Final Results1. Brett Rheeder: 89.66
2. Andreu Lacondeguy: 87.33
3. Ethan Nell: 86.33
4. Tom Van Steenbergen: 84.66
5. Thomas Genon: 83.33
6. Tyler McCaul: 82.00
7. Kyle Strait: 80.33
8. Szymon Godziek: 75.00
9. Kurt Sorge: 74.00
10. Brendan Fairclough: 67.66
Best Trick: Tom Van Steenbergen, flat drop backflip
People's Choice Award: Adolf Silva
Kelly McGarry Spirit Award: Brendan Fairclough
Live Updates
Run One
8:34 AM PDT: Cam Zink announces he won't be competing due to an injured shoulder.
9:04: Currently a little breezy, looks like a wind hold will push the start back to 11am PST.
9:35: Bas Van Steenbergen will not be competing due to a crash yesterday.
11:10: 26-year-old Szymon Godziek will be the first rider to drop in.
11:15: Syzmon crashes hard after going way too big on a backflip tuck no hander, but still gets up and finishes his line with style. Score: 31.00
11:21: Brendan Fairclough stomps his super-technical line, including his drop off 'The Rock', a canyon gap, and a backflip. "That was kind of the perfect run for me - I'm so stoked." Score: 67.66
11:26: Vinnie T (Vincent Tupin) crashes mid-line after getting bucked off a cliff, sending his bike tumbling down the canyon.
11:32: Rampage freshman DJ Brandt starts strong, with a 360 off the start drop, and a clean run through his insanely steep chute, but cases a double lower down on his line. The same jump caused trouble for Rheeder and Andreu in practice. DJ finishes his run, tossing a couple backflips along the way. Score: 33.33
11:41: Remy Metailler goes for another Rampage course speed record - no tricks, but smooth and fast.
11:46: Reed Boggs throws down a strong run: 360 off the start drop, open loop, big double drop, suicide no-hander off a step down, and a mini-flip to finish. Score: 59.66
11:49: Adolf Silva's mom is a BASE jumper. True story.
11:50: Adolf Silva has a perfect start to his run, stomping massive drop after massive drop, but crashes on a Superman seat grab near the bottom after missing his pedal. Score: 41.00
11:55: Andreu Lacondeguy puts a wild top-to-bottom run in the bag to take the lead. Highlights: flat spin 450, backflip, superman backflip, flatspin 360 lookback. Score: 87.33
12:00: Jordie Lunn throws a cork 720 early in his run, and sticks multiple uber-techy sections of his line, but gets hung up mid-run after skipping his ravine gap. He looks at Fairclough's steep chute, but skips it and walks down the rest of the course. Lunn has reportedly been sick for the past few days.
12:08: Graham Agassiz is still recovering from a broken scapula, but gets in a smooth run. He goes too deep on a stepdown and loses speed for a step up lower on the course. Score: 50.00
12:13: Tom van Steenbergen starts with a 360 off the start drop, and then lands an absolutely enormous flat drop back flip. Score: 84.66
12:21 Tyler McCaul gets tossed over a berm, but is able to get his feet underneath him and emerges unscathed. He hits a couple more features, but then dismounts and hikes back to the bottom.
12:27: This is Kyle Strait's 13th Red Bull Rampage - he's attended all of them. "If you're not out here trying to win, I don't see why you're out here."
12:29: Strait puts down a classic run - no hesitation, steep moves, a suicide no hander off a big step down, and then a fully extended Superman. Score: 76.66
12:32: Carson Storch starts with a 360, tosses a big backflip off a stepdown, but then runs out of speed to get up to the midpoint of his run. Instead of throwing it away, he still goes for a gigantic 360. He lands it, but was slightly over-rotated and ends up crashing.
