The Red Bull Rampage is the most impressive mountain bike competition in the world. Every year, the best freeride riders in the world gather in Utah and ride dizzying lines on the ochre mountains of this remote corner of the United States.
Each season, the Red Bull Rampage traditionally closes the year of mountain biking competition in the northern hemisphere. On October 15th, the best of the best in the world of freeride mountain biking will be in Utah, 21 years after the first edition. This competition is the most prestigious in the world and certainly the most dangerous. The first edition took place in 2001, at a time when bikes were far from being able to handle the rocky jumps that the riders inflicted on their machines. However, these pioneers wrote a page in the history of mountain biking in the early 2000's, while pushing manufacturers to develop two-wheelers capable of better handling these ultra-hilly terrains.
15 editions have taken place since the first one in 2001. Today, the event has grown considerably and the public masses around the ochre-colored spot, lost in the mountains of Utah. On site, riders are invited well before the final to come and draw their line. This is the particularity of this competition which implies to take shovels and picks to be able to ride on these mountains. Each rider invites two shapers (those who build the track). The three of them will decide which line to choose, which jumps to build and which landings to smooth out.
In Utah, the soil is perfect to work with because there are few rocks when you start digging. All that remains is to mix it with water to compact it as well as possible and make a clean line from top to bottom. As the line is built, the rider can test a jump or a technical passage (video below of the training sessions during the last edition). Once the line is finished, he can then start riding it in its entirety knowing that each line lasts about a minute.
If some riders prefer to ride straight down the slope and get to the bottom as fast as possible, others prefer to do big jumps that allow them to do a lot of tricks. Because even if the competitors go down with bikes with oversized suspensions, this does not prevent them from sending tricks such as a front flip and other can-can backflip. This has been the trend in recent years and it is now impossible to win the Rampage without performing at least two or three tricks on the line.
On the day of the final (broadcast live by Red Bull, which organizes the event), each rider has the right to two runs. At the bottom, the judges have access to all the possible slow-motion clips to score each run. Risk taking, line and trick difficulty, speed and style are all criteria that count towards the final score. The reference in this field is Brandon Semenuk. This Canadian has already won the event four times and perfectly combines style, technique and speed (see his winning run from 2021 below).
If the danger is great on the Red Bull Rampage, the security is omnipresent on the site with several rescue teams spread out in the mountain to be as close as possible to a competitor when he falls. Crashes are numerous and if several riders have already finished their stay in Utah in one of the local hospitals (like Tom van Steenbergen, victim of several broken hips, femur and vertebrae in 2021), all of them are back on the bike after a more or less long convalescence depending on the injuries.
Finally, if the event is mainly for North American riders (Americans and Canadians are always the most numerous among the twenty or so competitors invited each year), the French have always been present on the Rampage. Cédric Gracia is one of the pioneers and won the event at the third edition in 2003. Other French riders such as Antoine Bizet (twice second), Rémy Métailler (three participations) or Vincent Tupin (four participations) have also allowed the French flag to fly on the Utah spot. It now remains to be seen who will win the 16th edition. This year, Brandon Semenuk is in the running for a third consecutive victory and to mark the history of his sport.
