2025 Red Bull Rampage

Can I start the slope vs FR arguments now or do we have to wait for the actual build photos during the event??

(Surely we can just get ahead of it early, yes?)

As someone who thinks rampage is in a good spot right now, I would love to see an event that does big mountain riding like Brage’s videos.

I want to be first to say it. Brendog was robbed 😂

2025 Rampage already! i've been doing cleaning and maintenance on some stored bikes lately and it struck me that i've had the McGarry Tues for 10 years now. 

Quite happy to read that Paul Basigotia is doing well these days, since his healthcare fund was the reason for the YT auction at the time.

I’m sorry, but I am not a Stark fan. I try, but I can’t do it.

That was 4 minute edit that had 2 lines that were remotely Rampage applicable. 

The first line took up a full minute forty of time and was essentially filler features at Rampage.

The remaining edit was dirt jumping on a DH bike.

It really went on didnt it, I had to stop it.

I’ve heard other riders discuss it as well in both regards to video submissions and preparing for the event itself. It’s really hard to ride rampage-esque features. Not many other places in the world with that terrain. Even if you can find somewhere, that’s a hell of a time and money commitment to dig and ride. All that and maybe your still not selected. 

And he's already whinging about it on instagram stories.

Sadly this is the same 'yes man' mentality and aversion to criticism that held him back in BMX. And I've been supporting Stark long before he switched to MTB when I used to work in the BMX industry.

This dude is amazing and should be much bigger than he is, but he's stuck in the core lord crusty demons cali desert mindset and not really broken out of that pocket.

Always stoked for Stark, I think he does belong in Rampage even if he's not really a win contender, cuz I think his riding is more interesting then Semenuk's (who gifted him a frame that got Stark into MTBing when BMX stuff was falling apart).

But that edit was a bad EDIT. Not bad riding. a bad EDIT. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt on being a new dad and suspecting there wasn't much time for new builds and clips. He lives out here in Cali, not in the Utah mecca where he can poach builds all day for a rampage edit.

But now that he is falling into the same mentality trap that held him back in BMX I suppose I don't care to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Great riding, great builds, terrible edit and underwhelming mentality.

Approach criticism and appeal to reason with the community. (Or just whine and shake your first at the cloud and claim everyone else is wrong.)

I kinda want to re-cut the edit to be shorter and see if it's just way, way better by doing so.

Also I feel like he HAS clips from elsewhere that could have been included, but its against skater/BMX mentality to re-use clips, so dunno...

Ok, here. Not that it matters. Here's an example of a re-cut. Sadly they did so much slo-mo ramping that I wasn't going to attempt to de-ramp them all correctly for a video no one will care about. Would love the raw clips. And this is only half the song, I'd love to use all his darkfest and NZ footage and whatever else he's sitting on, i think he has great summit clips but all that shit is filmed in vertical so... This edit could be even better but here's just an example of using less angles and slo-mo: https://imgur.com/a/oFwa6U3 

 There was a lot of hard work that went into building those hits. It's a submission video, not the finals. 

Since I wrote something too long that nobody will read, I'll just write it again...

"Great riding, great builds, terrible editing, and underwhelming mentality." - Sir Lepigpen, year of our lord 2025

Find me the person saying the builds were shit and we can have that convo with them. If we get stuck in the 'you cant judge his riding/builds' narrative we will never get anywhere in the 'THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN EDITED DIFFERENTLY' conversation

(and using the backyard jump footage INSTEAD OF the darkfest and NZ footage is... a choice)

That was actually a good edit, well done sir

Thanks. But that took like 5-10 minutes lol 

Point being... I hate to see somebody take a misstep (for whatever reason if he edited it solo or had someone do it etc.) and it ruins the actual narrative of the video.

I've seen quite a few people say they don't think his riding is Rampage level (from that video) and I actually believe they DIDN'T get to the end... They might not have even gotten past the first clip of all 10 angles of it. There isn't a different feature until 1:50... Almost TWO minutes.

And I'm sure there are some who think he's not fit for Rampage that's like... A tiny majority I assume. But I don't want people to conflate these two narratives and kinda make a strawman argument about it. This is about the edit and there's no need for opinions and preferences here lol... 2 Rampage worthy hits and some backyard footy that is less intense than his Darkfest/NZ footage for over 4 minutes is a mistake. It seems like the jury is in on this one. Judging by the reaction from the internet.

