDING.
Day 2. Same thing. Come in. Made for TV stuff with the new story lines resulting from the first runs. More drama. Get their run 2's in. Then afternoon they do the celebration and what not. Day 2 is the longer event and it's on Sat morning so more people are gonna watch it anyways. But Day 1 will still be heavily viewed.
That means hey have 2 days of content. That's good for the outlets and the athletes.
And if you're gonna be doing all this... increase the payout to the athletes and diggers next year.
Addressing the judging.
It's IMPOSSIBLE for these guys to be perfect and to please everyone. They're humans. I can tell you this... none of it is personal. They're all good dudes and want what's best for the riders and the event. They're doing the best they can. There's no behind the scenes BS going on.
But I think improving the system could help a lot.
When you stuff them all in a room they're talking to each other. That means they'll naturally hype each other up over certain things. There's also a natural tendency to start low and work higher. Especially when your 4 time winner is at the end. They could only score so high and leave a window for Semenuk to score in.
I propose that instead of working together on a score they all score independently and then those get added together to create the full score.
You can increase the judge total. Similar to say ice skating or anything like that. They have people that are specifically looking at certain elements. They have a technical team and an artistry team. They're professionals.
So in this case you can break up your elements.
Tech/Difficult of line. 2 people. They can talk to each other and come up with scores then average their scores and submit them.
Flow/Control. 2 people. Same.
Tricks/Style. 2 people. Same.
Amplitude/Speed. 2 people. Same.
Each of these should hold a different available point total that adds up to 90. Example... Tech should have more value than tricks..... like speed and style. Style cuts the speed total down but isn't as important overall as speed. If you're slow AF but do gnarly tricks you're not gonna beat someone that's fast and does slightly easier tricks.
Then you have a team of 2 that judged the entire run on a scale of 1-10. That's your final 10 points that adds to 100.
The averaging will help level out any hype bias or just odd judging totals. Giving appropriate totals to appropriate things will also help level the field for guys like Tyler and Strait and those guys that are selecting GNARLY lines but not doing slope tricks. Stope tricks shouldn't win the event if they're bypassing the gnar too much. So if Tech holds say 25 and tricks hold 15 you'll be forced to find a balance.
The line gets a score from the judges in advance.
Then points are awarded or taken away based on tricks and fluidity of the line all added or taken from the original line score.
It would help us understand why someone who finished their line with no tricks gets such a high score and someone who does a lot of tricks does not get a high score.
If the guy who does tricks has a low scoring line, we already know that he needs to do more tricks to beat a guy with a high scoring line.
Or a guy who does no tricks can have a super gnarly line and get a great score if he is fluid and fast through it.
Basically it would allow us to understand the judges decisions without them having to add extra notes or anything afterward. It may clear up some hate toward the judging.
Does this make any sense? It makes sense in my head but i may just be rambling.
I say rampage truly became an issue when Brendog was attending. It’s clear as day, they don’t care about line choice / style / Gnar in comparison to how many tricks you pull.
I really think they need to retire those old heads from judging. I feel like the only valid judges are riders who’ve been through multiple eras of rampage. The old guard sees a trick and it’s like they behave like, “oh piece of candy…”
Another idea is the just get rid of the judges. Anyone who bought a ticket will be allowed to vote.
2. We have the technology to know so much about these riders runs now. Exact size of drops, average speed, gradient of their line/run. Why not assign points to each type of trick/drop/speed/steepness with +/- added by judges for how cleanly it was executed or other intangibles. The riders then accumulate points as they go down and allow the judges to nudge each feature/scoring attribute in one direction or another. You then could show exactly how each score broke down and see how judges +/- each attribute based on cleanliness of execution, amplitude or other factors. I feel like something like this would allow for some transparency and also reward riders for sending huge drops/gaps (rather than just flippy spinny things), ripping their line extra fast or taking the steepest/gnarest line on the mountain.
Its impossible to eliminate all bias, talking helps to reduce personal bias which is why all judges do it regardless of the sport.
"Why not assign points to each type of trick/drop/speed/steepness with +/- added by judges for how cleanly it was executed or other intangibles. "
What do you think they're basing their scores on if its not LINE CHOICE, FLUIDITY AND STYLE, TRICKS, AIR AND AMPLITUDE? Ya know, the literal titles of the 4 judging criteria?
"I feel like something like this would allow for some transparency and also reward riders for sending huge drops/gaps (rather than just flippy spinny things)"
It sounds like you're going more off your personal biases rather than understanding what you're watching. Do you recall why people thought Norbs got robbed? It was because he did two "spinny things" off cliffs in opposite directions and at the time the judges were more heavily focused on big drops than tricks. The judging wasn't perfect but I agree with the top 3 this year.
My point about assigning points and publishing them is all about transparency for the fans. If rider X 3's a 30ft drop and then rider Y 3's a 40 ft drop and then rider Z oppo 3's a 40ft drop, and they all executed it cleanly with stomped landings everyone could see the score each rider got for that feature. The "flippy spinny" part clearly threw you off. For example, the chatter about riders heading to the canyon gap zone avoiding a bunch of steep tech gnar would be obvious if fans could see that there was scoring based on average gradiant of each riders line and the time it took them to get down. Both of which could be clear and transparent scoring criteria. Riders then have to make a decision - score lower on those criteria to score high on a feature of such consequence.
