Rampage

Today, I was able to drive down from Moab to outside of Hurricane to see the final round of Red Bull Rampage.  I was a bit pissy at first having to ride 4 miles from the parking lot to the event; then as I am riding along, the weather got progressively worse, and before even getting to see the venue people were leaving saying that they had called it off due to weather.

I pushed along as after driving and riding to see the event, I wanted at least to get a few pictures.  Security wasn't letting more people in to the venue, and was only able to capture the course from a far.  Then as I was trying to snap some photos of the competitors the batteries on the camera dies.  ARG!!!  Guess, I should have know that they only last about a week before needing changed.

The Rampage Course (boundary to boundary)

About to call it a day and ride back to the lot, there was noise in the competitors tent.  Seems that the guy they had there watching the weather indicated that this cell was going to pass.  They were going to wait about an hour before truly calling it.  Enduring about 30 minutes of sprinkles, wind and dust, the weather did blow through.  The helicopters finally fired up, and started shuttling the riders back up to the top of the hill.

I stood there for over a hour watching the contestants drop off huge cliffs, jump insane distances and endure horrific crashes.  All of this was incredible to watch in person as the pictures and videos just don't show how truly dangerous/insane/crazy the stuff these guys are doing really is.  Not sure if it is huge balls or lack of brain matter that allows these guys to do this type of riding/competition, but they are amazing in how they can pull off those moves, and ride those lines.


The following video was the best one I found around, and best illustrates the 50ft chasm jump, the tricks these guys were doing during flight, and how bad some of the wipe outs were.  Hope you enjoy.