Not sure about the environmental impact though with smashing the rock faces and smoothing off pinnacles etc.
Presumably they (Red Bull) have permissions from the relevant state authorities etc.?
I'm currently in southern Utah on holiday - I was in Virgin the other day and went to the Rampage staging area (though not to the event area) as I was camped literally less than a mile away.
There are literally millions of acres of land like this. When you first arrive, the red rock and massive cliffs and weird landscapes seem novel and unique but when you drive for HOURS and see the same type of rock formations all over, then you'd appreciate that such man made alterations aren't even worth thinking about. Also, any reasonable storm system re-shapes the soft rock fairly quickly.
The Rampage site(s) are on BLM* land, so Federal rather than State owned. And the BLM are responsible for licensing oil and gas exploration, mining and that type of industry on their lands so unlikely to be the slightest bit bothered by some minor landscaping by mountain bikers.
* Bureau of Land Management
Top tip: of all the land management agencies in the US, the BLM seem the most "user friendly" meaning it's easier to get trails built AND you can wild camp for free in a lot of places
That’s a win!<br /><br />
I guess it’s slightly better than death !
Maybe the plan all along is to rebuild him out of Atherton bike tubes and lugs ?
That other insta of Brendan doing the gap jump worried me too. He was wearing full race kit. That just shows the sponsor pressure is already on, and actually a good crash would be good for publicity
Most other extreme sports all the prep is done off camera and only the main event do they get suited and booted etc.
You could see the terror in his dig crew mates as he approached it and the absolute relief when he got over
No, he's wearing full race kit because he's a professional, and knows this video, and his sponsors, will get a lot of exposure.
That’s my point useless. In most other high risk sports , the first drop, testing etc is done off camera with no pressure
This just shows the pressure from sponsors, and almost the pressure that failure is worth more to the sponsor than success
Gee has had the most expose so far than any other competitor based on the fact he got injured, he’s almost making a career of it
Decent crash from Bienvenido Aguado too… overshooting his big gap.
I'm sorry, it's not. Is IOM TT practice filmed? Of course it is, most first hits are filmed in any sport, if nothing else, when it goes wrong, you can work out why. And as for pressure from sponsors, it's his job, and ultimately his choice. You know he can quit rampage and lead a quiet life in Surrey making silly videos with Olly any time right.
It's not like there's a big camera crew there's right now on the hill filming, it's camera phones and the like. Also if i built stuff like that you can be damn sure I'd have someone filming every time. Imagine you ride it and then get hurt on something else. I'd want to be able to show my mates (and at their scale the wider audience) the crazy shit I'd done...
I’d want to be able to show my mates (and at their scale the wider audience) the crazy shit I’d done…
That’s the root of the problem isn’t it?
Ride for ourselves, not to show off to someone else.
Ride for ourselves, not to show off to someone else.
Everyone's different though eh,. Some people get a kick out of performing in front of, or for, others. FWIW I'm not one of them, and I'm not really good at anything so would probably be a bit sad if I was...
That’s the root of the problem isn’t it?
Problem ? It's not a problem.
Since the begining of time of man, we've always wanted to show off
"look dear i caught a brontosaurus"
"lads, i made fire"
"Look, i invented electricity"
"ooooh here's a bath full of water, look what happens....."
etc etc... It's how society learns, grows etc.
Decent crash from Bienvenido Aguado too… overshooting his big gap.
He's still hoping to manage a full top to bottom in practise too. Are these guys made out of something more malleable than the rest of us?
Are these guys made out of something more malleable than the rest of us?
Do you work for YT? 😆
In most other high risk sports , the first drop, testing etc is done off camera with no pressure
It's not though is it? It's 2023. People film themselves getting out of bed in the motel and driving to the venue. Absolutely no way you wouldn't film the first hit on a bit feature.
Absolutely no way you wouldn’t film the first hit on a bit feature.
Especially in ski/snowboard freeride vids. Banger trick into an untouched powder landing = gold.
FunkyDunc
This just shows the pressure from sponsors,
Brendan, like most of these guys, makes a lot of his money from social media, and he's posting this stuff for his own benefit, on his own channels that he monetises for himself. This kind of content is gold for him, no way he hit stuff without sharing, and if he crashes, he still shares it because it gets just as many views, maybe more
Christ, Brendan even posted a vid of himself after a crash at a world cup, off his tits on pain meds😁
That's nuts, hope he gets the score for it.
It's even more nuts that he's not the one doing it, and they both have ridden it now too -
Damn, looks like it’s going to be too windy to ride all day today. Which means lots of lost practice. Tomorrow is looking the the wind should stay down all day, but there’s going to be a lot of people who haven’t had as much practice as they’d like stringing features together. Wonder if they’ll push it to Saturday to add in practice tomorrow?
Damn, looks like it’s going to be too windy to ride all day today. Which means lots of lost practice. Tomorrow is looking the the wind should stay down all day, but there’s going to be a lot of people who haven’t had as much practice as they’d like stringing features together. Wonder if they’ll push it to Saturday to add in practice tomorrow?
That's a pity, spose pushing it runs the risk that it ends up being windy on Saturday and then they have to push it to Sunday.