12:40: Thomas Genon's run is super smooth and fluid, with a 360 to start, several large stepdowns, a backflip, and a suicide no hander. Score: 78.66
12:47: Wow. Brett Rheeder nails his line - oppo 360 to start, a big double drop, and a ridiculously huge flat backflip. Also a regular 360, and a backflip one foot can to finish. "I've never flat drop flipped something that big in my life. Not even close... That was exactly what I wanted to do." New Leader. Score: 89.66
12:55: Brandon Semunuk starts strong, but a botched cork 720 mid run halts his progress. He rides down, using it as a chance for one more practice run. Score: 36.00
13:01: Local hero Ethan Nell hits his line perfectly. A big ol' stepdown back flip, a nose manual down a steep slope for extra bonus points, a suicide no-hander off a huge drop, and a flat spin 360 to finish it all off. Score: 86.33
13:10: Defending champ Kurt Sorge gets in a clean run, with what's likely the biggest drop of the day (the same one Adolf Silva hit earlier), a backflip early on, and another one towards the bottom. "It was a little loose. I crashed a little earlier before finals - I could hardly keep my head up on some of those landings. I have mad whiplash... I don't think I'm going back up." Score: 74.00
Top 10 Results After Run 1
1. Brett Rheeder: 89.66
2. Andreu Lacondeguy: 87.33
3. Ethan Nell: 86.33
4. Tom Van Steenbergen: 84.66
5. Thomas Genon: 78.66
6. Kyle Strait: 76.66
7. Kurt Sorge: 74.00
8. Brendan Fairclough: 67.66
9. Reed Boggs: 59.66
10. Remy Metailler: 54.66
Run Two
13:47: Vinnie T gets redemption on his second run, linking up multiple stepdowns, and adding in tricks that he wasn't able to get in on run 1.
13:52: Tyler McCaul gets the top-to-bottom run he was looking for, including his 'Triple Dipper' stepdown drop, which he says is the biggest he's ever hit. Score: 82.00
13:55: Once again, Carson Storch can't quite make the connection up to the ridge, and isn't able to complete his run. Expect to see him come back with a vengeance next year.
14:00: Szymon Godziek puts the pieces together on run two, with a line that included a massive 360 and a front flip to finish things off. "That was my biggest drop 360 ever." Score: 75.00
14:05: Semenuk's second run doesn't work as planned - he gets plenty of speed for the mid-run cork 720 this time, but ditches his bike midair when he realizes that he'd gone way too big.
14:11: Adolf Silva shows the world why he was invited to Red Bull Rampage, hitting two of the venue's biggest drops. His score didn't reflect just how gnarly his line was, but in his word, "It was a really good run for me...More than happy, made it to the bottom safe." Score: 64.33
14:20: Aggy puts in a full run, finishing with a freeride flick for good measure. Score: 52.00
14:22: Remy Metailler repeats his freeracer line from run 1, with a few little tweaks to better his first score. Score: 56.66
14:27: Reed Boggs crashes hard trying to stomp a backflip off the drop he did a suicide no-hander on first run, but gets right up, uninjured. Score: 34.00
14:33: Kyle Strait repeats his line from run 1, sprucing it up with more speed, a bigger extension on his suicide no-hander, and a Superman to finish things off. "The way you can build the drops here and stack up the landings has been really good. I had a great time, enjoyed it, smooth run." Score: 80.33
14:38: Thomas Genon adds in a flatspin 360 to his action-packed run, and finishes it off with a flip stepdown. Score: 83.33
14:47: Satisfied with a third place finish, Ethan Nell takes a 'cruiser' run down the course.
14:50: Lacondeguy was on a tear, but can't hold it together at the bottom of the course. Score: 50.33
Brett Rheeder is the 2018 Red Bull Rampage champion!
Rampage back to its roots but you have do slope tricks to win....WTF?
As a freestyle snowboard judge, it just kind of drives me nuts when people get so wound up with scores when all they are is a series of numbers that gives you a final ranking.
If the judges could give a score above 80 to everyone who sticks a run, I'm sure they would. Unfortunately they'd start to run out of space to properly rank riders really quickly if that was the case.
*Disclaimer: I understand that all those riders are in a separate dimension when it comes to skill, and by no means is any of that easy, and more gnar = more risk = more injury (I hope everyone will be fine!)... but still, this isn't Crankworx. This is RAMPAGE we're talkin about. Food for thought.