Just bummed he's taking the 'its everyone else who is wrong' narrative, almost certainly because all his fans are on his side. Fans being on your side don't mean nothin lol. Friends let you do stupid shit all the tiiime

I think Stark has fallen prey to what you describe at the end a a lot.

Somehow he has garnered a vocal fan base that often doesn’t seem to have any long term knowledge of freeride mountain biking.

Stark is a very talented, very solid rider. He is not, and has not ever been groundbreaking. Everything he does has to a large degree been done before.

That doesn’t take away from him being good. He should still be sponsored and get supported, he is that level talent. But he also shouldn’t be heralded as some kind of game changing generational talent, which is something I feel like l see often.

I still remember him whining in a video interview about getting third in x-games real MTB. The two people in front of him were Tom Van Steenbergen and Matt Macduff who put out videos with multiple NBDs. As an athlete I think it’s important to have confidence but also a realistic sense of where you fit in.

Sorry for the de-rail. I will keep it to Rampage from here on out.

"Victim mentality is a helluva drug"

And again, it's a criminal shame Stark isn't higher up in the 2 wheeled world. But he's never been a great marketer of himself. Not in the BMX days and arguably still not now, though he's gotten much better and matured a ton (as ya do).

Been stuck in the same culture, using the same music every video, and using the same excuses whenever things don't go well.

When being a core lord goes wrong... 

(I still hope he gets in cuz I'd rather watch Stark/Brage/Gee than all the big slope trick runs.)

Anyone have a ELI5 explanation of 2025 rampage? how many riders invited, how many wild card / video submits? is that one weird event in oregon still a feeder thing? Live coverage? same zone?

Ive been out of the rampage loop.

They haven’t announced anything of substance yet. No dates or locations.

Relative to the men’s field, last year (2024) they took the top 8 finishers from 2023 and then 10 wildcards. 

The wildcards are picked by some shadow committee. Video submissions can help with your wildcard bid, but appear like they aren’t explicitly required in all cases. Some of the hopeful riders make it sound like you literally submit an application.

I assume this year will be similar.

Proving Grounds in Oregon hasn’t been a direct qualifier in a few years. It is also now part of the Natural Selection franchise, so how it integrates moving forward is TBD.

For the women’s field, there is even less info on how things will go in year two.

Top 8 pre-qualify from 2024 results. 10 'wildcard invites'. And then ~4 alternates for injury replacement or whatever.

2025 had 16 riders. Although I dunno why Cam Zink isn't included as DNF in any of the results, same as Bienvenido. Also I may be missing another DNF/DNS as that would make 17, so not sure who 18th was.

Last year used the '2019 venue'. I'm not sure how many zones they have to choose from. Plenty of space out there, just not sure what is within their 'rights'.

Notable change was first year women were in the full event itself. And I believe they were smart about it and ran it on the day before. So they didn't try to force a huge field of riders into one morning in terms of wind. Note, wind basically ruins Rampage EVERY year. And they will never run it earlier to fix that, not sure if they can in terms of light/shadows/etc. Many riders don't take their second run, or attempt to and basically crash out from a single blown jump.

Proving Grounds has kinda sorta morphed into 'Natural Selection' which is seemingly yet another rip off of snow/ski free ride events. They did the first ever event in NZ, but otherwise it looks like there are maybe less opportunities to ride an event to qualify. You are expected to just submit mixtape edits mostly.

I don't think the women are doing a separate thing like Red Bull Formation thing anymore. Given that they are in the official event. They may just use Casey Brown's Dark Horse event as a 'feeder' event now, unless that's gone too.

I'd expect live coverage to be much the same as years past.

(Also this is all based on previous experience/2024 happenings/etc. For all I know they could flip the script and change everything this year, but I kinda doubt it. Rampage runs like a top, particularly due to the wind...)

Reed is one of my favorite riders, and I think supremely underrated.

He has this insane subtle bike control that is easy to miss, but once you see it, some of the minute stuff he does is incredible. Just cm perfect tire placements on in runs and out runs with effortlessness.