The wider shot made that look almost tame, then the rider shot made me almost sprain my arsehole with clenching.
Genuinely made me laugh.
they should do it over a week, so theres a good day to do it with no wind.
Otherwise its a waste of time
Gee is out and about and wandering around Rampage!
Good to see, but either the injuries are 'relatively' minor as he said, he's stubborn as hell, or he's just nails.
Suspect it's more of the last two than the first.
Wonder if they’ll push it to Saturday to add in practice tomorrow?
As luck would have it, there's a solar eclipse on Saturday which affects a huge swathe of the mid west, including the Rampage site.
https://stateparks.utah.gov/activities/dark-sky/annular-solar-eclipse-october-14-2023/
So, what lights for sixty foot drops off cliffs?
Watched Ben Deakins latest vid last night, the whole vid was full of stuff that was nuts, the exposure looked nuts at the top
I give up trying to get this forum to work!
Brendan only just making it on to the top feature. On this vid the exposure looks non existent compared to Ben’s
Watching that video what scared me more than watching brendog doing the canyon gap was when he was running in and stopping on the take off. That video also does a good job of showing all the camaraderie between riders and diggers.
It's all just bloody amazing isn't it... i mean like REALLY incredible how they do it.
You start looking at some of the features and thinking "meh, it's not that big" later in the video but the reality is, even they are HUGE !!!! you can count the seconds they're in the air for.... you should never be able to count for that long in terms of flight 😀 😀
Got a huge soft spot for the Brendog team. Genuinely goosebumped when he landed the canyon and Ben and Ollie explode with relief and excitement 😊👌🙏🤘👍
So good to see the camaraderie such an extreme event brings. So bad to see any injuries so let's hope they're done with.
Got a huge soft spot for the Brendog team. Genuinely goosebumped when he landed the canyon and Ben and Ollie explode with relief and excitement
Absolutely. 🙂
Last time we were in DMR HQ for the day we were chatting with Mark the main man and he introduced Ollie as the 'tea boy', obviously i knew who he was but Mrs Weeksy was looking confused and was tempted to ask for a tea i think 😀 😀
I did explain who he was when i got a chance.
For some reason we always end up parked near Deaks at races in FoD and have a bit of a chat and banter as we're often at the top together with not many other adults if i'm racing too. But he always comes over as friendly, polite and just really enjoying himself. So seeing the bunch of them clearly having fun and a proper proper group spirit is absolutely brilliant.
I think I got more nervous when Brendan was testing the run up and warming up for the jump by pulling up short on the ramp. It would have only taken a brake fail or a bit of a slide to just plop over the edge into oblivion.😳
Gee back on site...
It's honestly just mind-blowing, that feature.
So, what lights for sixty foot drops off cliffs?
Magicshine 12,000 - "hold my beer"
LET’S GO!
i've had the countdown timer on TV since 1hr22 to go.... Mostly because we've lost the Amazon Firestick remote and i've now configured it to my phone as a remote and i don't want to drop the connection, so just leaving it running now 😀
Has it started yet? I'm still getting the countdown screen.
No. Due at 16.15
There's a player embedded in the Pinkbike homepage, in case anyone's looking for an easy way to view.
Just the intro guff at the moment, riding scheduled for 5pm apparently.
Yes but the first rider isn’t due to go til 5pm Uk time
Slightly disappointed they didn't call him Brendan Fairclaw this year.
Also live on YouTube:
And another vid from Brendog to kill 20 minutes while we wait:
Have to admit, that live drone footage looks amazing. It makes the stuff from the world cup look like it was filmed on a Nintendo Gameboy.
Go Dog!!!!!
What a run
Nervous whether he'd make it down safely but clean run...top lad!
That ridgeline at the top, skidding up to the edge… I was shitting myself! Unbelievable
That was stunning
Hope Adolf (!) gets a clean run next time.
Strait’s big drop was HUGE!
That was ridiculous!
BVA. Omg.
If that’s completed in time, that’s got to be up there for the win
Guess not enough going on at the top. Will see if they score DJ higher due to spinning everything right from the off.
The filming is soooo much better this year.
What did the Spanish guy score?
High 70s.79?
Probably cos he stopped. He was more than happy with it anyway 😁
Bienve should be sitting in 1st place with that run. Did they penalise him for deliberately exiting his bicycle?
Also, I'd never agree to riding with a microphone on. All my sponsors would drop me if they heard what comes out of my mouth when I'm scared.
Has Gullevich had plastic surgery recently? Eyes are looking a bit mental. Reminds me of Limmy.
Has Gullevich had plastic surgery recently? Eyes are looking a bit mental. Reminds me of Limmy.
I thought it was drag make up!
Sorge always makes it look so much easier- not that dramatic a run but he looks so chilled up top, just makes it look it like it's the local dirt jumps, and barely even seems out of breath at the bottom.
I feel quite nervous watching a lot of this... quite glad when they get to that bottom bit.
I can't picture what this bloke is about to do... it looks insane
...big build up and then made it look simple 🤯
Wtf? BVA and Brendog robbed!
89.00! I wasn't seeing that.
I thought 84.
Judging on point as usual
Brendog getting robbed again 🙄
