Kurt Sorge wins 2012 Red Bull Rampage
Kurt Sorge from Nelson, BC, Canada wins the Rampant Rabbit Rampage Show in the Utah desert.
Blimey, anybody watch the live feed last night? THat mountain looked bonkers, respect to all those who rode the beast! Kurt Sorge had a great run for sure, back flips, stretched superman seat grabs, no handers and definitely deserved the top spot. Not quite sure of the judging criteria, but thought the McCaul brothers should have been placed higher. Cam was the only rider to launch the 60ft canyon gap, he didn’t trick it but it looked bloody scary. Kyle Norbraten also had an amazing run too with a couple of 360s, I reckon he should have been a top five at least.
Brendan Fairclough and Gee Atherton both sat out the finals with injury, as did last years winner Cam Zink.
Here’s the final results
1. Kurt Sorge
2. Antoine Bizet
3. Logan Binggeli
4. Andreu Lacondeguy
5. Tyler McCaul
6. James Doerfling
7. Cameron McCaul
8. Thomas Vanderham
9. Kyle Strait
10. Kyle Norbraten
11. Geoff Gulevich
12. Wil White
13. Nico Vink
14. Brandon Semenuk
15. Martin Söderström
16. Ramon Hunziker
17. Brett Rheeder
18. Pierre Edouard Ferry
19. Darren Berrecloth
20. Brendan Howey
Canada’s Kurt Sorge topped an already impressive first run — one that put him in the lead — with a second run that pushed him even further ahead, destroying any doubt that the 2012 title belonged to him. A confident approach to the upper section of his line (with a no-handed drop high on the course), a big drop before a shot through the Oakley Icon Sender and a superman jump and backflip step-down all combined to make Sorge’s run tops for the day.
France’s Antoine Bizet ran into trouble early in his first run but still managed to rile up the crowd as he casually made his way down to them, which only increased everyone’s anticipation for his second attempt. He scored redemption then with a hard and fast line in the upper section of the course which included a quick backflip in tight quarters, following with a big flip over the jump after the Oakley Icon Sender. As a result, Bizet rocketed into second place in his rookie Red Bull Rampage appearance.
St. George, Utah local Logan Binggeli landed on the podium in third with traversing lines across the upper canyon, huge flips and a launch into the quarterpipe/wallride. Spain’s Andreu Lacondeguy earned his second consecutive fourth-place finish at Red Bull Rampage, and Tyler McCaul rounded out the top five with a fast line peppered with multiple burly drops.
Other highlights included Kyle Norbraten’s back-to-back 360 drops, Kyle Strait’s inverts over drop sections, Nico Vink’s solid style throughout his runs, and Cameron McCaul’s step-down flip near the end of his run, which earned him the Utah Sports Commission’s Best Trick Award.
Event favorites Brandon Semenuk and Darren Berrecloth had ambitious plans for their runs, with each landing the more dangerous sections (Semenuk’s wild transfer drop and Berrecloth’s near-vertical routes) only to suffer from minor missteps later in their runs that hurt their scores. Semenuk was able to take solace in the fact that he still earned the year-end FMB World Tour title, however.
Unfortunately, injuries kept several riders out of the Finals, as Red Bull Rampage 2010 winner Cam Zink and second-place finisher Gee Atherton were both forced to withdraw after crashes during Saturday’s practice session. Casey Groves pulled out after a last-minute practice crash on Sunday morning, and Brendan Fairclough, a first-timer at the event who was lighting the course up in the week leading up the event and built a huge canyon gap to launch in the Finals, decided to sit out after a crash in the Qualifier on Friday.
The scoring and commentating ruined the live cast. But anyone who made it down that hill is a hero. Some crazy stuff all round, guys getting scored in the 50s were doing crazier lines than those featured in bike movies… Shame about the injuries preventing Zinc, Atherton and Fairclough from competing, and the very minor crashes that prevented Semenuk and Doerfling from winning. Looking forward to the highlights!
Thought the live feed was pretty rubbish, I appreciate it’s very difficult to film but far too much was filmed from the helicopter. You couldn’t see what variations were being pulled as it was all so distant.
Overall, a disappointment, no progression from the last one either as far as I’m concerned.
i will go with that 100% – i turned it off after 20 minutes as i was totally underwhelmed – shame really but there you go. Gutted i missed the run of Sorge but it will be up on Redbull no doubt, and hopefully edited to be closer to the action.
Great event but I agree the commentary killed it for me. Felt like I was watching baseball or something. Where is Warner when you need him??
Also does anybody really think that the wooden features added anything to this event at all?
All the awesome stuff in the comp happened on the natural features, the wooden stuff is just a distraction – get rid of it I say.
I’m in two minds about that one. On the one hand some riders who dont have the experience or manpower behind them to build lines are at too much of a disadvantage come finals unless they rob someone elses line (a big no-no apparently), so a couple of big wooden features is good for them. On the other hand, just like 2010, if you did the canyon gap the judges didnt give you any points and the “step up to quarter pipe” thing was rubbish so probably needs to go. So I think one or two big features are alright.
If they are going to include features that are so big that the worlds best riders struggle to clear them and are unable to trick them, then they need to be rewarded in the judging for actually hitting these jumps regardless if tricked them or not.
Great event to watch let down badly by the judges…
Cam’s run was easily worth 3rd and tylers was worth 5th ,
Norb’s deserved top 5 also , I think the judges were soooo far off the mark with the scoring that it actually made the whole expereince slightly less enjoyable for me…
The top 3 were judges correctly for me but every thing else was hugely debatable to me.