But wind is kicking up already. Sucks.
Rheeder
Lacon
Nell
Van Steenbergen
Genon
Strait
Sorge
Fairclough
Boggs
Remy
Aggy
Silva
Semenuk
Brandt
Godziek
Lunn
Vinnie T
McCaul
Storch
I will say this... the judging this year is way way better than in years passed. I think having these guys locked up in a room away from the fans really helps remove the emotional bumps as riders go by. You'd end up with a guy scoring 67 and 10 riders later a guy does the same run and scores 87.
Judging way better this year. I think a couple guys scored a bit lower than I personally would have scored them but all all. I'm a fan of the changes. Thanks Redbull for changing this up. Another year of good improvements.
Sad truth
11:21 “Fairclaw” gets f*cked in the ass. Royally.
11:30-14:50 A rabid mob shoving hats at riders who literally almost died.
11:30-14:50 “Can I have your goggles can I have your goggles can I have your goggles can I have your goggles?”
11:30-14:50 periodic poll asking me what rider I like. Luckily the were spaced out quite nicely and only showed up halfway through each riders run, forcing me physically click on and X out the poll. Otherwise I got poll free really really cool landscape shots.
12:47 super sick commercial telling me I should go “RVing”
13:47-14:50 couple more robberies. Classic.
14:50 “Can I have your goggles?”
Pretty cool rampage all things considered.
At the moment it is a glorified slopestyle contest.
In my opinion he had one of best and most interesting lines.
Real freeride, as this competition should be?!?!
Maybe not first place, but not last for shure!
Let all riders take their first run without receiving scores. Then take an intermission and let the judges rank them all together and release the scores once all the first runs are completed. The judges could compare all the runs on video, and get them stacked correctly. Give the riders 30 minutes after the scores are released to plan their second run. And then run the rest of the comp giving scores as they go. This would eliminate the need to "leave room" for higher scores. It doesnt seem so hard. Yes it would leave a larger time gap for shenanigans but it would be much more fair, and I doubt riders would disagree.
-Nico Vink
-Kyle Jameson
-KC Deane
-Josh Bender
-Gregg Watts
Who would you substitute?
1. Andreu
2. Brendog
3. TVS
(This isn’t a slope style event)
If you're going pure mountain then you can argue for Brendog and TVS but you'd have to eliminate Andreu from the top 3... maybe replace with TMac. You know... if that's what you're saying.
I think you underestimate what Rheeder road. He carried a lot of speed through much of his run and had some very technical sections. He did land 2 nearly perfect 3's in opposite direction so of course that will get factored in. And he also did a gnarly flat drop backflip.
If you want to eliminate tricks from the judging then you need to eliminate them completely from the competition. The reality is... it's a complete riding event and all things are judged.
I think everyone will agree that Brendog's score was low. Outside of that I don't think I agree with most folks. Rheeder deserved the win. There's a reason Nell didn't bother taking a real shot at him in his second run and Andreu upped his speed in his second run.
There will always be guys that folks thing "get robbed" but me personally... I think the riding, the event, the judging, all made big steps forward this year. I think it was a rad event.
Less manicured. More gnarly. Less Slopestyle at the bottom. Etc. What more do people want? Every single ride had 30/40/50/60/70 foot hits in their lines.... multiple hits in that range.
I really liked the fact this event didn't have a lot of wood this year.
Example being... this year... if you put wood on any of the top or middle hits you're going to carry WAY too much speed for whatever you have next. Guys were already having a hard time controlling speed between zones. Example... Syzmon... if he didn't bail out when he did he's probably dead. He was on his way to clearing the next ledge and he would have carried the bounce off the cliff. Put wood in there and it's way too dangerous.
Leave the wood for Slopestyle events where it's needed and warranted.
Yeah... I've watched Rheeders run 20 or 30 times at this point and it's a lot gnarlier than people realize. He's got some drops running into super loose areas and he does a roll in line that no one else was doing. Double drops. Sketch catch berms. Etc.
