2012 Red Bull Rampage

Back in 2001, the Red Bull Rampage concept was conceived to serve one of the fringes of the blossoming mountain-bike movement. There were riders — courageous, driven and a little crazy — who were at once exploring new terrain, testing their own limitations and defining a new genre of the sport, and their riding style was not represented at all in competition. Freeride mountain biking was rapidly evolving with every insane drop and first descent, and Red Bull Rampage was on board to help push it even harder.

The inaugural event was a landmark in the sport’s history and was followed by three more through 2004. If you won Red Bull Rampage — or even survived the weekend with all your bones intact — your reputation as a bad ass on two wheels was unassailable. Unlike events with a defined course and familiar obstacles, Red Bull Rampage let the riders determine their own route down treacherous cliffs; the more creative and risky the line, the better the score.

After 2004, the event went on hiatus, but the memories — and the reputation — grew in scale. The mountain-bike contest scene did evolve to address the changes in the sport, but in general it still lagged behind what the most progressive riders were capable of. As contest riders began to get pigeonholed into separate disciplines — downhill, slopestyle, dirt jumping — it was the freeride ethos that leveled the playing field. You needed skills in every aspect to survive a true freeride run, and the time came once again to prove who had the balls to get it done.

Red Bull Rampage made its return in 2008 with yet another epic gathering of the best mountain bike riders in the world. Anyone who believed the sport couldn’t progress further would have eaten their words on that dusty ridge near Virgin, Utah. Man-made “enhancements” graced the venue for the first time, but the main objective remained: find the most challenging lines down the mountain and ride them with style. Regardless of their background, the riders were all equal at the top of the mountain; equal in the challenge they faced to get to the bottom of it.

The next event was held in 2010, punctuated by Cameron Zink’s jaw-dropping 360 off a 40-foot drop. Every time Red Bull Rampage takes place, individuals push themselves like never before, collectively progressing the sport to a new level. The time has come again: On October 5-7, 2012, mountain biking’s best will return to southern Utah to climb the next — or the next few — rungs of the ladder.
Athlete selection criteria has been announced, and the aim has been to collect the best of the best, the top riders in many disciplines who own the skills to survive in the desert.

Zink and Brandon Semenuk, the 2010 and 2008 champions, will automatically be placed into the October 7 final. The top 12 finalists from 2010 are pre-qualified, excused from competing in the October 5th qualifying battle. Invites to the qualifier will go out to the top 12 ranked riders from the FMB World Tour, as well as the top two finishers at the Chatel Mountain Style in France in July. Red Bull Rampage serves as the final stop on the 2012 FMB World Tour.

Clear some space on your calendar on October 7, 2012 to view the Live Webcast. All the best action from Red Bull Rampage will be on NBC as part of the Red Bull Signature Series on Saturday, December 8 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET

Mike Kinrade, who has attended every Red Bull Rampage event -- including the first in 2001 -- talks about how the event has evolved and about what competing in it means to him now in 2012. Mike will take part in the Qualifier on Friday, October 5, hoping to earn one of the 12 coveted transfer spots into the October 7 Final.

Kyle Norbraten's gamble on a 360 high on the course in the Red Bull Rampage 2012 Qualifier pays off big-time, earning him a coveted spot in the Final.

Listen as James Doerfling walks us through his run at the Red Bull Rampage Qualifier. Doerfling finished in second, earning a solid spot in the stacked Final with 23 of the world's best freeride mountain bikers.

Cam McCaul topped the list of athletes who battled in the Red Bull Rampage 2012 Qualifier today, delivering a clean, hard-charging run from top to bottom. McCaul was the only rider in the Qualifier to launch over the 60-foot canyon gap, serving notice that he's serious about his bid for the Red Bull Rampage title.

All the gnarliest runs, jumps, drops and spills from Friday's intense round of qualifying at Red Bull Rampage 2012 in Virgin, Utah. Cameron McCaul, James Doerfling and Kyle Norbraten topped the list of 12 qualifying riders who will move on to meet the pre-qualified riders in the final round on Sunday.

Darren Berrecloth was nice enough to take a GoPro camera along for the ride as he practiced a portion of the line he'll be doing during the Red Bull Rampage Finals.

Kurt Sorge explains the vision and the effort that goes into creating a unique line at Red Bull Rampage, a contest like no other. Sorge, who was pre-qualified into the 2012 Final on the strength of his top-ten finish at the last Red Bull Rampage in 2010, will see how his line stacks up against his competitors on Sunday.