Judges see specific stats about each feature on their screens and assess predetermined scores for each feature/trick with deductions for things like over/under shooting, putting a foot down ect. . Scores could be aggregated on screen as the rider descends and final points for speed and gradient added at the end. People could actually see where runs were won and lost. I never said I agree or disagree with the results, but it's clear that something needs to be done with the judging because, valid or not, every year it is one of the biggest talking points.
Holy shit that was painful to watch
Don't get me wrong, Godziek's run was completely insane. But he wasn't robbed.
No hate for Cam or his riding, he's just NOT a good talking head. Pairing him with Sal was painful.
+1 for Rogatkin and Ryan Radriguez as RBR commentators going forward.
IMO if they have a drone filming things, I'd enjoy it better to just have only drone footage over one shot than switching camera angles. It'd be easier to do logistically too, and then they could use the other cameras between runs.
Maybe we should get 5 guys who have long and well respected careers in freeriding who know exactly what's hard to ride. And then lets get those 5 guys to walk around the site and see for themselves the drops and jumps that are getting hit, so they have a good perspective on the lines. And then let's leave it to those 5 guys to make the call on which run is the best, since those guys know better than pretty much anyone else which of the runs is the most difficult and should score the highest.
That said, I do think the riders (and fans) would appreciate to get some additional explanation for the scoring. Maybe show the individual scores for each judged category, to show how each score was built. That way riders could see that their score was lower because they didn't do very big drops even though their tricks were rad.
What happens if the wind picks up next year, someone really wants their second run, and they drop in and get injured or die due to a gust of wind? Do you think ESPN would own up to the fact that running the event on a timetable centered around the weather and the event, not TV ads and money, could prevent something like that?
Between the inexplicably terrible judging, the painfully bland/generic commentating, the over-the-top filler material (where the graphic designer was probably paid more than any rider!), and the fact that this all contributed to a 4 hour event where the riders didn't even get their 2nd run.... This RBR was a total joke. I REALLY hope that there are some scathing conversations being had between the riders, Redbull, and ESPN. I'd be overjoyed to see the riders all boycott the official event next year and do it their way. They could EASILY negotiate an outside company to run the event without all of this bs attached.
The show is way too long as it is anyway. Long format is not how most people digest content, as we know from social media.
1. Rest day (mandatory) ahead of the finals. All the dudes seemed so tired
2. 2 day event (kinda)...key is give people 2 runs...maybe its like 2 runs scheduled each day till 2 runs happen
3. Keep the judges...but riders also do a vote then some sort of combination of those two takes the win.
How many helicopters were in the air filming?
How long can a heli fly before getting fuel?
Can they hover for 4 hours?
How long do they need to refuel and be back on site?
How much is it to have one or many Helicopters filming?
Doesn't Redbull sponsor professional drone pilot's/team's that can film each rider?
Style (how it looks and feels and flows)
Execution / quality (how well things were landed clean, on line, etc)
Innovation (new, innovative...like the grind)
Go big (big sends)
Weight those however you'd like but I'd love to see Style right up there with the other ones....it's highly qualitative and hard to judge, but it's important and I think it's overlooked at times!
- Line choice
- Air & Style
- Fluidity
- Control
- Technique
I think how the judging works for those events is really applicable to Rampage.
... do you know what a thread guiding taper is?
Scoring needs to be more consistent/uniform.
Or-no scores, just the radness!!
2. Get rid of the non-mountain biker commentators - so freakin' annoying
3. Turn off the pressure cooker - make it a jam format.
4. Turn off the circus/spectacle - give it back to mountain biking
the “Guess the Winners” and receive a Rockshox fork contest is a fabrication and a Hoax. Nobody is ever announced as a winner so it is safe to assume nobody wins anything. It is a
#HoaxContest
Also 26 aint dead.
As far as judging goes, there seems to be a lot of debate about the "spirit of rampage", and IMO, the rightful stewardship of the spirit of rampage belongs to the riders. So, let them do the judging. Riders do their runs, then after the riders get together at the end, maybe watch a few replays of top runs, and pick the top three. Nobody understands the difficulty of the course and its features than the people who just competed on it.
True or false- diggers have to pay for an event T-shirt
True or false- after brown bag lunches all week, only one of the diggers gets to eat the catered food when it shows up (team manager).
Tue or false- it’s all about the Benjamin’s baby
Rule #2: Have fun!
In that order.
The saying "jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind here. Often some of the higher scoring and even winning runs aren't mind blowing (Sorge's runs come to mind), but they have all the elements. They don't have the biggest drop, or the craziest tricks, etc but have the full combination of smoothness, style, tricks, amplitude etc. Although its the best all around run, it can sometimes seem a little underwhelming because it doesn't have that one crazy mind blowing element or feature. But that doesn't mean its not the best run.