My road to Rampage started in Moab when I drunkenly arranged to become a stowaway in the Fox van. For more than six hours on the Monday before the event I stared out the window as the terrain changed like channels with scenes from “Indiana Jones” to the sand people from “Star Wars.” Each time the van braked, I expected to see a cartoon roadrunner being chased down by a coyote. I focused on being a good passenger, tried not to think about how much I had to pee and giggled quietly as we passed through Beaver, Utah.
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Scars and tattoos are often compared, however while tattoos are used to purposely decorate, commemorate or remind us why we don't drink tequila, scars are usually forced upon us. I got my first scar when I was eight, I went over the handle bars of my bike and landed on the jagged end of a stump. Your first scar in life gives you much freedom, like the first time you scratch the paint on a new bike or drop your $600 helmet, it's game on after that. Years later a friend's mom looked at me and exclaimed "Look at your legs! If you were my daughter you would be grounded!" If I had worried about preserving my legs my whole life, I would be boring as hell!
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This morning was reminiscent of Apocalypse Now as we drove along the rutted and beat down dirt road that winds into the canyon, the filming heli rose up from behind the ridge and ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ rattled in the back of our minds. The basecamp was quiet as racer awaited news about whether or not they would be heading into battle this morning; winds threatened to ruin the show as decisions that balanced risk and investment were made.
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The Oakely Sender has a life of its own at Red Bull Rampage, it is more than just a slopestyle-esque feature in a big mountain world, it is a labor of love for all of the many hands that have touched it since its inception. Born in 2010, the structure was originally the brainchild of Steve Blick and Todd Barber, the idea was sparked in an attempt to help Cedric Gracia with his run after his return to the event from an injury. On the way to the original construction Steve’s son, Tyler, went in the hospital, they would later find out that he had leukemia, and in an attempt to keep his spirits high, the original design took shape after his favourite movie, Indiana Jones. As Tylers’s illness continued, the Oakley Sender would become a project of solace for Steve, and a personal creative endeavor for many more.
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Thomas is a quiet and humble soul, the type of guy who makes you feel like you are yelling because he is so soft spoken. He is also the only rider to have placed in the top ten in every Rampage, but who is counting? He certainly isn’t. This will be his eighth Rampage, he will be running plate number eight and you will never guess what his lucky number is. The stars are aligning for Thomas this year. With practice cancelled, I found him doing nearly nothing on a rainy day in Utah.
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Red Bull Rampage is one of those opportunities you want to take advantage of and want to be a part of. For Kyle it has always been the style of riding that he enjoys the most, and a style that you do not get a lot of opportunities to do; flowing big lines and linking together things like big step-downs on this kind of terrain. The feeling of putting down a run and the excitement of just being around the event are what draws some of the athletes in. There are not a lot of riders in the big mountain scene, but it is a challenging area to grow with the venues being hard to access.
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| Photo: Margus Riga |
Darren Berrecloth has had a rough year. He rode the finals at the X-Games with a torn muscle in his arm that kept him off his bike until Crankworx, where he was injured again. Off his bike and out of the gym, his hips and joints began slipping and getting ‘out of whack’. He competed in his own event, The Berrecloth Invitational, back in August and post event he actively ignored his back pain until he simply couldn’t ride anymore. On his way to Rampage with Doerfling and Aggasiz, he stopped in Californaia for an MRI to find out that a blown disc, the same injury he had seven years ago, would keep him out of Rampage this year. Prognosis is a 100% recovery and Darren is focused on giving himself everyone opportunity to speed it up, including a healthy diet and quality time in a hyperbaric chamber. But regardless he is a spectator this weekend.
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Gully loves the internet and it took some heavy negotiating to have him give up his phone long enough to chat with me, but after some pensive glares he submitted and settled into his regular character; a quirky individual who ironically uses YOLO more than a drunk high school girl. The ensuing banter covered everything from his preference of giraffes over goats to his childhood spelling bee trauma that has lead to his refusal to spell the word pterodactyl.
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