To be honest, after last year's event (which you can read about below), I told myself, “You don’t need to watch Red Bull Rampage anymore.” There were too many controversies over who should win.
This year, I’m back in Switzerland for the time being, so I had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to watch the women ride down the mountain, which I cannot imagine doing—not in this life, and not in the next. Although I later found out it wasn’t live (discovered after the "live event" ended, when Robin Goomes already posted on Instagram that she had won the first-ever women’s Red Bull Rampage, about three hours earlier), I still got up to see it. I think it’s amazing to give the women this platform—it was long overdue. I was also thrilled to hear they won the same amount of prize money as the men!
Congrats to all the women competing in this event! You are all winners!
I can’t say too much about the judging here; it seemed fine to me. Nothing stood out as unfair or incomprehensible in terms of why one rider scored more or less than another.
Unfortunately, the first-ever women’s event didn’t get the attention it deserved, which, in my opinion, is a shame.
Thank you, judges!
I also watched the men’s event and thought they’d learned “a thing or two” (the phrase I heard most from the commentators).
I watched the women’s event twice, as the wind was too strong for them to start initially. It worked out well, though, because my girlfriend, who didn’t wake up so early, could watch it too!
I really loved when we got lectured before the first rider went down, reminding us of last year’s event and telling us we didn’t understand what it was all about. They even showed us last year’s runs again, explaining the difference between 1st and 8th place. Like many, I still didn’t understand. Guess we’re just not smart enough!
The words they used to justify the rankings between two riders could be used today, too. Why didn’t they apply the same logic this year?
It seems like only five people truly know what Red Bull Rampage is all about—the judges, who have a combined 15 Rampage events under their belts as former riders. But it seems they aren’t progressing with the sport, or maybe they are, but with another agenda.
As for the runs, they were beautiful to watch!
Brendan Semenuk was the first down the mountain, and his run looked almost perfect until he crashed near the bottom. Adolf Silva—so glad you didn’t crash and took the lead! Unfortunately, Thomas Genon had a wild ride, but even his crash was so smooth! Kurt Sorge—have you ever left? He pushed into first place. Tyler McCaul set the benchmark with his insane run, only to be outdone by Szymon Godziek, whose run I believe truly embodied freeride mountain biking.
Brendan Fairclough—you do everything “wrong,” making your run look too easy. Even though we all know no other rider could do your line, you barely get any points! Speechless. The crowd went wild, booing at how low his score was.
We all know only the judges really understand what’s going on, right? Even they couldn’t fully explain why he got such a low score!
Waiting, waiting—the wind, as always, is the only constant factor in the event.
Looking at the list of riders for the second run, of course, no surprise—Brendan Semenuk is on it. I knew I could turn off the TV and go to bed, certain that he would win.
Don’t get me wrong—he’s on another level. Is it freeriding? Well, for a freeride event, not so much. Are his tricks insane? Absolutely. But should they win a freeride competition? Apparently, yes. Once again, weird judging—how do they decide this?
Well, we’ll find out next year when they explain it to us again: “Only five people know what it’s really about!” I thought especially Josh Bender would understand freeriding. But if they judged it the way they do today, his famous drop would just be labeled “a bag of potatoes falling off a cliff.” I’m sure he’d be furious if they called it that. I really wonder how they judge these days.
The sad part is, do you remember the women riding down the mountain for the first time? It was just insane! But thanks to the judging, that’s not what we’re talking about.
Photos: Red Bull Bike
Words: Mesum Verma
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