Bike
MTB
Two historic venues return to host Red Bull Rampage 2025
Red Bull Rampage 2025 is split across two legendary venues, with the the men returning to the site last used in 2021 while the women are at the 2014–15 site. Learn more about this year's venues here.
Part of this story
There is only one place in the world with all the right ingredients to host Red Bull Rampage: Virgin, Utah in the United States. The spines of these rust-colored mountains plunge steeply down to the valley, creating pathways for mountain bike tyre tracks. Add some water to the soil, hand-packing jumps and sweating, you can craft any feature imaginable. Then there's the cliffs, tons of them. Once you add a landing, a bike can soar 40, 50, or 60 feet down from them to lower reaches of the mountains. With all these building blocks comes the progression and action that encompass mountain bike freeride’s gnarliest and most prestigious event.
As a result, the Red Bull Rampage venue announcement is always highly anticipated. It's the athletes' canvas to work with and they're always itching to to see where they'll be digging and start planning lines. No two venues are alike and each is steeped in its unique history. For the 2025 event, the men will compete at the site that hosted in 2016, 2017 and 2021 while the women will be at a venue that has hosted both Red Bull Rampage in 2014–15 and Red Bull Formation in 2019 and 2022.
01
Red Bull Rampage 2025 men's site: a welcome return for an old favourite
The 2016, 2017 and 2021 venue is spectacular and well loved by competitors
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
The 2025 men's venue feels like a natural amphitheater. "It's probably some of the coolest terrain out of any venue in my opinion," Red Bull Rampage veteran Carson Storch explains. He competed here in 2016, 2017 and in 2021. He likes how every line is steep, exposed and that there aren’t a whole lot of meandering spots. It keeps the runs engaging and rowdy.
This venue also has an iconic big mountain section right at the top, which Cam Zink and Kyle Strait notably used by integrating a raw chute that plunged right through the heart of the mountain. It's one of the steepest and longest chutes ever ridden at Red Bull Rampage and memorable because it's so gnarly.
"There are many past runs that have stood out, but the first thing that comes to mind is that big chute up top that Zink and Strait rode," competitor Emil Johansson reflects. The Swedish slopestyle legend will be competing at this course for the first time.
Kyle Strait's massive chute is a legendary feature of the venue
© Paris Gore/Red Bull Content Pool
All the line options are very exposed and very fast
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
Another standout moment from this venue was Brandon Semenuk’s 2021 winning run, which featuring the first-ever Tailwhip off a drop. Unlike the other competitors, Semenuk arrived with a single-crown fork on his bike and everyone wondered what he had up his sleeve. Up until that point, Tailwhips and Barspins really weren't common at Red Bull Rampage, but Semenuk’s winning run opened the door to a whole new era of tricks at the event. In the years since, a few competitors have swapped their dual crown bikes for single crown and it will be intriguing to see what kind of bike the 2025 roster will gravitate towards.
This venue is also home to the 'Goblin Drop', a monster step-down that spits riders onto a wall of sandbags. It's one of the most eye-catching features because it sticks out of the ridge like the back of an elephant. Originally, riders thought this feature was impossible to build and ride, but in 2016 Tyler McCaul, Carson Storch and Darren Berrecloth teamed up and made it possible. In 2021, Reed Boggs was the only rider to include it in his line and landed on the podium in third. Will the Goblin be resurrected for another appearance? Time will tell.
The most unpredictable factors at Rampage are the new riders. While many of the veterans opt for using variations on their previous lines, newcomers carry with them a fresh perspective and a lot of work to build lines from scratch. It’s not uncommon for them to reinterpret old features or build something totally new. Rookie's like Hayden Zablonty will be closely watched to see what they can dream up. "The perfect line for me at Rampage would be a lot of new features," he explains – and given that the previous winners of this venue, Brandon Semenuk and Kurt Sorg, aren't returning this year, it will be interesting to see who lands on the podium.
The Goblin Drop is one of the most eye-catching features at the venue
© Paris Gore
Find out more about Red Bull Rampage 2025
02
Red Bull Rampage 2025 women's site: full circle for a Formation host
For the women, this year's venue for the second female Red Bull Rampage contest feels full circle. In 2019, a group of six women traveled to the now 2025venue to participate in the first Red Bull Formation, a women’s freeride progression session aimed at fostering future Rampage riders. It lit a spark for women's freeride and in 2022 many of those riders and more returned here for the third edition of Formation. This year, they’ll compete at these hallowed grounds with the opportunity to retrace old lines or utilise former Red Bull Rampage runs from the 2014 and 2015 editions held here.
"The terrain at the women's 2025 venue is one of the most spacious, which provides lots of opportunities for different lines," explains Hannah Bergemann, one of the original Red Bull Formation riders.
Hannah Bergemann has already ticked-off Brett Rheeder's 2014 Rampage line
© Robin O'Neill/Red Bull Content Pool
It’s super exciting to return to this venue after using it for Red Bull Formation. It’s the venue I'm most familiar with, so it’ll be fun to build off of that prior experience and push myself even more
Bergemann’s history with this venue runs deep. She was the first rider to drop into practice, going on to tick-off a burly double drop. Three years later, she rode Brett Rheeder's old 2014 Rampage line with Casey Brown, offering us a glimpse of a future Rampage run.
"It's super exciting to return to this venue after using it for Red Bull Formation in 2019 and 2022' It's the venue I'm most familiar with and have spent the most time on, so it'll be fun to build off of that prior experience and push myself even more," she says.
There are other former Red Bull Formation riders returning to this venue like Vaea Verbeeck, who has unfinished business at the site. In 2022, she rebuilt a massive drop, but never got a chance to ride it due to crashing on the hip jump before it. She's considering it as an option for this year, but staying flexible until she walks the venue again.
Regardless of what she chooses to ride, being back at the venue holds extra meaning for Verbeeck: "From our very first Virgin, Utah, riding experience to today, it feels special and full circle."
Robin Goomes with that historic Backflip
© Robin O'Neill/Red Bull Content Pool
Bergemann drops in to the Brett Rheeder line
© Robin O'Neill/Red Bull Content Pool
Harriet Burbidge-Smith and Robin Goomes work a take-off on their line
© Re Wikstrom/Red Bull Content Pool
Another standout moment from the venue is the line that Cami Nogueira built at the 2022 Red Bull Formation that plunged straight down the face of the venue. Aptly nicknamed the 'Fall Line', it was steep, fast and unlike other lines didn't feature a catch berm. She linked that run with a massive step-down at the bottom and her bold vision earned her the Spicy Award that year. In the years since the Argentinian's appetite for all things spice has only grown and she’s sure to incorporate that style of riding into this year's run.
Compared to 2024, this year's venue will provide more space for building, which has the riders excited. Last year's venue didn’t have many fall line ridges to choose from, which led to a lot of crisscrossing and shared runs in the lower section of the course, so the additional space lends itself to creativity.
"More space between each section will allow for longer landings, run outs, resetting speeds and just being able to control the pace of our runs better. I'm excited to see how this one unfolds," Verbeeck explains.
Watch the women who carve their lines at Red Bull Rampage
25 min
Making History: The Women of Freeride
Follow elite female riders breaking boundaries at Red Bull Rampage in a push for equality.
Watch the 2025 edition of Red Bull Rampage on October 16 and 18. Catch the full live broadcasts on Red Bull TV in all countries except the United States, where the event will be available to watch on ESPN+ exclusively.
Part of this story