All in though it was an amazing event and I think we witnessed a lot of progression with how easily people stomp that step down to quater now and the icon sender now seems ‘normal ‘ ( yeah 50foot is normal now ? haha )
And the shher techincality/risk of the upper lines was just off the scale.
I agree the judging seemed a bit off, but it was hard to see what was going on half the time. I guess the judges have a better idea of the difficulty of various lines.
One of the most impressive momments for me was Martin Söderström riding out the 360 with the ripped jeans, much harder than if he had landed it clean.
Agree with all of above, apart from the suggestion that ther was a lack of progression from last event. Gee got 2nd in 2010 for the big drop/hip that was common place last night.
The riding was amazing, but it wasnt the best live event to watch; the helicopter shots made it look tamer than it was. I think the highlights will be amazing though, and as always with Rampage it will leave its mark with great footage and photos emerging over the next week or so.
I wish the judging was done post event though, I’d happily wait a few days for the results as with hindsight I bet there would be a few changes in order.
Okay, you’re right about people hitting tricky lines seemingly more easily this time around, but there wasn’t a single move that topped Zinc’s 360 off the sender from last time was there?
But that is part of the problem! Zinc announced he was going to flip the canyon gap, then C. McCaul obviously got underscored for not flipping the gap. Kinda bullshit. Judges couldn’t hold their expectations. Zinc’s 360 was completely out of the norm, now guys like Norbs who do 2 big 360s make it to 10th spot?!?! What did he need to 360 the Oakley sender twice to win or something?
I thought the footage was pretty good actually. The commentary was fine and well done. The filming was unimprovable – what do you people want? course you’re gonna need a helicopter to film the top section. The sheer scale of the mountain was translated well. People have an aversion to US commentary even if its reasonably knowledgeable. It doesn’t help when Semenuk stone walls the down on the ground reporter.
The helicopter footage was good on the upper sections, it was further down on the set piece areas that I thought it was lacking.
I’m sure the edits that will emerge in the coming week or so will address this though.
I didnt have a problem with the “americanised” commentary, but rather with their attitude in the last hour especially. They just made everything boring and were really condescending about a lot of riders. For me, it should have been a lot more “Great run, but the competition is fierce these days”, than “This is too mellow”, “Safe line” and above all “He was way better in practice”. I know it’s a long cast and the difference in riding level was high from one rider to the next, but everyone who made it down is godlike in my eyes, and deserved a bit more respect/encouragement considering they are literally risking their lives for entertainment. To be fair to the commentators, they obviously got pissed off at so many riders getting underscored by the judges, making their discussion quite difficult.
fyi…Richie Schley is from Canada, not the US…
FYI Canada is part of North America.
I agree, the wide angle helicopter footage was actually better than the close ups for showing the full scale of what the rides were attempting up top but more cameras on the ground would have been better further down.
In thought Semenuk’s stonewalling the interviewer was brilliant TV. In an age when even ‘extreme sports’ athletes seem to be media coached to utter blandness that was a display of his true emotions. Witness his body language even behind goggles and a full face when he realised that guy was going to come over and ask how he felt!
in terms of progression perhaps extend the canyon gap? its 5 years old or thereabouts and the run in is so fast that mccaul didn’t even need to pedal. its a relatively soft – step up landing too. Perhaps add another 10 feet – then the judges might notice. I mean Vanderham pulled a suicide on it a few years ago. There you have it – the canyon gap is too tame nowadays
Even if its in the same place I’m not convinced its the same gap In a ‘if you take a boat apart and rebuild it, is it the same boat?’ kind of way. I dont believe the woodwork has stayed unchanged in place for 2 years since last event. same as the sender, just cause tricks have been pulled in the
Past, it doesn’t mean they will/can be again, especially with variables like wind speed. Lack of tricks is telling; it’s a tough course. If everything was spinable it might as well be at Whistler.
Semenuk’s gap was crazy! I felt he had the winning line if he held out a clean run. So many crashes
Judging was strange. Riding was another level this year!
I’m not convinced by the wood work, but mainly because of the actual wood work that they built. The gap into the hip was just pointless, only MaccyD’Caul went for the huge gap and the Oakley sender everyone just rode off (ok, some with a bit of a tweak). Woodwork needs to be built so that there is at least a possibility of attempting a trick off it. The more natural lines from yesteryear were definitely more impressive, like the line that Bearclaw was ripping.
I agree – the wooden gap jump to quarter pipe was crap and. No pop off the lip and the pipe was just for a direction change as noones going to do a flair on a dh bike, particularly into deep sand. I was excited by nico vinks ‘off piste’ line and the double he’d built on a narrow as f>>> goat track. Special mention – Tyler mccauls 2 runs were both exhilherating. Massive drops and race speed. I agree that Semenuk took the gnarliest line
The riders should judge themselfs – point.
Think I agree the whole helly footage doesn’t show u anything can’t be hard with an event of this nature to ad afew close up cameras with budget etc n hw about Warner or even Brett tippie or sum one to commentate better than that all n all tho the riders have all biking community’s respect for that riding hats off.
how can something so impressive look so boring?
that sorge fella cant pedal for shit
give me a world cup over this any day.
im with you mr dirks, soon as gee banger pulled out i gave it a miss, gees flat out racer style with full race kit was a breath of fresh air. fair play to em tho some of that shit is quite large.
some? come on bud, it’s all fookin maaaaaaaassive.
Same views, camera work was wak! Could of been SO muh better just by knowing how to film!