All

Hedging my bets on Cash Shaleen.

Phoebe Gale’s mechanic showing an Orbea ebike on his insta story, supports rumours of FMD —> Orbea

E13 was created by Evil bikes? Dafaq?!?!?! O_o

Relating to WAO : back in the day when Evil bikes started making a chainguide and other components, they created the e.thirteen brand to separate that business from their bike line. Probably to mitigate the aftermarket issue WAO is dealing with.

I mean... How's that gonna work? When Cam Zink won with basically a one banger (by doing the hardest move of the event)... (And even then I'd shout out the canyon front flip as well ya know) But TVS does a TYPE of cam zink run basically, even crazier, and gets shouted out by Cam Zink on IG as being underscored... Cuz its plain as day lol. He just won with that exact type of run. And for all we know it may have been the exact same judging panel. I thought Silvas run was very close to Godzieks, like...

why the F did the course marshal offer Brendog a RB at the finish corral? Yeah the guy was probably parched at the bottom but are they that oblivious to miss the big green M on his helmet? I feel like the whole event staff is cognizant of the "Bren got robbed" narrative, and are generally aware of the hype and publicity he bring with the vlogs, but in the end they leaned into it and wanted to do him dirty. I don't want to take anything away from anyone, I feel like 2024 was gnarlier than recent years, and...

The score (down to two decimal places no less) is dumb for many reasons. The scores are clearly comparative anyway. I thought that maybe at least waiting until the first runs were done before handing out scores would be better. But a PB commenter had an even better idea: Just rank the runs as they happen. It might not fix all the bias issues, but I think it would go a long way to bringing back the jam vibe while keeping the whole contest aspect that redbull clearly wants. The whole they just did a “94.69” is just turbo dumb...

What about not scoring each rider after his run but waiting to the end and then rewatch the runs and adjust the scores: For example each category has 20 points, a rider finishes his run, and judge gives him preliminary 15 points for technical aspect as he does not know what other riders will do. Then Brendog drops in into his absurdly technical line and gets 18, but then the judge should say, ok previous rider does not deserve 15 for his not so technical line and readjust the score to let say 11... And after everyone finishes, he says...

On one hand, everyone has already said a lot, but on the other hand this is VitalMTB forums where we go forever so here are my takeaways 🤣: 1. It feels that judges really like "fluidity" which is actually just a mix of speed and lack of hesitation. The riders who had really high scores had fast runs with no moments where you could see them prepare for the next feature. I guess bring back a "free-racer" and let's see if the fastest run of the day can place on the box 2. I gotta say the margin for...

Tom van steenbergen had some things to say about his result here As for any judge reform I agree with the notion of a larger committee of current riders. I know people disagree with Darren Berrecloth alot and he seems to take alot of the blame and others years kyle jameson and nico vink but all those dudes are still pretty plugged into the current scene and modern freeride. The sport has progressed so far since bender and Spangler's days I have no idea why they're still on the panel regardless of their innovation for the time. Just having a...

The fact that bender is a judge still is crazy. What does that mean know about technical lines or flat flipping a drop.

Full rider line up decision would be nice, but there's too much money for that obviously. (And to be honest there's too much at stake to have whatever panel of judges they probably have now tbh) Can't do a fan vote because then Brendog would take 1st which, while a great run, probably doesn't make sense at least for the entire format. Similarly, I don't think Semenuk should win on tricks with the current scoring format. TVS godziek and Silva had the most Rampage esque runs imo So, somewhere in the middle, a large panel of basically CURRENT riders (not...

So with all the talk about scoring, let me ask a legitimate question. You're RedBull or the organizer. What do you do differently. We've got a judges list of MTB royalty. Their opinions should count. The criteria is defined, and then its left up to judges. I don't think its the organizers place to tell the judges hey this is what we're looking to have win.....and I don't think that is happening. I don't think the judges would accept that. So then it comes down to the individual judges and the scores they give out. I think an improvement would...

Scoring aside, there was a lot of really wild riding that went down this year. The level everyone is operating at in 2024 simply boggles my mind.

To preface, I'm the biggest Semenuk fan but IMO his run wasn't better than Godzieks. Front flip, double backflip, bunch of amplitude, etc.. I'm not a Rampage judge but I still think Godziek's run was better.

Brendan was scored super poorly. But with the way rampage is judged I never thought his line was a winner. His canyon is big but nothing that hasn’t been done many times over the last decade. And technical riding and small and medium sized drops have never scored well in that time period either. Hope he wins people’s choice or the style award cause his run was fantastic and deserves recognition. Tyler’s run pretty much epitomizes what the judges look for. Absolutely huge sends, a ton of speed and amplitude. If he could do some of the big tricks the...

DH WC needs to return to Australia, granted it's going to be held in our winter, but come on UCI, show us some love!!

Testing the CentreHub and comparing it to OChain, Sidekick, no chain, STFU guides, and a combination of everything at once sounds very interesting/entertaining.

Can finally talk about it publicly Asa on Red Bull 🙌🏽