Red Bull Rampage 2012 - Thursday: The Build Story
Building is going strong, Reuben Krabbe has been on location following the guys around for Pinkbike to see their creations. Wow!
 |
 Dust fills the Rampage site, 4-6 inches deep in some places |
 |
| Before the lenses and riders turn up, builders occupy the site slaving away under the beating Utah sun. Robbie Bourdon here on 7am morning commute through Virgin |
 |
| Adam Billinghurst, star of Strength in Number's Whistler segment, has been, as in year's past, a key part of this year's build team |
 |
| The Claw, and his team sculpting his ridgeline |
 |
| Bender is still an intrinsic component of the event's character. He has been out building, sculpting, and is also one of this year's judges |
 |
| Claw, taking a moment to plan his course of attack |
 |
| Billinghust slaving away beyond the pick axe of Denis Bourdon. Denis, Robbie Bourdon's brother, has also been in Utah for several weeks building |
 |
| Jeremy, head of the builders cutting wood for the lower mountain boaters |
 |
| Hopkins |
 |
| Semenuk and Evan (AKA Intern) chiseling a billy goat path directly under the finals start gate. Their line nicknamed 'stegosaurus' for a slab rock armored berm further down on the line, is being built by Brandon Semenuk and Kenny Smith |
 |
| Kelly McGarry poking around the qualifying start gate. He is on the fence about being able to compete. He slipped footing while building and scouting a line, and just got x-ray confirmation of some sort of broken bone in his foot |
 |
| Billinghurst |
 |
| Chuck, from RockShox normally works to make your suspension sexier. But this week, he, like many industry personalities is putting sweat into athlete's lines. Yesterday, he was working on Semenuk/Kenny's stegosaurus line |
 |
| The Ken, Billinghust, and Brandon sculpting part of their heinous creation |
 |
| Atherton scouting lines just below the start gate |
 |
| Andreau mid mountain, mid-dig, sweating like crazy around noon moving half the mountain |
 |
| Andreau is joined by 3 of his buddies, who have been terrorizing most of the athletes and builders by ripping around on quads and mini-motos all week |
 |
| Local fire rescue are on call as first responders for athletes as they test their lines |
 |
| Robbie in the pain cave |
 |
| Hopkins started riding in his lines earlier than most riders. His includes the re-vamped 'granola cruncher' which measures 68 feet |
 |
| Hopkins |
 |
| Much lower on Kenny and Brandon's line, the largest rider feature not being built by Red Bull is still under construction |
 |
| Brandon dropping into the lower part of the wash |
 |
| Curtis Robinson getting acquainted with the Oakley Sender |
 |
 |
| Brendan Fairclough is also digging a very large, and completely new feature. Here after sunset he is still digging like a true champ |
 |
| The Coastal Crew finally chose their lines after a long indecisive walkabout through the venue. Their lines play to their strengths, so you can expect them to be sideways as always |
 |
| The Coastal Crew finishing up after dusk |
 |
 |
| Hopkins was up bright and early to ride in his line before the winds pick up. Over the last several days high winds have been frighteningly strong, with some riders building alternate routes in case of a blustery final day |
 |
| Vanderham working as a one man army, building and watering |
 |
| Logan watering Kenny and Brandon's feature. A make-work project that rivals the Great Wall of China |
 |
| Gulevich experimenting with some unorthodox watering techniques |
 |
 |
| Garett Buehler |
 |
| Buehler looking classy as ever on training day |
 |
| Thomas Genon exhibiting confidence with a bigger bike |
 |
 |
| Brendan Fairclough's absurd creation is getting close to completion. It's in the top 3 of all the lines I'm looking forward to seeing ridden |
Author Info:
Squamish, BC, Canada
Must Read This Week
Anyone know if this will have replays like the world cups on redbulls site? I was planning a night around it...
monkeylikeshiny.blogspot.com/2012/10/quality-check-from-pro.html
www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/Rampage-Day-2,4392/Slideshow,0/bturman,109?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=spotlight
seeing vanderpants in the photos has me stoked too. dunno if he is riding but i would love to see him shred.