‘Super Bowl’ of mountain biking is about to happen in Utah

Eighteen of the world’s most elite mountain biking daredevils are coming to southern Utah this Friday for the 17th edition of Red Bull Rampage.

Riders from the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Sweden and Poland will be competing in what’s been called the “Super Bowl” of mountain biking. It’s an iconic freeride competition where riders hurtle down exposed desert ridges and throw themselves off of massive jumps while performing daring tricks.

This year, Red Bull Rampage will be returning to a venue of red desert cliffs located just outside of Virgin, Washington County. It’s the same site that hosted the competition from 2008 to 2013 as well as the 2022 Red Bull Rampage.

Hundreds of spectators will come to southern Utah to watch the contest. Tickets went on sale Aug. 31 and sold out soon after, starting at over $125 a ticket for basic entry.

“The rules are pretty simple — ride down a mountain to the bottom of it, in one piece, in as spectacular a way as possible,” Red Bull Rampage’s website states. “The mountain doesn’t have a natural route down, so athletes have to transverse it and jump across sections to find a way down. The athletes have to determine a line down the mountain that best suits their style. You may see athletes perform tricks on their lines or simply show off technical riding skill on their way down.”

Ahead of the event, competitors and their teams spend days digging and building to shape their lines and jumps to their liking. It’s not a timed race, but rather a judged trick contest.

“On finals day, riders will get two race runs to ride their lines down to the bottom of the mountain,” Red Bull Rampage’s website states. “They’re judged on those lines by a panel of judges and receive a score at the end of it. The athlete with the highest scored run wins the event. If there’s a tie, the rider with the highest score of the two runs added together wins.”

In addition to the overall winner, Rampage has special awards to recognize toughness, style, best trick and the best digger. There’s also a people’s choice award that allows viewers to cast their votes online for their favorite run.

History: The first Red Bull Rampage took place in 2001 near Zion National Park. After its fourth edition, the competition went on a hiatus due to limitations of the venue and safety concerns, according to a 2018 post on Redbull.com. It was unclear if Rampage would ever return until 2008, when the new Virgin venue offered “far gnarlier terrain.”

The first 2001 competition offered a total purse of $8,000, while today Rampage “offers hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money” to its winners, according to the post.

Overall, 16 different events have taken place and 10 different winners have conquered what Red Bull deems “the world’s toughest freeride mountain bike event.”

In 2022, Brett Rheeder from Canada won with a run that included a flip off a 48-foot drop plus a string of other complex tricks combined with steep technical terrain. Judges awarded Rheeder with a score of 90.66, marking the second time he’s claimed the title, per International Mountain Bike Magazine.

Rampage is also known for some gnarly crashes. Last year, U.S. rider Kyle Strait fractured three vertebrae after coming up short on a huge drop during a practice session ahead of the competition. Strait was the only rider to compete in every Red Bull Rampage since it began in 2001 until his 2022 crash, according to Gear Junkie. Recovered from his injuries, Strait has returned to compete again this year.

Why aren’t any women competing? Like all previous iterations of Rampage, the 2023 lineup of competitors are all men — an issue that has been sparking controversy recently.

The absence of women participants in the 2023 lineup announcement “was a disappointing reveal for women’s freeriding fans” after Red Bull canceled its noncompetitive women’s freeride event, Formation, earlier this year, Outside Magazine reported last month.

In a recent statement to Pinkbike in response to a request for comment about the lack of women competing in Rampage, Red Bull said it is exploring creating a women’s category.

“Red Bull Rampage is the most difficult freeride mountain bike competition in the world. For this reason, a selection panel invites the best 18 riders globally to compete,” Red Bull said in the statement. “We are exploring with industry experts how we might develop a women’s category at Red Bull Rampage.”

How to watch: For U.S. viewers, the event will be broadcast Friday live on ESPN+ beginning at 9:15 a.m., first featuring a pre-show, then finals starting at 10 a.m.

It will also be available on Red Bull TV for other countries, and streamed in seven languages including English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.