I was hoping to see which venue they would be using this year for men and women. Did I miss that anywhere or they haven’t announced that yet? 

Dates are all that are out yet for the moment.

Fingers crossed for a full new venue!!

Tomas Lemoine making his case for Rampage:

2025 Red Bull Rampage Women’s Lineup Revealed 

- Top 12 Female Mountain Bikers in the World Are Confirmed to Compete at Premier Big-Mountain Freeride Competition - 

Virgin, Utah (August 12, 2025) - Red Bull Rampage, the premier big-mountain freeride competition and toughest action sports event in the world, has selected 12 of the top female freeride athletes to compete in the 2025 contest. The women’s competition will be held on Thursday, October 16th, where they’ll arrive to the steep cliffs of Southwestern Utah to crown the best in the sport.

“Red Bull Rampage is one of the most exciting events in action sports and is the pinnacle of freeride mountain biking," said freeride athlete and inaugural women’s contest winner Robin Goomes. "The freeride scene has grown so much in the last year and it will be amazing to see and be part of that progression at this year’s event.” 

The top four riders from the 2024 competition earned automatic pre-qualification for this year’s event, while eight wildcards and five alternates were selected by a committee of former Red Bull Rampage competitors, pro athletes, judges, and industry experts. Selection was based on recent competition results, video submissions, and overall riding ability. Last year’s champion and five event rookies are among those set to compete, bringing a diverse mix of skills, disciplines and riding styles to this year’s contest. 

“There is an epic mix of the top women freeriders with a variety of backgrounds in the competition this year,” said Red Bull athlete Hannah Bergemann. This will be Hannah’s first time competing in Red Bull Rampage. “Everyone in this lineup has helped progress the sport to where it is today, and I couldn’t be more excited to compete alongside them.”

The inaugural Red Bull Rampage was held in 2001, and since then, 18 different events and 10 different winners have secured their place in the history books. The event serves as ground zero for human potential, sending shockwaves far beyond desert cliffs, inspiring fearlessness, progression and transcending sport worldwide. Which woman will add her name to the champion’s list this year?

2025 Red Bull Rampage Invited Athletes

Pre-Qualified Athletes
Robin Goomes (NZL)
Georgia Astle (CAN)
Casey Brown (CAN)
Vaea Verbeeck (CAN)

Wild Card Athletes
Camila Nogueira (ARG)
Chelsea Kimball (USA)
CJ Selig (USA)
Hannah Bergemann (USA)
Harriet Burbidge-Smith (AUS)
Janelle Soukup (USA)
Kirsten Van Horne (CAN)
Vinny Armstrong (NZL)

Alternates  
Dominique Ohaco (CHL)
Gemma Corbera (SPA)
Lucy Van Eestreen (CAN)
Kaia Jensen (USA)
Sam Soriano (USA)

To stay up to date on the latest Red Bull Rampage information including venue and competition details, tune-in information, as well as spectator and ticketing info, follow @RedBullBike and visit the event website here.

Red Bull Rampage is proudly presented by our official sponsors BFGoodrich Tires, OANDA, Utah Sports Commission and GoPro. Our supporting partners are Troy Lee Designs, Specialized, Pelican and RockShox.

Stoked to watch the ladies send it, last year’s contest was insane!

I've still yet to understand Rampage's format. Do ALL the 'wild cards' get in? And only alternates are on the back burner... Or is there some kind of... Qualifying format to add some of the wild cards to the riders already in from previous results?

(Asking because I need to see Cami in the event, after last year. She had my favorite free ride fun by a female at the old qualifying events.)

Wildcards are in the event.

Alternates only get to participate if one of the pre-qualified/wildcards get hurt or pull out prior to the event start.

Once digging officially starts, no roster changes happen (or have not historically).

Damn, 12 women is sick. Cool call to have 2 separate days and at least have a chance of allowing second runs.

I'm also assuming there still isn't a release on actual venue yet? Would be cool if they found an entirely new zone but, I guess that's unlikely. So useful to build off of previous zones.

3-time event winner and general Rampage veteran badass Kurt Sorge stepping down from competing this year (and probably beyond that, reading between the lines...):