Red Bull Rampage

jairaj

Red Bull Rampage is on this weekend. Any one watching / excited / couldn't care less ... ?

http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Rampage-2012/001243254072497

cooldad

jairaj wrote:

Red Bull Rampage is on this weekend. couldn't care less ... ?

rockmonkeysc

Doesn't apeal as much this year. I don't see the point of having a freeride contest on a mountain and building loads of woodwork instead of using the natural lines.

ThePriory1978

I'm well looking forward to catching the footage, PinkBike highlights and crashes etc. Cant wait to see what the big-name-riders gunna do on the new Sender and the Canyon gap still makes my hands sweaty at the thought of it. Awesome riding.

jairaj

I agree with you on the doesn't need man made jumps bit. Last time, I thought Gee's run was the best, the one where he didn't do any tricks, just good old fashioned awesome riding at flat out speeds down a big mountain.

But I'm hoping there is still enough natural line riding and the slope style part doesn't dilute it too much

rockmonkeysc

Big mountain freeride should be all about finding the lines to make the most of the hill not just riding big wooden jumps. They have turned it in to an oversize slope style course. On the positive side, Sam Pilgrim should do well.

Northwind

Going to watch it anyway, last one was fantastic to watch live. But on the fence about all the woodwork, looks like too much to me but we'll see.

VWsurfbum

anyone know timings? i cant work out US timings?

jairaj

Its 9pm CET which I think means Central European Time. So about 8pm UK time.

bennett_346

Should be good. Waiting for someone to 360 the big gap. Shame about no Gee or Cedric though.

peter413

I thought Gee is there this year? Definitely a shame not to have Cedric there though.

I'm excited about it, I actually recognise more than 2 or 3 of the names this time and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what some of the racers other than Gee do, shame Basagoitia is out, that double back flip sounded good. Actually TBH I'm excited to see what all the riders can do.

I personally don't care that the wooden features are being built, it isn't exactly making it any easier in my opinion and if riders don't want to do them there are other lines down. Ok, it isn't what the original Rampage was about but sports evolve, DH wasn't about such big jumps back in the day was it (maybe it was but it doesn't look like it to me) but now it's mandatory really to be good at them. If the course never changed then it would become a bit of a Fort William, brilliant track but gets a bit old going back there year after year and some riders say the only thing that keeps them going back there is the crowd, Rampage doesn't exactly have the same crowd as Fort William does.

bennett_346

"Not out, but it's not looking good. Gee Atherton tweaked his ankle more than a fair bit off of a self-described 'easy step-down'--reportedly the easiest move on his line."

Doubt very much he'll compete, his whole ankles strapped up to buggery and he has a crutch.

peter413

Ah that's a shame, have to wait until Sunday though, these guys are pretty determined to ride when they want too and since there's no world cups for I think 9 months he might decide to take more risks than he normally would.

Northwind

RockmonkeySC wrote:

On the positive side, Sam Pilgrim should do well.

Not so much.

felix.london

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Doesn't apeal as much this year. I don't see the point of having a freeride contest on a mountain and building loads of woodwork instead of using the natural lines.

This ^ and...

jairaj wrote:

Last time, I thought Gee's run was the best, the one where he didn't do any tricks, just good old fashioned awesome riding at flat out speeds down a big mountain

this ^

Will be a good watch either way but def prefer the natural sh1t to the slope style flavour

BlueAdvocate

There were some good rides that ignored the flow lines and the woodwork (can't be completely avoided); the judges seemed to prefer these. Main thing was to hit some real natural stuff high up, some insane drops up there.

VWsurfbum

the scoring system was crap, Sorge was good, but not thats good to win by those margins!
Entertaining, but not as good as 2010

jairaj

I didn't really understand how they were scoring things but I think they were giving more points for riding natural lines. It was good to watch some talented riders going down some crazy terrain. Shame Gee didn't make it to the finals, I still think the run he did last year was amazing would've loved to see him take it one step further.

boristhespie

Personally while this stuff is diverting it aint sport. It's pissing about.

For me there has been too much a move towards gravity coverage of mountian biking. Again, diverting but it has come at the cost of real all round cross country. For me that's the real mountain biking. Up and down and spinning around.

Even Tim Gould winning the UPHILL world title has more to to with sport than any of these BMX seeded piss abouts.

That is just my humble opinion.

boristhespie

"Wee wee abouts"

Don't you just love autocorrect?

RevellRider

Oh no, one of the commuters has escaped from the playpen!

I didn't watch it, but I did see Cam Zinks big crash where he came down on his heels

Northwind

boristhespie wrote:

Personally while this stuff is diverting it aint sport. It's pissing about.

Not a proper sport like darts, anyway. Or whatever it is roadies like- syncronised leg shaving?

welshkev

Yeah, I often wee wee about on 50ft drops and 40ft gap jumps :roll:

felix.london

boristhespie wrote:

Personally while this stuff is diverting it aint sport. It's pissing about.

For me there has been too much a move towards gravity coverage of mountian biking. Again, diverting but it has come at the cost of real all round cross country. For me that's the real mountain biking. Up and down and spinning around.

Even Tim Gould winning the UPHILL world title has more to to with sport than any of these BMX seeded wee-wee abouts.

