Photo Epic: Tires in Dirt - Red Bull Rampage 2023 Practice
The second full day of riding at Red Bull Rampage was hot and blustery, as it often is out in Virgin, but riders still got busy putting finishing touches on their lines and continuing to tick off features. Emil Johansson ticked off his new features which link Brett Rheeder’s old line to the road. Kyle Strait and Cam Zink both hit the drop that took Strait out last year, which was huge for Strait. On his second time, Strait cased the following jump and demolished his rear wheel, but walked away otherwise unscathed.
The day's biggest news was that Gee Atherton sent his massive plumb drop. He wasn't planning on riding, and the wind had picked up a bit, but all of a sudden he was kitted up and standing on top of that monster for a good 15 minutes. He rolled into it with a lot of speed, and sent it deep before a heavy crash. He was airlifted to hospital, and we're all sending healing vibes his way. [Note: we're not sharing photos of his crash at this time —Ed.]
Brendan Fairclough spent the day filling in the run out of his canyon gap before testing the run in – there’s a rumor he’ll try and hit it shortly. When Gee crashed, Brendan's team had to turn their attention back up to the battleship build at the top. They'd been sharing the workload with Gee's team, so there's some time pressure to finish that feature now.
Talus Turk spent the day checking off and tricking some of the lower parts of his line before stepping up to his big drop. Turk and Silva took turns running in the big one before Turk finally hit it. Keeping with the theme of the day, the wind picked up again before Silva could hit it. Turk and Silva also share that bit of their line with Reed Boggs who checked off many of his lower features before perfecting the run in on his section of the big drop. Rumor has it Sorge’s crew needs more beer to finish his line–here’s hoping they find some and the wind calms down a bit today.
Daybreak on day two.
Riders took advantage of an early morning wind-free window to tick off some of their features.
Not only is water useful in the desert, it also looks amazing in morning light.
The wind was fairly calm earlier in the morning.
Few riders look at comfortable in the air as Reed Boggs.]
Carson Storch and his Metallica inspired bike after sessioning the stepdown he shares with Tom Van Steenbergen.
Talas Turk hit his big drop.
Talus hitting his biggest feature.
Take two.
Tommy G stylish as ever lower on the hill.
Adolf's crew (and Dan Wolfe).
Talus flipping a lower feature.
Adolf Silva putting the pieces together.
DJ Brandt watching out for snakes.
Gee stood there looking at his monster drop for 15+ minutes, before taking a heavy slam. Heal up Gee!
Brendan's canyon gap is terrifying from every angle, but he did manage to test the run-in without going off the end.
Builds have come together nicely.
Go this way please.
Dialling things in.
Tom Van Steenbergeen using last light to water down his line.
Cam & Kyle.
Sunset over Red Bull Rampage.
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