Pinkbike Poll: Who is the Unofficial Red Bull Rampage Pinkbike's Choice Winner?
After an incredible event, the final results are in for Red Bull Rampage 2023. But we all know the judges' choices aren't always the people's choices and the most technical run isn't always the run that's the most fun to watch, so let's hear from you all. Who won in your hearts this year?
Who should have won 1st place?
You must be logged in to take this poll.
Who should have won 2nd place?
You must be logged in to take this poll.
Who should have won 3rd place?
You must be logged in to take this poll.
Who had the best trick?
You must be logged in to take this poll.
Whose run did you enjoy the most, regardless of scoring?
You must be logged in to take this poll.
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
He should have scored higher, but I also don't think he could win it without doing something on top.
www.redbull.com/us-en/judging-red-bull-rampage
When there us
I don’t understand how zink won, it was a cool run but there were better ones.
Pumped to see Emil holding his own, just needs to hit some more gnarly features.
Sink should have been top 3, possibly in the running for the win for sure
But Brendog and Bienve were massively robbed of podium places
Agree with everything you said, but please add no one has any idea what Talus is saying. Hey kids, here's your generation's Paulie Shore!
Brendog's battleship and ravine gap is what Rampage is about, shoulda taken first. Bienve's X2 back flip to front flip was f*cking INSANE though, mad respect for anyone who rides rampage, really hope Szymon's okay, prob one of my favorite riders to watch. Cant wait to see what Talus' got next year
Rampage is a show above all, and I don't give a shit about who's winning or got robbed or or...
Dude, that is so naĂŻve. All of them, obvs.
Think Brendog went way bigger twice riding something zink wouldn't touch.
All the old boys club has done is put riders off rampage. Just check out the voting above.
and what have you done that makes you so much better then us? you seem to be on an awfully high horse for someone who’s in the pinkbike comment section as well
Explain to me how riding the same line year after year is progression just because he did his back flip a little bit higher this year than last year?
Still - they're all the kings of the rulers and its a sick event...I hope they're getting paid well & Godz doesn't have a concussion.
These people are not fans, they're just hopping onto another bandwagon.
Less than you lose for being an Enduro rider from new zealand
He dead sailed so much of his line he made me feel like I was nearly zink.
He backflips something half the size of what's already been done this year and you get all hot under the collar when other riders call out some very suspicious judging by his pals in the judges corner.
Some riders don't flip as oppo tricks are way more technical, higher risk and beyond zinks skills.
Some riders front flip a canyon gap which is beyond zinks skills
Others make a new canyon gap and battleship feature which are beyond what zink rides.
But his mates doing the scoring liked his slightly corked flip!
Watch the other runs again, take off your skewed view and marvel at what happened. Shame the judging is putting riders off rampage now.
Do you wanna come to rampage?
Who are the judges...?
Cams pals....
Nah, your alright, I am gonna go shred hardline and darkest instead.
Hahahahahahahaha oh my god, sometimes I wonder if you gapers even watched the event. For being "fans" you guys are so ignorant.
source: time-traveler tiktok 2024
Biggest shame is 110% that we didn’t get to fully see Godziek or Kaudela’s runs.
I agree bienve should have been scored higher for a trick never done over the canyon, but the top was weak, more than half the run was traversing.
Hot take : Carson storch had a way better run than tvs. Tricked so many more features. Granted Tom made that caveman look too easy. I’m guessing that’s an insane trick but it just doesn’t show that way.
Brendan should have been scored higher but if you go back and watch zincs run was dope
Disappoint to see sorge just straight air everything. Injury? And it didn’t seem like Jackson’s wanted to be there.
1) Gnarliest line
2) Smoothest run, zero cases or sketchiness
3) Suicided a gap most people thought couldn’t be jumped
4) Had as many tricks as most of the other riders
Still gets robbed…
I don’t know if it was a winning run, but no podium is a robbery for sure
Exactly, who else was more than a little worried about Brendan’s well being the week after they saw his lines? He made it more exciting than any other year in a sick way. Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Brendan and a couple others just walked away after this display of such poor judging.
1. Fan favorite daylight robbery
2. American TV profiteering
3. Transparent judging process
4. Family-friendly helmet mic and finish corral interview
5. Euro hate
6. Kyle Strait
Brendog got robbed, again.
Do your homework before spouting your prepubescent balls off. Dick head.
Shame you spend your energy wanking over the comments section on PB rather than just respecting all the decent riding at Rampage today.
Get out on your bike you punk, you might like it.
IMO hard for Brendan to be 4th again… he deserved maybe more to be 2nd because his line was so unique… but I haven’t be there in person soooo.
The top part of his run was by far the gnarliest. The big flip was insane, barely not trick of the day. I do think Fairclough should have gotten more like 2nd/3rd and that TVS's first run was a bit overscored. Beinve needed more to his run, unfortunately, though the flip into the step down and the frontflip was obviously f*cking insane. I thought the event was run much better this year, no stupid 3D renderings, they fired the riders one after another! They highlighted the diggers more this year too. I cannot imagine how hard it is to judge the event. When Beinve went after Fairclough, I was thinking how the hell do you compare these?! Good work Rampage. It was not the "slopestyle event" everyone claimed it would be.
