Photo Epic: Campage - Red Bull Rampage 2023
Finals day in Virgin, Utah, thankfully brought favourable weather as the wind played little part in the amazing spectacle of this year’s Rampage. Rider after rider laid down incredible displays of skill with some jaw-dropping lines built into the red cliffs.
With the first runs out of the way, it was Tom Van Steenbergen who led Carson Storch by a slim margin of two points, sharing most of a line that the judges rewarded highly. Brendan Fairclough’s unique and raw line over the terrifying Battleship and canyon gap suicide sat in third before Emil Johansson’s slopestyle-inspired sends took fourth. Sadly Szymon Godziek took a huge spill before his run could really get going, we have heard he has dislocated his wrist from the crash. We wish Szymon all the best with his recovery.
Unlike the 2022 competition, the wind continued to play nice and let riders head back up to the top for one final run to improve their scores. Talus Turk was the first rider to bump their score after crashing earlier in the day, his near-flawless run saw him score an 84 from the judges. Next up was Cam Zink who managed to keep it all together through a brutally steep top section, send (probably) the biggest backflip drop of all time off the updated Icon sender, as well as a huge three drop below, moving to the top of the leaderboard with a massive 95, the third-highest score in Rampage history.
Following Cam, Clemens went down hard sending his double drop way too deep, blowing a hand off, and sustaining a huge impact in the flat bottom. He has a minor hand injury but is thankfully largely okay. From there, most of the riders were able to slightly improve their scores but nothing that changed their overall placement. With just Carson Storch and Tom Van Steenbergen to go, the pair decided they were happy with 2nd and 3rd so gave the crowd the wildest party lap of all time to close the book on another Rampage.
You can see the replay here, final results here, and all our Red Bull Rampage coverage here.
Hallowed playground.
A heavy rider's meeting beforehand.
Adolf Silva laying it out on the ridge.
Kurt Sorge turning heads.
Talus Turk checking the run in on his big drop.
Szymon Godziek had an amazing run going before getting blown sideways tricking into his lillypad drop and crashing moments after this.
The humans of Rampage got very quiet after Godziek's crash, before a HUGE cheer when he got up.
Huge extension on Jaxson Riddle's first run.
Jaxson Riddle wild as always. It seemed like he pulled the plug on his second run early, and took the most stylish way down the hill instead.
Brendog's Battleship may not have the amplitude of some other hits on the mountain, but the precision and consequences were enormous.
Brendog with a suicide on the canyon gap en route to fourth place. There was a rumour he was thinking about a flip here, but he wisely opted not to take a second run.
Tom Van Steenbergen's massive step down backflip. His line had everything needed for a Rampage podium: a terrifying caveman into the steeps at the top, some creative line management, a huge 3 drop, an even bigger flip drop, and savage, confident style. Love to see it.
One of Emil Johansson's wild tailwhip drops. We think this one was regular and the other was opposite, but don't hold us to it. Emil had an amazing final run going before a minor crash at the bottom, and we're excited to see him at Rampage and other big mountain competitions in the future.
Tommy G's huge three drop. The Rampage vet didn't quite get what he was looking for this year, but it's always a pleasure to watch him ride.
Tommy G in the snake pit, stylish as always.
Adolf Silva's double backflip.
One of two huge three drops in Carson Storch's run.
Carson stylish on the deceivingly big transfer.
DJ with one of several big three drops.
DJ with a big no-can drop in the lower part of his line.
Bienvenido's top section was a bit "too chill" for the judges, but he scored big with his flip into the lilypad...
...into this HUGE frontflip over the canyon gap won the hearts of viewers everywhere, and a well deserved Best Trick award, McGazza spirit award, and Viewers' Choice award.
Reed Boggs' three drop on his Ancient Aliens feature needed a sniper landing.
Reed Boggs pulling back off his big drop.
Kyle Strait always has one of the fastest, most powerful ways down the mountain.
Kyle Strait suicides off the Icon Sender
Talus Turk's backflip can came out of nowhere, and the Rampage rookie was rewarded with a 5th place for an incredible run.
Talus's huge super flip put an exclamation point on his run.
The top of Cam Zink's line is incredibly tech. It might not translate to the TV screen, but after Tom's caveman and Brendan's battleship, this is probably the third most disgusting line off the top.
Another angle of Cam Zink's backflip off the Icon sender en route to victory.
Clemens nailed this double drop in practice, and greased the canyon directly afterwards, but...
...sent it too deep in finals and took a brutal impact. Everyone was relieved to see him up relatively unscathed soon after.
Kyle Strait won the Toughness Award. He said he's not tough, but the mental fortitude required to come back after breaking his back on the same line last year is something special.
Bienvenido Aguado won the McGazza Spirit award, Best Trick, & People's Choice Award. Well deserved, and we love that he earned it doing a frontflip over the same canyon as Kelly's legendary backflip.
Cam Zink, Carson Storch, Tom Van Steenbergen; your 2023 Rampage podium.
Careful, you'll end up in the splash zone if you get too close to the podium.
Congrats, champ.
Celebrations in full effect, cheers Hank.
The sun sets on another incredible Rampage. It's been a privilege!
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Death
Taxes
Brendog getting f'ing robbed in the desert.
Death
Taxes
Members on Pinkbike bitching because they don't understand how Rampage is judged or the insane lines these riders are hitting at the top.
Bienvenido did two runs..exactly the same, not throwing in anything more aggressive at the top of his run to shoot for a higher score but executed both runs almost flawlessly.
TVS and Carson both opted out of a proper second run to increase score as well but instead they chose to party train the mountain in a display of an early 2nd and 3rd place secured scores.
This is the duty of Us fans that witnessed the erroneous scores given and voice our opinions in protest on his behalf. Brendog got robbed again as well as Bienvenido !!
It's Rampage. It's a subjective event. Protest all you want. Brendog didn't take a 2nd run. And that's called walking away from the table and folding your cards. Game over.
When have you set out to do something on bike so terrifying and sleep like a baby the night before? You're desensitized apparently to the reality of such treacherous endeavors!
He rides a Gambler, "He knows when to hold em and knows when to fold em". Hence, does not necessarily mean a loss; but wisdom to see a higher score over 95 is highly unlikely, considering the history of high scores at RBR have only been in the 95's twice (2014 / 2015)!
To talk about the scores given to riders that didn't deserve a high score or the other way around, as in this case, does not deem the judges to be incompetent or morons but does point out that for some reason the scoring has been and continues to be flawed. Thus, rendering undeserved positions for the entire field.
Again, the judges are obviously seeing things that most in the PB community aren’t. Doesn’t mean they’re wrong. I do think they either need to better educate the community on why they score the way they do or change their system so the community isn’t so annoyed every time. It’s not good for anyone to have all this negativity year after year. Seems to me like it would be super easy to fix. For example, have the riders vote on who was best. Or have live judging from the community. Or assign each line a score ahead of time and explain why those lines rank where they do, then award points beyond that according to how the line was ridden. It really is silly that this argument happens every year. But I still think it’s a mistake to dismiss the judges so hastily. Most people on Pinkbike have no idea what these lines are like in real life. I’ve noticed multiple professional riders who have said that Zink deserved the win. Maybe they understand some things the rest of us don’t?
The coverage is pretty darn good and in high resolution screen in the living room, I say that renders a better quality screen to view and dissect runs,. over what they are using in that box in the middle of the desert. Just leave the judges at home or in a place where reception, screen resolution will be paramont with much better quality; maybe, who knows.! Next