Photo: Red Bull
Red Bull Rampage 2014
We were expecting Rampage to kick off last night but, well, it rained! Not what you expect in the desert but some flash flooding shut things down after qualifying. So after all the dirt was shovelled last week it was mother nature that turned up and wazzed on the riders leaving their creations in a bit of state.
Photo: Red Bull
QUALIFYING
Despite the weather qualifying went ahead and there was some bonkers action going down and every rider got their first quali run down. The weather then began to turn and only four riders rolled out for their second run before the rain, lighting and what then turned into flash floods arrived with vengeance. Makken Huagen who was the first rider to drop the massive step down last week ejected mid backflip but walked away fine, Geoff Gulevich, Ryan Howard and Yannick Granieri all had solid runs but it was Szymon Godziek who took the big balls prize. Last year Kelly McGarry made history flipping the Canyon Gap at the old site but this year Godziek did the new gap in qualifying and flipped it perfectly. Brendan Fairclough is pre-qualified for this years event but Bernard Kerr was out there for the firs time and he only just missed making the cut in his first ever Rampage, massive props to him for getting out there and riding!
The final results for qualifying look like this:
1 Graham Agassiz 94.00
2 Brett Rheeder 86.50
3 Tom Van Steenbergen 83.75
4 Jeff Herbertson 82.50
5 Paul Basagoitia 82.00
6 Szymon Godziek 80.50
7 Kyle Norbraten 80.25
8 Louis Reboul 78.25
9 Carson Storch 77.25
10 Geoff Gulevich 77.00
After the rain set in Red Bull release the following updates to let everyone know what was going on:
UPDATE [Saturday, 3.45pm MT/11.45pm CEST]: Due to heavy rain and thunderstorms at the event site on Saturday, Run 2 of qualifying wasn’t allowed to go ahead. The Red Bull Rampage schedule is therefore changing to ensure that there are the very best conditions for competition. Most notably, the finals will be delayed and the event site in Utah will not be open to the public on Sunday, September 28. A revised schedule will be announced shortly with details of the date for the finals and the transmission time of the live stream.
UPDATE [Saturday, 8.00pm MT/Sunday, 4.00am CEST]: Finals are now currently scheduled to take place on Monday, September 29 (subject to change due to weather). Schedule info will be released later on Sunday. Transmission of the live stream is expected to begin on Monday at 1.00pm MT/9.00pm CEST. The time is subject to change due to weather or other factors outside of Red Bull’s control.
Finals
So with finals set to start at 8PM tonight we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the weather stays good and the riders can get their lines ready for the big event. Here are three of the runs from qualifying that will give you an idea of the lines riders are taking:
