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I think the big difference is that Isle of Man and all other motorsport have a history already written in blood.
We're concerned because we don't want freeride MTB to become like them. We want to improve safety so we don't just accept that people will die chasing first place, its not a value the sport aspires too.
Formula 1 in really until post Senna, it was very very common to have fatalities. Those people are totally willing to risk death for first, I don't think we are there yet, and that's good.
Absolutely, and IoM TT shouldn't be any kind of benchmark for risk!
On PB, Adolf said he does have a lower back injury, and is now focusing on his recovery. Not sure if that's a read between the lines, or he just needs time to heal a few broken vertebrae. Hoping the latter.
I like some others have become increasingly uncomfortable with Rampage over the last few years, and like others have said hard to put a reason as to why, given i watch and enjoy many other events across action sports with as much risk, where i don't get the same ominous feeling of impending doom as i now get from Rampage.
Thinking about it i had a bit of an epiphany and believe its actually because of how the event itself is marketed and presented, and how this has evolved since the event began.
Most events like these are very much for riders by riders and take very little account of pleasing anyone outside of the community who directly follow and engage with the sport. Yes in this day and age everything is overhyped and packaged up for instagram/tik tok viral shorts, but most events will still be run from the riders perspective - if say at Darkfest or Audi 9’s there had been crashes like we saw at Rampage, i have no doubt the other riders would have decided to put the rest of the runs on hold and come back the next day.
Rampage has become a made for TV spectacle in the way its run, and what i think makes me uncomfortable is that riders are put in a position, due to scheduling, where they have to pull the trigger on taking a run in the gnarliest environment of all in potentially less than ideal conditions to take a chance and winning the event they have always dreamed of doing.
You could see this with Reed Boggs dropping last, having to toss up having just seen two of mates being totalled, the wind starting to pick up, whilst been giving a countdown by the production crew as to when he had to drop by - he 100% made the right decision not to drop IMO, but no rider should be put in that position when they are probably going to be putting down the heaviest line of their lives, and the one thing you would want is to be calm and mentally in a good place, not under pressure to perform on live TV.
Rampage competition runs should be allowed over a window, with riders not feeling any pressure to drop, and making impossible risk vs reward decisions in less than ideal conditions and timeframes dictates by a TV schedule.
So in summarry its the fact the riders are increasingly being forced into performing monkeys for TV IMO at rampage that makes me undcomfortable, when you could so easily spread the event out - how may riders take an ill advised second run due to the scheduling when it would be much better to do the runs over two days?
Most importantly Adolf is alive and in good spirits. Great by Cam Zink - as always - that he takes time to care about and lets us know. Thanks!
i just wanted to say how much i appreciate the discussion you're all having about this, keeping it thoughtful and caring. whether you're for or against the level of risk, i think it's clear that everyone here cares about the riders first and foremost, and that makes me proud of this community. some care that the riders have the freedom to make their own choices, some care about protecting them from exploitation or going too far. regardless of outlooks, thank you for all the input and experiences and sharing. no matter what, i hope that all the injured riders make full recoveries.
As one who had a 'career' in freeride and spent that career working to get into Rampage, I have a lot to say about Rampage, its evolution, and its current state. I will try to keep it short.
The professionalization of Rampage over the last 25 years has made for a better event. Riders and builders are better paid. It has resulted in more coverage, more reward, and the ability to build a professional career around the event. Is it perfect? No. But it is pretty darn good. Is there room for improvement? Yes. Has it gotten safer for athletes? I sure think so. Mandatory rest days. More medical care on the hill. Concussion protocols. The risks are always there and potentially growing giving what athletes are doing to progress the sport. It is still the gnarliest version of our sport.
The riding has plateaued a bit IMO. I think that is limited more so by the terrain than the riders. Obviously the tricks that are being done on bigger and more technical features grows, but from the tv perspective, it's hard to tell if things have gotten bigger or steeper. The level of builds has exceeded anything previous. The women's progression from 2024 to 2025 was mind blowing. There has always been a standout feature and a big trick tied to it. The desert is unforgiving. Emil's slightly off line landing had serious consequences. That has always been the case but it is a lot harder to make an adjustment in the air on a tailwhip than on a lot of other tricks. The level is just so high, that it is make or break.
Is there a point where interest falls off? For me, it kind of already has. Last year for me was the absolute peak of Rampage. I barely watched this year. Should it go away? IDK. Women worked and fought so hard to get into the event and have represented really well to cement their competition. There are still dozens of riders competing for their chance to compete. There is a new generation looking to make their impression on the sport and in the red dirt.
