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Gee Atherton explains why riding Red Bull Rampage is "terrifying"
The British downhill rider is a five-time competitor at mountain bike's biggest event in the Utah desert. Here he describes what Red Bull Rampage is really like.
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Red Bull Rampage isn’t just two finals runs. The iconic freeride event held in the middle of the Utah desert is the culmination of almost two weeks of blood, sweat and tears as the best big mountain riders in the world dig, craft and shape a line down an inhospitable mountain face that could have been lifted from the surface of the moon.
One rider who knows this better than most is Gee Atherton. The two-time downhill mountain bike World Champion and eight-time World Cup winner has competed at Red Bull Rampage five times in his career with mixed results.
Gee Atherton riding at Red Bull Rampage in 2010
© Ian Hylands/Red Bull Content Pool
“Sometimes you float through, everything goes well and you come out unscathed,” says Atherton. “Other times, you're butting heads with it.”
He has two second-place finishes to his name (2004 and 2010), while his other three Rampages have ended in hospital visits (2003, 2008 and 2012). From separating a shoulder to attempting to ride with a broken tibia, his crashes in Utah have been as legendary as his high-scoring runs. But he sees this as just another factor when riding the Super Bowl of mountain biking.
“Going into Rampage, you have to have that mindset that, no matter what happens, you're going to do the final and you're going to do your run. It makes it a lot easier when you get these bangs and these knocks. There isn't a question of ‘should I, shouldn't I?’. You're just going to do it no matter what.”
It's difficult to portray how hard Rampage is from that sense, it's so hot and dry
Crashes aside, it’s hard to appreciate the scale of what riders put themselves through just to survive their time at Red Bull Rampage, so continue reading to hear Atherton describe in his own words what it's really like to compete in mountain biking's toughest event.
01
The fear starts as soon as you receive your invite
The emotion that goes through your head when getting an invite to Red Bull Rampage is absolute fear. There’s excitement, but you get that absolute dread and it just builds slowly and constantly, all the way up until your final run at the event.
The fear starts when on receiving your invite and ends with your final run
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
It's a unique experience. For races like World Cups, you're nervous because you want them to go well and you don't feel the nerves until you're much closer to the event. With Rampage, you're nervous because you know what you're going to have to do, the scale and size of it. You're not just thinking, ‘I hope I do a really good run.’ You're thinking, ‘I hope I get through this, I hope I survive this, I hope I'm okay.'
02
The scale is the most terrifying part
The first time you stand at the bottom and look up the mountain, nothing looks rideable; you don't see loads of lines and options, you just see cliff faces, drops and danger. It's so intimidating, it's terrifying.
The course from Atherton's last visit to Utah in 2012
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
That changes over time, though. The couple of weeks that you're out there building are important for you to build your line but they're also important for you to be able to acclimatise to the environment, and get used to standing on a ridge and being cool with there being a 300ft cliff face behind you. The first time you're there though, it fills you with fear.
03
Efficiency is key when building
There's no moisture out there and there's not a lot of natural things to build from so, depending on the weather, you’re left with a gravelly, fine dust. Previously you used what water was there or brought any you needed in by hand – I think the access has improved over the years and they now give them water and sandbags.
Working quickly and minimally is key when building your line
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
The other hard thing with a build is how your view on what’s rideable changes as the week progresses. You get used to how big the environment is and invariably you start building something that looks big at the start of the week and by the end you think 'I need to add 20ft to this and I need to make this bigger'.
Iconic moments from Red Bull Rampage
04
It’s an exhausting experience
Gee in course prep at Red Bull Rampage 2012
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
Physically, it's very difficult and I don't think that comes across to the viewers. It's difficult to portray how hard Rampage is from that sense – it's so hot and dry. A lot of the time, the riders are up there building at 5am just as the sun's coming up to avoid the heat.
The build-up to finals day is full of long, hard shifts on the mountainside
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
It's a long, difficult, dry week and you're shifting huge amounts of dirt. The lines are very long and you've only got a couple of lads helping you. But you need to save some energy for the actual event as well. You get to finals day and the lads just look worn out – they're absolutely exhausted.
05
The surface actually softens crashes
The dirt is good to ride on when you're on your line but is pretty unforgiving if you wander off – it's loose, dusty and rocky. It's so good to crash on though. You can see some of the biggest crashes you've ever seen and the lads get up and dust themselves down because the surface is this strange mix of dust and loose dirt but with a lot of flat rocks in it.
The lads have big offs but they get away with a lot. If it was in a different environment, riders wouldn't be able to push so hard.
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