2013 Red Bull Rampage: The Biggest Crashes
DID. YOU. SEE. THAT!? Rampage 2013 saw riders going bigger and burlier than ever before. Amplitudes that 10 years ago, no one would think possible on a push bike so subtly modified. Some of the features created and conquered this past weekend were simply beggars belief and I can only attempt to assure you - through the inadequate power of the written word - that in the flesh everything genuinely is that much bigger, that much faster and that much more likely to make you sick in your shoe at the sight of it.
When boundaries are ready to be broken, so are bodies. It came as no surprise that things went awry for more than a few of the brave pioneers of mountain biking this time around. But all contenders know two things...One: In this game, injuries are all but inevitable. And two: The Red Bull Rampage is the most outlandish and dangerous event the bicycle world has ever known. The riders are fully aware of what they're getting themselves into; they see the difference between what risks are mandatory and use their expertise to avoid those more voluntary. Sometimes though, there's nothing to be done but take the fall. So without further ado, take a deep breath and revel in the safety of your own home while we take you through the biggest and baddest bails of the 2013 Red Bull Rampage.
Yep, sometimes it hurts.
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 A Rampage silhouette of broken dreams. Kenny Smith, wishing and wondering...get well soon bro. |
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| I don't think it's going too far to say that some hucks this year were headed towards the bounds of appearing physically impossible. Fairclough's 50ft canyon gap to flat - at least nobody gets hurt in the air. |
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| Some people take a fall better than others. Some people are in a league of their own...we asked Josh Bender, the ultimate survivor of brutal crashes, how a man should deal with an untimely eject. |
 | Well usually what you do is pick yourself up, dust off...get some ice and grab a couple of cold beers and you know, nurse your wounds! But what all these guys out here are becoming familiar with is just rest and taking care of yourself, man. - Josh Bender |
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| Mitch Chubey recites the age-old motto 'pain is temporary, glory is forever.' He would suffer a broken finger, banged up shoulder and chipped clavicle. He'll be back in no time. |
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| Plenty of the freeride's finest tasted the Utah dust. Unfortunately, it would be the first year since the conception of Rampage that Thomas Vanderham would miss out, due to busting his ribs the night before the finals. |
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| Semenuk surely had the most aggressive line on the mountain and had he stomped it it's likely he would have stormed the podium. Sadly, just like last year, he couldn't keep rubber side down and crashed after his 360 before the infamous canyon drop. |
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| The Oakley Icon sender was on a whole new breath-taking scale this time round. This truth was reinforced by just how few riders sampled it's terrifying airtime over the week. Pioneer, James Doerfling, scopes the scale of the beast and tries to get his head around the approach. |
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| Doerfling had a sea of eager photographers raising and lowering their cameras in unison for his 8 or so runs-ins during Friday afternoon. Finally ready, he came in hot and you would have backed him to grease it nicely. In the end he was forced into a picture perfect ejection, just enough to clear the knuckle and to slide cleanly the full length of the transition, standing up totally unscathed...to the absolute disbelief and stoke of stunned onlookers. |
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| I knew I was going to be pedaling hard all the way to the lip. I was in the zone, feeling good so I just went for it...got out there, thought it was all good, then I started nosing and I was gonna case so just at the last second, leap-frogged over the bars and base-ball slid all the way down the tranny. Got super lucky and happy to still be alive! - James Doerfling |
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| In the finals, Doerfling then lost his bike into the ravine at the start of his first run, but managed to cling to the rocks and avoid the same fate. He laid it down with a vengeance on his second try and charged his run possibly faster than anyone else. |
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| Last year's third place, Logan Binggeli, would take one of the most severe falls of the contest in his second run of the final, a wholly undeserved injustice because he pretty much nailed the trick perfectly. |
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| Binggeli landed his flip so close to clean, but was bounced slightly off to one side. He clipped the slabs used in the landing as he went off the edge of the transition - second broken femur of the contest. |
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| Thanks everyone for the healing vibes, just got back from first walk on crutches! #roadtorecovery #illbeback - Logan Binngeli |
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| Makken Haugen evidently landed a bit hard somewhere along the line in qualis. |
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| Kyle Norbraten's Rampage dreams were broken by a big spill from an over-rotated 360. |
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| Gully's week started just brilliantly...smooth tricks going down off the burly features of his line. |
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| Gully, deciding whether to flip or not to flip. He flipped, no worries. |
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| Crashes suck. Especially off something as gargantuan as this. Luckily, Gully walked away from both his massive crashes off the old Oakley Icon sender. |
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| Crash 2 for Gully was no softer than the first. It was a major credit to him to take a second try right after such a horrific impact. It made for all the more difficult viewing to see him get worked in almost exactly the same way twice. |
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| And that's what Gully's seat tube thought of the Oakley Icon Sender. Gully must be made of steel, he suffered only a few bruises to the body |
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| Salt Lake City hopeful, Dustin Schaad's bike dancing above him before following the same path. He appeared in view between the cliffs, took an OTB and to everyone's horror, flew straight down into the ravine. Most photographers failed to capture a complete sequence for fear they might be witnessing a fatality. |
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. | The biggest crash at this Rampage would be a toss up between Mark Matthews and Dustin Schaad. But Dustin Schaad fared a little better because he did not break his femur. He just popped his ankle out and popped it back in... - Josh Bender |
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.Gee's epic gap from last year was given a complete overhaul by Mitch Chubey. In practice the plan was for he and friend, Mark Matthews, to hold off hitting until the qualis. Mitch stuck to the plan, but Mark went for it, keen to get it off his mind a day early. With a shady run in and a bit of wind it knocked him straight into the rock ledge with pretty devastating consequences.