Zink said it years ago, if Rampage didn't exist, most of the guys and gals would still be out in the desert building, riding, and filming this stuff. If that platform goes away, there will be less freeriders, less sponsorship dollars, and less viewership of the halo event of our sport. Rampage transcends our viewership and makes mountain biking cool to the mass market.
I am relieved Adolf and Emil (and all of the rest of the riders injured during practice) were alert and in most cases to be riding soon. This year marks a decade since Paul had his spinal cord injury at Rampage. Fortunately he is back to ripping and doing all sorts of other miraculous things. I am just nervous for something worse.
Genuine question, do we actually want or need this version of the sport to be ‘cool’ to a mass market? Why do all industries in alternative and action sports chase approval from the general public so much? They are niche sports and likely always will be, I don’t think it’s bad to acknowledge these limitations.
To that end, I agree that all these riders would be out pushing the limits regardless. But, they would be doing it under fundamental differences. They’d get to attempt certain feats completely on your own timeline, with much more preparation, and when it feels just right versus on a scheduled day within an 8 minute window.
I acknowledge it would possibly mean less money and fewer top professionals, but I never fully understood this argument. We are niche genre within a niche sport. There will always be limited resources and limited spots at the top. Wouldn’t it be better if we could support our athletes in the best way possible from the inside and maybe have a few less, than to ‘sell out’ and become a spectacle to the general public who are fickle and may leave at any point anyway?
Because there is the potential to make money.
Rampage is not geared towards people on this message board. It is aimed at the crowd who watch the viral Tik Tok/Insta hits, don't really understand mountain biking, and just want to see the spectacle of these guys throwing themselves off cliffs.
The whole event made me nervous, like it does every year. I love seeing these guys stomp these moves that I can't even begin to imagine and I'm sure they love the adrenaline from cleaning such a line. In the end, they are adrenaline junkies, like in any "extreme sport". Fortunately no one died this year, but it will happen. I remember reading an old article in Bike magazine, it was an interview with Bender when he first hit the scene. He said "I'm just waiting for the first fatality, could be me or someone more famous, but it will happen and the mtb world is not really ready for it". That was over 20 years ago and so far, mountain biking, especially freeride, has been pretty fortunate that we haven't see tons of deaths like other sports.
That said - I think the current format of Rampage definitely needs to change. I got the impression that Emil and Adolf both felt pressured to pull something really ridiculous after their first run, to try to blow their score out of the water and take the win. It didn't seem like they were really planning to go for either move, Adolf just kind of pulled and hoped, but you could tell on takeoff that he wasn't going to make it. Emil went around that takeoff in his first run and then just went for it after a disappointing first score. Godziek also tried to do the "big move takes the win" with his front flip - with how calculated these guys are, these moves felt off.
I disagree. Rampage has been around longer than social media. These guys have been throwing themselves cliffs before social media was a thing, and still be throwing themselves off cliffs even if it hadn't become a thing.
Injuries have always been a thing, whether they are small, significant or life altering, but the fact of the matter is there HAVEN'T been any deaths. How many other extreme (or less extreme) competitions can claim a zero fatality rate in 24 years of existence? I'm not saying things can't be made safer, but I'm also not sure what the answer is. If there is an answer it better be made in consultation with the riders.
The men keep showing up to build and compete, even if they've bodied themselves before or during the event. The women have been watching on the sidelines and have been pushing to jump in. The youths are chomping at the bit to join in (it was SO refreshing to have such a big group of fresh, new rider this year). I can't claim to know or be tight with any competitors, but I haven't even heard rumours of rumblings amongst the riders to overhaul or change things.
I like Kyle Strait's suggestion to have the first run on one day and record it, then play it leading up to a live second run. In theory, this would ensure riders are fresh and open up more room to reduce wind/weather holds, etc.
It's been said multiple times that Silva has been open about wanting to pull a double off a cliff for years and was talking about it earlier in the week. It wasn't a "pressure" thing. Outside of maybe Semenuk, I'm pretty sure Emil is the most calculated guy in slope/freeride and doesn't strike me as a guy that's going to go for tricks unless he's comfortable with it. Sometimes things just go sideways.
At the end of the day, no one understands the risks better than these riders and I choose to believe they have more insight into when to drop in, when/where to send it and when to hold back.
I was just speaking to more of what Rampage has become.
When I see a rider post something like this, it makes me think they feel pressured on that second run to pull something big out:
But I don't know these guys and I don't know what goes through their heads, so I could be way off like you said.
That's competition. DH racers take risky lines knowing they are faster. If they don't take it, they risk losing time. Pressure, weighing risk/reward, and making those decisions is part of all competition. It is part of every sport, heck it is also part of daily life.
Carson understood the risk/reward and made a decision not to pursue a second run. The risk wasn't worth it. Looked like Boggs did the same thing. That is part of the competition, just like at the races. Loic did the same thing at the World Cup Finals.
These guys/gals are so incredibly calculated. There's not a single rider out there just sending it. They don't just decide to huck a double flip drop or send a line without knowing the potential risks but also they are 99% confident that it will go well. But the margin for error is much tighter as things get more complex. Typically the bigger the jump, the more room for being off by a percent or two. Add in a highly technical or challenging trick and there is no margin for error. The rider makes the decision and understands the potential outcomes.
Fair enough, but that strikes me as more frustration with inconsistent judging than issues with safety/terrain. While there were some crazy takes and definitely some inconsistency, I was less upset about scoring than in previous years. I feel like you could have reordered the top four and justified each of them, but some of the lower scores left me questioning a little more.
With regards to judging, I 1000% think Bender needs to go. I respect the place he has in freeride mtb, but I think it's time for him to step back from judging. I'm still not sure what the correct way to judge Rampage is, though. How are events like the Freeride World Tour (skiing/snowboarding) judged? Are they comparable?
Based on the broadcast explanation of the judging, Rampage is similar (and presumably influenced) by judging from these freeride snow comps. However, I don’t think it’s as refined.
Back in the day on the Freeskiing World Tour, your line choice was scored first (1-10 scale). Then the other categories were (fluidity, amplitude, control, technique if I remember correctly) were scored based on this line score. You could not score more than two points higher in any other category than your line. A perfect score was a 50 (all categories maxed out at 10).
It was then always a balance to find the hardest line you could ski ‘perfect’. Skiing a 6 line flawlessly could score you a 38 but no higher. But doing so might still beat skiing a 10 line poorly.
Your line score dictated your ceiling, but not your floor.
I know they do it a bit different on the current Freeride World Tour with one of the big things being an overall impression score. Some runs just have ‘it’ and you can reward them in this way. A good example is Toby Rafford’s skiing this past season.
With all due respect though what are you actually proposing changes outside of cancelling the event? There just doesn't seem to be many valid ways to increase the safety drastically without seriously compromising the event. As I have said I think a fresh venue would help alot but it would still be inherently very dangerously given the level these guys are at now.
The guys who surf nazare and mullagmore every year are risking their life yet they continue to do it nevertheless and I think most the rampage athletes are the same.
I’m not proposing anything. I’ve said what I felt like saying and it’s clear that it’s not welcome here, so I’m staying out of further discussion.
Did not intend my reply to be seen as aggressive was just genuinely curious. The all due respect was sincere aha
I said this after the event but it’s been buried with other discussion. But I think limiting the use of water on the hill would go along way in decreasing some of the amplitude. You can send massive drops without these packed in landings.
Good idea although I think the larger issue with this is they've been recycling the same two venues for so long now the lines are all so well constructed. It's also possible limiting the water will only make it more dangerous as they may still end up building the same shit, it'll just be built worse.
I’m not a freerider or an event organizer, so I don’t have any special insight into what would improve matters. The mood in this thread seems to be that an event which severely injures a fourth of its participants is either no big deal or inevitable or both, so I’m out.
As others have said, money is a major factor. Nothing is free and all things have to make money on some scale to keep existing, and so the idea that more people means more money is very strong and very true most of the time.
Outside of that though, I think that the push to be more appealing to the general public came a lot from culture shift towards being more "inclusive" in the 2010s till now. Let me be clear, I believe that anyone who wants to mountain bike is welcome to mountain bike, irrespective of gender, race, belief, or anything of a similar nature. Inclusivity is not a bad thing and I would be happy to ride with you, share trails with you, etc... No matter who you are. But, mountain biking is not for everyone, there are people who just won't enjoy it, and that's fine. I think somewhere along the line being inclusive was mixed with general purpose, or that the best way to be inclusive was to try to change what mountain biking is, and the culture that grew around it, into something for the general public. It's a catch 22, if something is for everyone then it's for no one, but we also want more people to get into it, so that we all can have more trails, more innovation, more people to ride with, more support from gov and better access. A bit off topic for this thread, but wanted to share my thoughts on it.
Rampage is the number one mtb event that breaks out of the MTB bubble, and it did so naturally, so it's always going to be the event that is pushed to the most people. Can't really do anything about that.
I think everyone can do what they want, but a battlefield like this, with 25% of participants physically disabled and therefore unable to earn a living, should not be called a sport. I have the utmost respect for the riding skills of these daredevils on two wheels. But the urge to mutilate oneself for fame and little money has nothing to do with sport anymore, but rather with some kind of pathology that needs to be treated.
Now hate and downvote me as much as you want
No hate but I think this is a bit of an ignorant point of view. It is an extreme event we are debating so strong opinions on both sides are set to come out.
I don't think a single one of those riders even considers fame or money when building their line. Their drivers are likely the rush of a complete run, the satisfaction of their line working, the high of adrenaline, their desire to push the sport and themselves and the goal of winning. There is not a single one who has an urge to mutilate themselves.
Every rider takes risks. Rampage riders are just very visible. Downhill riders push themselves on most rides to go faster and faster, crashes happen there just as often. Rampagers are pushing themselves in more challenging terrain and on obstacles that far exceed what normal riders are pushing themselves on. Injuries often happen on small obstacles or on features that people are often comfortable with. This sport is dangerous. Every bike ride could result in a serious injury. 25% were not physically disabled and no longer able to earn a living. Yes, a percentage were injured and unable to compete.
Insinuating that the riders have some sort of mental deficiency shows a lack of understanding of the mindset of any high performance person.
I think you have an irresponsible view of things.
Firstly, these are high-performance athletes who depend on publicity. Rampage riders even more so than others. And that means they take a high risk. The comparison may be absurd, but it's like prostitutes having sex without a condom just because the camera is watching.
Secondly, these riders wouldn't take the risk if their livelihood didn't depend on it. Sure, there are exceptions, but I think being professional also means earning money.
Thirdly, all this talk about pushing boundaries is just nonsense anyway. Ultimately, they're building a huge skate park on the hill where everyone is only allowed to ride their own line. That's not pushing boundaries, that's moving earth. If you get seriously injured trying to make history with a double somersault, that's just bad luck. Especially for your parents, girlfriend or children. It's clear that you can hurt yourself anytime, anywhere; most accidents happen in the kitchen. But very few double flip from the kitchen table.
Fourthly, and I am certain of this, it is the attention that drives these athletes to mutilate themselves. In their little world – and I have been an observer in this world for 35 years – everyone is a big shot, and the winner is the biggest. It is not for nothing that Semenuck traded his life for a safe car and even more fame and money.
Fifthly, I'm actually just worried that some idiots will try to copy this without a net or a helicopter and then be stuck there forever. It's in the bloody desert, there's no ski resort with doctors and infrastructure. But the guys leave the ramps standing, the earth isn't moved back and nothing is restored.
Sixthly, it's not a good show. Four hours of waiting and then 30 seconds of racing in between. That's even more boring than baseball or Formula 1. And I'm not even talking about the weeks of hard work beforehand – which deserves respect!
I just want to say I completely disagree with every single point. A simple down vote wasn't enough. Just because you can't fathom what drives others, doesn't give you the right to demean them.
Yes, I am very rational about this. But I think that this form of MTB sport is no longer any good.
But don't accuse me of one thing, namely that I don't understand what drives these daredevils. I understand that very well, but I am convinced that it harms the sport and the people involved and that there is nothing to be gained from it. Not even recognition, and money has never been a factor anyway.
Official event recap from Red Bull:
Like I mentioned, it is an extreme end of the sport and brings about very different opinions on it. We may not agree on the value of it or the values of the riders. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts, gives me a different perspective to consider. You point out some rational concepts and consequences.
We all share a passion for these two triangles connecting two circles that we control with a stick. And we all take them very seriously. I do question the long term validity of the event. For the first time, I turned it off mid stream. I used to watch every second of it. So we have some common ground.
All the best
Adolf now has a page on road to recovery. Provides a heavy update on the injury. Wishing him all best in recovery.
https://www.road2recovery.com/athlete-causes/adolf-silva/
Oh no, what we all feared...
I just hope he can continue to be as mentally strong as he's always been. Wish him nothing but the best in this recovery.
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