Photo Epic: Lighting the Fuse - Rampage 2019
Freeride's finest are back in the desert of Virgin, Utah for the 14th edition of Red Bull Rampage. We were welcomed to the site this morning to dust flying and the sound of axes, shovels, and rakes. The cliffs are even more monstrous in person than they appear on the live broadcast, looming far above the desert floor. The start hut is a tiny blip near the top of the mesa and the lines that run down from it seem impossible, with terrifyingly steep cliffs surrounding the gigantic drops and jumps. For most of us, these lines are impossible to ride.
But for the 17 riders who are embellishing the lines they cut into the hillside in 2018 and the four riders who are building completely new lines as they get to take their shovels to the new site for the first time, this is the ultimate test for their skills. Reece Wallace is returning to Rampage after a hiatus while Juan Salido, Bienve Aguado Alba, and Emil Johansson are getting a first taste of what it takes to build a Rampage line.
 | Finding a line was pretty damn tough. Pretty much all the obvious real estate's already taken so we have to be a little more creative and deek between other people's lines. So I'm coming far rider's left off the top where there's some untapped terrain. I've got a couple good features up there. And then below that, it's just weaving between other people's lines. I've teamed up with two other riders for one big drop so that's nice to share that one thing. Then the rest of my line is all fresh, building everything from scratch. I'm probably half or two-thirds done. Going to really give her for the next two days and then start to get some practice in. I'm ready to start riding. This is the hardest part for sure, building the line and trying to build stuff that complements my skillset and pushes me. |
Rampage 2019. You could say it's all downhill from here.
Even after all these years, this show doesn't get old.
Adult-sized playground.
Dusty and windy days here in the desert.
The diggers were already hard at it well before the sun crested the ridge.
Randy, you're blue!!
Shadow boxing in the desert.
First-time Rampage competitor and recent Joyride winner Emil Johannson putting in the work on the new line.
Swing axes for days. Diggers put in hard time to make these lines perfect.
The Sensus crew rakes out a massive landing mid-mountain.
Those landings are thirsty. Plenty of water gets lugged up the mountain.
Final tweaks are made before the first practice session goes down.
The Strait Acres crew putting in the shovel time.
Zink and Strait and their fleet of desert toys.
Landings as smooth as glass.
Loads of tune-ups and gap extension work going down on Brendan Fairclough's line this year.
| We're actually on the last feature of our line right here, souping up this last jump - making it quite considerably bigger actually. We've added some features at the top. We've added a big drop off, big hip, another big hip down at the bottom, and I've put a five-foot lip on the big canyon gap. That's to be continued. I'm going to jump it a few times and see how I feel. I've definitely got something in my head that I want to try but we'll see. I'm a bit of a chicken. I don't want to tell everyone what I've got in mind just in case I don't do it. We had big hopes of not doing any work, going to the coffee shop every day, chilling at the pool, but that hasn't really worked out that well. We've been flat out up until now and we've got at least another day's work to do. Definitely hoping Wednesday and Thursday will be a bit more chill and we can rest these lads and I can get on my bike a bit more than in previous years - obviously having our own unique line from top to bottom is pretty hard work, and we're the only team that's done it. We've had a lot of work to do. Coming to the end of it now. Going to get on my bike again. |
Some of the boys checking out their building progress.
Most of the digging is done. It is time to fly.
Let the battle commence...
Although it was only the first day that riders could take their bikes up the hill after four days building, we saw quite a few of the returning riders put down their tools and start testing the new features on their lines. Kurt Sorge, Tyler McCaul and Tom Van Steenbergen were some of the first riders to put rubber to dirt as they tried out a new drop into step-up combination near the bottom of the mountain early in the morning.
| It's always nice coming back the second year. Everyone's got a good foundation for their line so things are coming a lot quicker and you just feel better about it and hopefully get more time on the bike to practice. It's nice to have already hit the lines so you're not too worried. You know what you've got to do. I've changed a couple of the landings for the big drops, just making them way better. They're super blind. Fixed those up. Then there's one main feature that we didn't have time to finish last year so that one's getting a bit of a rebuild. Then just pimping out the rest. |
The most chilled rider on the hill, Kurt Sorge, was counter-intuitively one of the first riders to get wheels off the ground for Rampage 2019.
Three-time winner, Sorge, is more than ready to go on the hunt for victory number 4.
Tom Van Steenbergen ready to bring all kinds of fresh moves to his already intimidating line from 2018.
T-Mac ready to drop in some first hits.
Brandon Semenuk started tricking right off the bat this evening on the lower section of his line.
Brandon Semenuk. No hands into the sunset.
Kyle Strait testing a newly redesigned feature on his line.
Brett Rheeder and Andreu Lacondeguy are sharing the lower part of a line and they were definitely putting on the most impressive show in the first practice session.
841 isn't this guy's style ranking.
Some big moves from Lacondeguy in front of the setting sun.
Brett Rheeder was looking forward to putting tires to dirt after a week of digging.
Lacondeguy wasted no time going big in practice.
Rheeder pushes up for another run.
Brandon nearing the bottom of his line.
Andreu Lacondeguy with his signature flat spin 360.
Semenuk darkening the dirt on the huge kicker of the step down at the end of his line.
Brett Rheeder flipping out.
Vinny T in that last bit of evening light.
Signs of a good session.
Nell and Lacondeguy making some riding plans for tomorrow.
That's all for day one. We will see you tomorrow with more riding action from the desert.
Sunset and time to find the quickest way back to base.
Goodnight from the desert.
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2022: The game is so high that 40% of rampage contestants get injured.
2026: Rampage and Fest series type events are banned.
2065: Mountain biking is ruled to be too dangerous for humans by the High Council and deemed illegal
2195: Great War of Sapirathical destroys electronics and historical documents on earth
4065: Explorers unearth the old Rampage build sites, can't figure out what it is, or what purpose it served. The best guess they can come up with is...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AypOulCjmao
Spoiler alert “ slimmer bottled it “ !
Or maybe just STFU as you have no idea what your talking about and are just parroting back what 50% of other people are saying.
Also I'm not parroting other people, it's my view not copied from anyone else. So maybe grow up a little and stop using things like 'STFU'. Surprised you didn't write your response with emoji's!
Good lord. You might be an adult but you have the brain of a child.
Brendogs line was cool but let’s be honest his nowhere near the level Rheeder is at.
And also what’s with “slopestyle” having negative connotations on it, it’s way gnarlier then World Cup DH in DH the men legit ride the same course as the junior women.
And your comment on WC DH is just stupid. There's a massive speed difference between most the Juniors, Women and Men.
cant wait to watch everyone send it.