Except that with the new venue, slopestyle aspect seemed to be diminished relative to amount of big mountain riding IMO. Yeah, some of the guys were tricking features, but some of the sniper lines, chutes and gaps were sick AF. Worth watching.
Parents should be ashamed !
Brett: Oh yeah, you want a high five eh.
Kid: I want you goggle, gimme your goggle
Brett: I need a for my 2nd run lol.
As somebody else said: "rampage has lost his soul" and is now unfortunately just a giant slopestyle... Sad
But he strapped up for second run.
Maybe someone dying is good for ratings?
I missed him talking about his run, is he going to go up and try again or is he pulling out?
I was like “SHUT THE HECK UP!”
I'm gonna call that out. Casey has absolutly got the skills. lets not forget, its about how she would interpret the mountain for her line. it doesn't have to be full of 360's and 75ft drops to be a good Rampage line.
Plus, the female athlete level will never rise if they are not invited to join!!!
noun [ U ] UK /ɪnˈsæn.ə.ti/ US /ɪnˈsæn.ə.t̬i/
the condition of flat backflipping over crazy ass 55 f*cking feet drop
Godziek’s first run with nice drop, fu$£%ng backflip over 2 features almost (almost died on that miscalculation) and than even fromtfliping Jump got him lesser score than Semunuk’s cork crash on top and than doing nothing....
Same with Silva.
I find it hard to ask for a better group of judges:
-Nico Vink
-Kyle Jameson
-KC Deane
-Josh Bender
-Gregg Watts
Who would you substitute and why?
I think we need to remove the "amplitude and airtime" judging criteria. Amplitude and airtime are important for slopestyle, not necessarily for a freeride event like this. Zink's steep couloir last year was one of my favorite Rampage moments of all time.
Pick a line, sweep it off, send it and know the consequence. Thats rampage. Ask bender.
People with untrained eyes, no experience with the mountain bike world and it's history (90% of viewers) are going to be much more impressed by the slopestyle tricks because they don't know and/or cannot see how impressive the tech lines are on their tiny cell phones.
I have a suspicion that Red Bull encourages and maybe even insists on scoring higher for slopestyle type runs.
Think about it. The mountain bike community shares Brendog's run more than anything else, while all your friends who know you mountain bike send you the clips of the big flips or the big crashes.
P. S what happened to Jordie? Injury?
These trails are ridden and built by so so many people, including Steve Peat, Craig Evans, Josh Lewis and the 50to01 crew. If you've seen Wheel Love or Slice of British Pie you've seen these trails!
Please sign the petition to open a dialogue for the protection of this unique trail network.
www.change.org/p/forestry-commission-england-save-wharncliffe-mountain-bike-trails-ee354cb6-9acd-4a22-b986-d58066114526?recruiter=9902559&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=06c08fa5bef144a890b49ce0175cbb6d&utm_content=fht-13763121-en-gb%3Av6
Rheeder
Lacon
Nell
Van Steenbergen
Genon
Strait
Sorge
Fairclough
Boggs
Remy
Aggy
Silva
Semenuk
Brandt
Godziek
Lunn
Vinnie T
McCaul
Storch
Sorry didn’t bother watching! Your judges suck balls!
Besides that I hate slopestyle=rampage 2018
Fairclough should have been top 5 or even better
What a douchebag!
Even after the crash, he didn't close it for the rest of his run ...
Seriously, with all the kids watching, i would disqualify his ass into oblivion!
Also WTF is with Brendan’s score? A full year of slopestyle comps and every year someone wins rampage on a smooth run of big jumps and tricks. They’ve literally took the piss out of Brendan with the work he’s put in this year and the commentators made no comment on the fact that it was low. Either the judges or the criteria need tweeking if it’s meant to be a big mountain contest.
But hey, they made an augmented reality app... ????
You do a perfect run with a creative line and full of style... then get a shitty score handed to you... doesn’t give incentive to put your balls on the line again imho.