Here’s some news and photos from our boys competing at the gnarliest mountain bike event ever: the 2010 Red Bull Rampage.
FROM MIKE KINRADE :
Yo boys!
So back in the Kootz now just healing up and wanted to give you an update.
It was practice day for the riders who were in qualifiers. Everyone was over shredding one side of the mountain and I felt like I needed to work my way down my line which was a couple ridges over. I hiked my ass to the top of a line I had built this year which also incorporated some old moves from 2008. I was making my way down under the radar from the rest of the crowds aside from a couple camera men. I made my way down a couple gnarly patches and came to one of the final stepdowns in the line. I had hit this thing before and thought I had the speed all figured out.
When made my final entry into it, I gave it a couple extra pedal strokes just to be on the safe side. This ended up being my downfall. Since the tranny of this jump was short and steep, those 2 extra pedal strokes were enough to clear most of the landing. While I was rolling in I noticed that the run-in felt much faster than before and as I took off I knew instantly that I had WAY TOO MUCH SPEED. I saw the landing disappear underneath me and knew I was going to be in for a heavy landing. I can’t really remember how my leg would have snapped but I suspect it was from digging into the ground so deep that my foot caught in the dirt or a rock OR When I crashed I may have impacted on a rock somewhere at the bottom.
As I lay there on the uneven ground, my attention went to my foot and I saw that it was angled in an unnatural way. I ended breaking my fibia and partially tearing the ligament which connects the Tibia to my foot. I was in surgery within 24 hours and the doctors were very hopeful that I would make a full recovery. Heres some play by play photos.
Photos by: Stef Cande, www.stefcande.com
FROM STEVE ROMANIUK :
It was a tough weekend for the Elka posse in the Utah dessert. Coming in with high expectations and confidence we set out to conquer the event they call rampage. Mike Kinrade, Garret Buehler and myself built in some of the most talked about lines on the course. Original, creative and large. Rolls off the tongue nice but we may have been a little greedy. Mike decided to overshoot his massive step-down to flat breaking his leg and sending him straight to surgery. Garret sent a great run until he went for the Oakley icon sender in gail winds punching his rear wheel straight into the backside of the landing. And for me, I made it all the way to the bottom before going for a huge hip to quarter pipe. Came up inches short and went over the bars. Now we head back to Canada with nothing but broken and bruised limbs. No medals, no money. Feeling robbed, but without a doubt leaving are mark going for the most badass lines on the coarse. At least are Elka shocks survived! Man these things are tuff!
Steve Romaniuk, www.steveromaniuk.com