That is just my humble opinion.

Mountain bikers riding down mountains...who would have thunk it :?

boristhespie

Lol, predictable responses in all ways. Sorry, pointing downhill after being uplifted is aint sport as such. It's fun, don't get me wrong but it aint all round skills or fitness. Rampage is pissing about.

I like how anyone who talks in favour of cross country (not necessary racing mind) and enduro as the real sport side of mountainn biking is automatically dismissed as a "roadie".

1/ never been a roadie,but who cares, I love watching Paris Roubaix an le Tour etc'.

2/ that aint an insult to me as a cycling fan (who does enjoy rampage for 10 minutes before yawning)

3/ has been mountain biking since early 80's and riding the mountains in the Highlands in all weathers since before you stopped playing with the pish in yer nappies.

I'll say it again. Rampage is diverting for 5-10 minutes but it is still bmx influenced pissing about. Downhills are fantastic but only if you paid the price to get there by your own cycling means.

Sorry, just an opinion of a "roadie". Larf .

; )

peter413

You do realise riders push to the top at Rampage I don't know how you can say Rampage is at all influenced by BMX, you try doing the little jumps at Rampage on a BMX and you might just die.

You've obviously never tried proper DH, you definitely need a lot of skills and fitness, it's maybe a different kind of fitness to XC fitness but it's fitness none the less, especially when you are racing.

EH_Rob

Sorry, but whether you've been riding since before the mountain/wheel etc was invented or not, you're talking complete rubbish. It isn't meant to be about 'all round skills or fitness', it's freeride for gods sake. I presume your dim opinion of how unfit and rubbish you need to be to do this comes from the vast catalogue of experience you have gained riding those sort of lines.

It's a totally different discipline to XC and Enduro, if you don't enjoy it fine, but don't use that as justification that the one you do enjoy is somehow more valid. That's the mark of an idiot.

warpcow

It's a bit like saying diving isn't 'proper' 'swimming', just because both happen to involve a pool. Two different sports, who cares whether one is more 'pure' than another.

Anyway, someone mentioned Zink's bail (helmet-cam footage):
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=426948390686283

welshkev

boristhespie wrote:

Lol, predictable responses in all ways. Sorry, pointing downhill after being uplifted is aint sport as such. It's fun, don't get me wrong but it aint all round skills or fitness. Rampage is pissing about.

I like how anyone who talks in favour of cross country (not necessary racing mind) and enduro as the real sport side of mountainn biking is automatically dismissed as a "roadie".

1/ never been a roadie,but who cares, I love watching Paris Roubaix an le Tour etc'.

2/ that aint an insult to me as a cycling fan (who does enjoy rampage for 10 minutes before yawning)

3/ has been mountain biking since early 80's and riding the mountains in the Highlands in all weathers since before you stopped playing with the pish in yer nappies.

I'll say it again. Rampage is diverting for 5-10 minutes but it is still bmx influenced pissing about. Downhills are fantastic but only if you paid the price to get there by your own cycling means.

Sorry, just an opinion of a "roadie". Larf .

; )

wow..you're awesome..and old by the sound of it, sorry i wasn't riding whilst still in my mums womb :roll:

i own a road bike, i even ride it now and again. i went to watch le tour and the tour of britain. i ride my mountain bike, i sometimes even get lifts to the top to ride back down again. i've done a 50km ride this year, i've also sessioned 100m of DH track with push up inbetween and ridden BMX tracks....i've also been riding since i was 14 on and off and i'm 35 now...if you don't enjoy rampage then fair enough, but to say that XC is 'better',which is effectively what you are saying, is just a joke...hills are only good if you get there by your own means? really so DH mountain biking isn't a sport?

i have a lot of respect for xc riders and a guy who rides for our club is an endurance specialist..but come on....are you trolling?

surely we're not going to have this argument again? :roll:

jairaj

boristhespie wrote:

... Sorry, pointing downhill after being uplifted is aint sport as such. It's fun, don't get me wrong but it aint all round skills or fitness. Rampage is pissing about. ...

Very few sports are "all round skills or fitness" if that's how you define a sport then there are very few of them in the world. The Olympics would have been over very quickly.

Fair enough if you want to think Rampage isn't a sport, that's your opinion which you are more than entitled to.

But the overwhelming majority of the riders are in very good shape and train hard and take their sport seriously. You need some serious skills and good amount of fitness to do the kind of riding they do.

Yes a XC racer will beat a rampage rider up a hill but that's because its a different discipline. The same way the XC racer would be rubbish in the velodrome in a sprint.

The same goes for BMX riding. Do you actually know any one who does BMX riding seriously? The few people I know are in very good shape and train hard to become good, from gym work, XC rides and "having fun" on their BMX bikes. Are you basing your view based upon the kidz at the skate park? If so I don't think they are a fair representation of people who really take it seriously and want to become good at their sport.

felix.london

Hopefully they'll ditch the Alpine Skiing and snowboarding Events at the next Olympics too in favour of the Nordic XC & Biathlon events. Pff, who wants to see the best in the world getting a lift to the top of a mountain and coming down at speeds the rest of aren't allowed to do in our cars...sounds well boring