How do you judge a mountain bike contest where the competitors create their own course? Red Bull Rampage 2012 judge Chris Lawrence explains the criteria that the team of judges is looking for, pointing out that it’s the rider who creates the most comprehensive run with the best use of the mountain terrain who will ultimately impress them the most.

Check out Kurt Sorge's winning run from the Red Bull Rampage 2012 Final, pulled directly from the webcast. Sorge was already sitting in first after run one, but instead of being satisfied with that he went all in on run two to tighten his grip on the first-place trophy.

Red Bull Rampage 2012 continued the unique tradition of the world’s premier big-mountain event, bringing progressive moves and creative line selection to a world-renowned venue in southwestern Utah and pushing the evolution of what riders believe is possible.

Canada’s Kurt Sorge topped an already impressive first run -- one that put him in the lead -- with a second run that pushed him even further ahead, destroying any doubt that the 2012 title belonged to him. A confident approach to the upper section of his line (with a no-handed drop high on the course), a big drop before a shot through the Oakley Icon Sender and a superman jump and backflip step-down all combined to make Sorge’s run tops for the day.

France’s Antoine Bizet ran into trouble early in his first run but still managed to rile up the crowd as he casually made his way down to them, which only increased everyone’s anticipation for his second attempt. He scored redemption then with a hard and fast line in the upper section of the course which included a quick backflip in tight quarters, following with a big flip over the jump after the Oakley Icon Sender. As a result, Bizet rocketed into second place in his rookie Red Bull Rampage appearance.

St. George, Utah local Logan Binggeli (pictured above) landed on the podium in third with traversing lines across the upper canyon, huge flips and a launch into the quarterpipe/wallride. Spain’s Andreu Lacondeguy earned his second consecutive fourth-place finish at Red Bull Rampage, and Tyler McCaul rounded out the top five with a fast line peppered with multiple burly drops.

Other highlights included Kyle Norbraten’s back-to-back 360 drops, Kyle Strait’s inverts over drop sections, Nico Vink’s solid style throughout his runs, and Cameron McCaul’s step-down flip near the end of his run, which earned him the Utah Sports Commission’s Best Trick Award. Event favorites Brandon Semenuk and Darren Berrecloth had ambitious plans for their runs, with each landing the more dangerous sections (Semenuk’s wild transfer drop and Berrecloth’s near-vertical routes) only to suffer from minor missteps later in their runs that hurt their scores. Semenuk was able to take solace in the fact that he still earned the year-end FMB World Tour title, however.

Unfortunately, injuries kept several riders out of the Finals, as Red Bull Rampage 2010 winner Cam Zink and second-place finisher Gee Atherton were both forced to withdraw after crashes during Saturday's practice session. Casey Groves pulled out after a last-minute practice crash on Sunday morning, and Brendan Fairclough, a first-timer at the event who was lighting the course up in the week leading up the event and built a huge canyon gap to launch in the Finals, decided to sit out after a crash in the Qualifier on Friday.

With many of the competitors arriving on site with larger build crews than ever before, new routes and features were brought into the mix, a trend that is sure to continue. The evolution of big-mountain riding and of the Red Bull Rampage event itself will persist, shedding light on newer players like Bizet while inspiring every rider to find their own way down the mountain. Watch the on-demand webcast now and catch the full Red Bull Rampage recap show as part of Red Bull Signature Series on NBC on December 8 starting at 2:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. PT.

Final Results 1. Kurt Sorge 2. Antoine Bizet 3. Logan Binggeli 4. Andreu Lacondeguy 5. Tyler McCaul 6. James Doerfling 7. Cameron McCaul 8. Thomas Vanderham 9. Kyle Strait 10. Kyle Norbraten 11. Geoff Gulevich 12. Wil White 13. Nico Vink 14. Brandon Semenuk 15. Martin Söderström 16. Ramon Hunziker 17. Brett Rheeder 18. Pierre Edouard Ferry 19. Darren Berrecloth 20. Brendan Howey

Freeride mountain biking crowned a new king as Canadian Kurt Sorge took the top spot in Red Bull Rampage. France's Antoine Bizet took second and Utah local Logan Binggeli came in third in a thrilling contest that saw huge jumps and flips all over the steep cliffs of Virgin, Utah.