Freeride will never die.
Kid has incredible style/fluidity, throws huge tricks, and he hasn't cracked 70 for the 2nd year in a row. He scored lower than Sorge this year who straight-aired every feature.
Seems like Sorge was in the same boat.
He's got so much style, I think he started the second with good intentions, didn't quite get the start he wanted then just phoned it in. He's constantly underscored.
It was kind of funny hearing the announcers trying to be excited about his second run.
I almost feel like he was over the whole thing and didn't really care. His interview during the last practice seemed a bit checked out as well.
He reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite, and every time I see him all I hear is, “You got like three feet of air that time.” Lol
Does that caveman just look to simple on camera? I thought Carson threw down a better run than Tom. The only thing Tom had over him was a caveman
Also Reed bogs got best build team? They aren't hiding the NA bias any more
The bravest (Brendog) and most memorable (Bienvenido) runs vs what? Oh, right, judges that can’t see quality for all their weepy-eyed nostalgia and bro-love for Zink. Pathetic.
You're definitely right that it is far more difficult for new riders coming into existing venues, but I'm not sure what the answer is. The best events have occurred after the first year at a new venue. Those first years at new locations are always a dangerous, rush to the finish, where we often see more injuries and lesser riding. Not sure what the answer is.
How are new new NHL players having any chance against veterans? You are asking some dumb questions. It takes time and experience to learn and adjust to anything in life.
Brendog's run was sick, but the "battleship" aside from the obvious consequences was a relatively easy manoeuvre. The canyon gap no-hander was amazing as well. Deserving of a win on a lot of days. Today we were fortunate enough to witness about 5 win-worthy runs.
Looking at Brendogs other features, I think he had the best use of natural run ins that required a ton of skill, a canyon gap that was mind blowing and that step down backflip was super tech to look as clean as he made it look. Zinks backflip was insane but I just think brendogs run was more complete. I know we will disagree but brendogs run was more complete and one I will remember for years. Can’t say I can say the same about zinks outside of his backflip but both runs were quality runs.
Brendog's run was awesome, but between the backflip-can, long drop, long low canyon gap, huge step down back flip, 40' flat drop 360, and all the other stuff in between, I think Zink's just had more. Brendog definitely gets the creativity award from me though.
If you add the step down/step down to get to the ex-icon sender, it is a better run overall.
Probably 2nd or 3rd woul've been a better placement for Fairclough, but then again TVS and Storch had huge run.
If we talk about the top, I think claw explained it well. Only thing I’ll point out is that he said if it was in the woods, it would not have been that gnarly. Reason I say that is for cams upper section and drops, if those were in the woods I think the same sort of reasoning applies as well. That said, I think the judges added the exposure element and judged it appropriately.
For cams step down backflip, I fully agree that was huge and deserved the praise. It was a new way to ride an already existing line and I think where I could offer any counter is that the landing was big and smooth. Also I will say takeoff run in the as fairly polished, but what counters both the points for me in a good way is the speed it required to go into it and the fact it was a flat takeoff. So that feature deserves all the praise. Moving to brendogs canyon gap, I think a big thing not to overlook is that riders were telling his team that they didn’t even think it was possible and that to me speaks volumes. Also, listening to claws explanation of the run in, the compression to jump the other riders line, the small lip takeoff, and the precise landing all factors into how big that feature was. What I didn’t fully agree with claw on is down playing just doing a sui over it and that taking away from it. So comparing these two, I can see or agree with zink being bigger but I think the judges may have been a little harsh on how they judges the canyon gap and the risk for getting that wrong should have ranked it higher.
For the other hits, cam has a much bigger bag of tricks and it showed. I think the natural roll into the step down backflip for brendog made that a super tech trick but can’t argue with what cam put down.
So here is just more of my opinion that may not hold much weight. Looking at cams line, it is a line he has done in past years, a line he knows well, and I think the tricks he was able to pull off shows just that and is what I would expect from him. Brendogs line was brand new, had to work around other peoples hold on lines, and was super natural and tech. Given I am more of a tech trail rider vs flow trail rider, brendogs run resonated more with me and felt more of a raw rampage line. So to cap off this long response, did cams run deserve a win - sure I can see it. Is it a run I would expect from someone who has ridden this line and features in the past - yes. Did brendogs run deserve the win - super debatable depending what you feel the soul of rampage is but I can see how cams run can be considered having more. Here is where I think we both agree to a point and it’s that brendog should have been on the podium and it was a shame he wasn’t. But watching interviews, he seems happy with his placement so I guess that is all that matters.
It's a fun event, and even if all the competitors would love to win one they all seem to have a great respect for each other and they probably know that the judging is a crap shoot, so who cares who wins (unless the rider has a contract with a sponsor that pays a bonus for winning).
