The last week or so has been spent toiling and obsessing over executing a vision and making each line come to life. Today however was a different story as rider started testing out various sections that they had built. Some were triumphant, but quite a few were not.
It was all about Aggy today. He has a couple of small blow outs on a big hip he was working on, but for the most part, everything went well and to say the least, he impressed everyone.
Tom VanSteenbergen also had a huge day. He overshot the 73′ canyon gap, but still landed it ok. His line down into it seems to have him more stressed than the jump itself.
Brendan Howey had a solid day with a couple of small crashes. Katie Holden has been working really hard throughout the whole event as part of his dig crew.
Cam Zink tested out the “mellow” middle of his run and stomped everything quite nicely. He has yet to straight air the big dog, but that will happen today at some point. The “easy” part is the first pic. Look closely and you can see Cam in the upper right corner. He lands off of an initial entry drop, then sends it off this big dog.
What’s up dog? Just killing it at life. How bout you? Same.
Brendan had a huge day and sent his gap successfully. He also stomped a really tricky section leading into it. It’s not that large but incredibly critical(first pic) He also stomped the next two sections after. Dog is looking really good out in Utah this year.
Semenuk showed up casually per usual and just played around a bit. Cool calm and collected. He hasn’t had the best luck at Rampage the last couple of years so this is good to see.
Kelly McGarry was looking really good for a while until he had a huge crash. Fortunately the big guy seems to be OK. He overshot the 73′ canyon gap and landed nearly 100 foot to flat.
Robbie Bourdon showed up.
Classic Wil White shot.
Gully was out rocking with a new custom painted bike. We tried to do a bike check with him but he wasn’t really stoked on it as the bike is still in a developmental stage. No worries Geoff, keep killing it.
K.C. Deane is a legend on skiis but had a hard time here. Plagued with bike issues and big crashes, Rampage came to an end for him yesterday.
Andreu Lecondeguy rolled down the ridgeline about 30 times before finally hitting the big drop. 76′ down for him and Aggy. Rumor has it that he may flip the drop come Sunday.
Nick Pescetto had a solid day until he overshot the canyon gap and hurt his wrist. We will check in with him today and see if he plans to ride.
Jeff Herb is a beast. Last year he spent his time digging T-Macs ridiculous line. This year he rode himself. He sent the canyon gap today and dumped his bike last minute. He walked away fine but we’re unsure about his bike.
Brett Rheeder sent parts of his line successfully quite a few times. Apparently he backflipped this gap step down.
Kyle didn’t try out anything too gnarly today. Why would he? He won last year and finals was still 3 days away. We expect to see him ramp things up tactfully over the next couple of days.
Louis Reboul looked really good today considering this sort of riding isn’t exactly his forte. He stomped the canyon gap and is looking good heading into qualies.
See you tomorrow – we’re off to the site. Long days without much sleep in Utah. Enjoy the show.