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| Matthews went down hard and brutally compound fractured his femur. Carried off to the hospital in quite a bit of pain, it was a horrible sight for everyone present. Heal up soon Mark! |
| Surprisingly it didn't hurt that much. Swelled a ton though. Broke my femur in 2 places just below the hip. - Mark Matthews |
Yes it was a proper job, no question.
The heroes of our sport are continuing to push us into future with an unprecedented velocity. Expectations are smashed quicker than the bones and no one knows where - or whether - some kind of limit will one day be met. The Red Bull Rampage is the true front line where the World's top athletes go to battle with our concept of what's possible on a mountain bike. So as the contest closes for another year, we should all take a bow to the masters of our incredible gravity sport. We wish all those who put their bodies on the line, in the name of progression, the best recoveries and look ahead - because you never know what we'll be witnessing next.
Check out more photos, videos, interactive content and more at www.redbull.com/bike.
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Good luck to you Mark hope for a speedy recovery!!
Wow you must be some "sortah" idiot.
Confidence: the feeling you have right before to truly understand the magnitude of the situation.
have a
So irrespective of RBs motives, the end result is the same; people pushing boundaries, going further & bigger, and if that doesn't excite you maybe you should just buy a road bike and be done with it..
That's like saying 'I don't like watching Formula 1 (Or Nascar for you Yanks!) because that's not how 99.9% of drivers drive."
Now what you expect to see in the next Rampage? A backflip frontflip over an higher Icon Sender? Rider's using hardtails? ..and then?
His afterbull video: tv.freeride-magazine.com/frontend_dev.php/video/Benderoni%25C2%25B4s-Statement%253A-Deshalb-nahm-der-Russe-nicht-bei-der-Rampage-teil-/2ce4b3779e698899ccc63a62bdb7e35c
Highest he should have places is second with second moving up to first. Had Zink even done 1 or 2 other small trick/jumps/gaps on his run he would have got first. Had he gotten another run he probably would have.
I don't think he got robbed. I do think that man sitting in first probably should have been sitting closer to were Tyler McCaul was sitting.
The fan vote should only matter and this time the fan voting ranking was the real ranking. The judges screw the fun of every rampage. Have you seen the faces of the riders when they get the vote? It says it all...
Last years winner should of been Cam McCaul and this McGazza! McCaul got 7th in 2012 speechless...not to mention about Norbs...
The other thing is when somebody crashes get such a little score...this is so OLD SCHOOL! Just lame...Aggy 360 was unreal in every way...got 17th...T-Mac line omfg...dear God please make them stop.
Straits line had it all, but definitely out of top 3! Style, fluidity etc is all great, but is so old school too. This was before people started doing huge stunts. Make Strait do a backflip over the Canyon or Osender... I thought so...
RED BULL GET RID OF THE JUDGES, SAVE MONEY AND LET THE PEOPLE VOTE. IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE PEOPLE THERE WOULD BE NO RAMPAGE COMP!
You can also stop using the helis and save the money for the another day comp because of the weather like this year. When they film from the helis is so far, you can barely see anything. No need for heli footage in my opinion.
NEXT YEAR NO LAME JUDGES AND ONLY PEOPLE AT RAMPAGE AND TV VIEWERS WATCHING ARE VOTING!!!!!!!!
People like you are exactly the reason they keep judges. If it was a pure fan vote Rampage would just turn into a slopestyle comp because all you want to see is backflips over canyons. Strait had a great technical line (or "old school" if riding on challenging natural terrain is old school), rode it expertly, and still threw a trick off the biggest feature out there. He had it all.