Enjoy it for the awesome efforts of all the competitors, and don't let the judging ruin it for you. It's a great annual event.
Anyway, all the riders are legends, no need for any hate. Hope Godziek is ok, did they give an injury update?
I don’t want this to come across as negative btw, but a bit of transparency is all that’s needed to resolve most problems (like apparent robbing in scoring)
Well done to all riders, irrespective on their results. Respect is owed to the few that have the courage to step forward.
Sums it up
In all seriousness, why don't they have a standard matrix for judging i.e certain tricks a set number of points, combos more etc? At least that way the judging is transparent and not so subjective
-Judging criteria needs some work, for example explicit categories for exposure, control/fluidity, creativity, style, progression, amplitude etc/whatever could be nice to improve transparency
-The judges seem to mostly be north american freeride veterans, seemingly prone to bias considering some of the riders have a lot of history with the judges. Maybe try to include some younger, non-NA judges (that have also competed in rampage in the past)? Or add in a component, like 10-20% of the score is fans or the other competitors? Or honestly I love rider-judged events so that would also be fine by me
-Time is always of the essence when we're talking huge jumps in wind-prone areas (although this year we got pretty lucky). I think the live stream needs to come second to ensuring the riders have time to get their runs in before the wind kicks up. Pseudo-live coverage, judging only at the end after the riders have dropped, it seems like there are tools we can use here to improve this aspect
-Hard to ignore this one, I think adding in a womens category is a no-brainer, and having their runs a day before the mens event seems like a great option with relatively few downsides
I think there would be a lot less criticism if Brendan and Benve got podiums which I think they deserved. Honestly their runs and Zinks were probably all worthy winners and you could argue til the cows come home about which was best. It’s subjective after all despite all the criteria.
I do think that giving 95 to zink was a mistake. Even if they say the score itself is not important it’s the ranking of the scores, it still doesn’t make sense. They could have scored him a point or two more than the previous leader with that logic. Then other riders waiting to go for a second run may have decided to go for it.
By the way it’s great to see hundreds of comments disagreeing with each other and barely anyone acting like a dick! Good vibes Keep it up .
If Brendog wants to take a W he needs to pull a bigger repertoire of tricks. Brendog is still the hero of the day for me though!
That being said... I enjoyed this one. It had more big mountain, and less slopestyle this year. And that's a plus in my book.
The judges meant to give Cam a score or 85, but they made a mistake and they couldn’t face having to admit it.
In all honesty, every single rider at Rampage is worth admiring, what a great show they put on for all us desk jockeys !
It's not the first time the score and the winner was wrong. Time to change the rule!
Or the short version: he didn't want to risk his life again after doing the line perfect the first time.
"More than earned the title"
That way they could compare apples to apples
If you're taking the time to write out a comment and complain about the judging, I personally feel that is disrespectful to those on the podium. And to the judges who also work hard all week to scout out the terrain, watch practice, and analyze the lines. You really think you know better than them?
Not only that, the judges clearly communicate with the riders what the scoring system is. Complaining about judging really showcases one's lack of knowledge of what's really going on at this event. It's also proof that no videos will do this place justice. It's impossible to judge this event online because the difficulty of lines do not translate. Your online opinion means nothing.
Big love to all the riders out there today for pushing our sport to a whole new level! It was something special to see Cam Zink get more amplitude than we've ever seen before!
Bienve's frontflip was bonkers, but his top section was as low scoring as they come. Judges have to score the entire run and compared to many other riders, he took the safest, lowest consequence route down to the canyon in-run, without tricking or adding any scoring features.
Brendog's run was awesome and I was so stoked for him to put down a score that has won previous comps. Unfortunately for him, there were others that combined the technical tricks and consequence better than he did today. The "battleship" was cool, but not nearly as technical as some other things we saw. The canyon gap in-run and sui was so sick, but we saw things that were crazier, IMO.
Storch was so damn good top to bottom, I thought he might clip TVS, but that caveman was just so consequential, the judges had to score it huge (I mean it won best trick last year, among some crazy, more conventional tricks).
I actually thought Talus might disrupt the podium. That run was wild and impressive. Sounded like his bike was on the verge of blowing up the entire way down lol
Overall, aside from the multiple heavyyyy crashes, that was the best Rampage in a while. And 2 runs! Well 2 runs for the guys who wanted them. Seriously what happened Sorge?
You're smoking crack.
Brendan's run had BOTH of the highest consequence moves on the mountain (battleship + his own canyon gap). Mistakes on either one = 100% heli ride to the hospital.
The canyon gap is obviously dangerous, no one is arguing that. But he could case it by a couple feet and likely ride out, maybe even without any mechanicals. We saw exactly what happens when someone cases a huge step down last year with Strait. Why are you trying to make stuff up to help your argument? Is it so hard to admit someone may have a good point?
#2 Zink
#3 Brendog