There has been a bit of talk regarding the risk/rewards of the Redbull Rampage. With one riders very seriously injured this year there has been calls from industry media, and professional riders for and against the current format for Rampage.
I personally like the fact that there are riders pushing the limits of riding and of the equipment we use even as weekend warriors. Without those pushing the boundaries, there would be less innovation and our equipment would not be as good as it is. We all push ourselves based on our own risk/reward perception and the majority of us will never dream of doing what the pros can do. I certainly don’t want to see anyone permenantly injured (already happened) or killed during these events, but love to see the progression in skills and equipment.
Is that perceived image of mountain bikers being ‘crazy’ or extreme risk takers a good image for our sport? How is that going to affect future legitimate trails and events? Are we going to eventually see a rider die in one of these events?
I agree with a lot of voices out there that Redbull needs to compensate/insure these riders at their events as right now, all the risk is on the riders and all the reward is with Redbull (monetary)
Yes, these guys are doing it because the love it and would probably be out there riding extreme stuff and pushing the limits regardless. However, Redbull is spending a lot of money and making a lot of money from this (and similar events), just not putting it in the pockets of the riders and I think they should be. It just seems fair. Without the riders there is no Rampage and without Redbull there is no Rampage (at least not in the grand spectacle sense).
Redbull has EXTREMELY deep pockets and I think they should pull a few bucks out and spread it around among the competitors… Redbull probably spends more in a year on toilet paper than they do on prize money for the Rampage riders.
To answer riderx’s question, I would say it’s quite likely that someone will die in an extreme MTB event like Red Bull Rampage at some point in time. People have died in other MTB events, so why not Rampage? There is a small probability that any rider will die in the event, so if you have enough riders at enough events, then someone will die. Someone could even die of a heart attack because that is relatively common way to die in competition among young athletes (usually due to a congenital heart defect). But of course riderx was referring to dying from an injury due to a crash.
Having said that, ultimately the rider is responsible for determining if a feature is safe to ride (and how to ride it safely). I know I have crashed hard and hurt myself on features that most people find easy to ride. I can’t say if Rampage is too dangerous or not. It’s kind of like saying tight rope walking is too dangerous; it is too dangerous for me but I wouldn’t say it is too dangerous for someone else. I tend to think World Rally (for example) is probably more dangerous than Rampage because if a WRC car goes off course it can kill fans whereas if a Rampage rider goes off course he (or, someday, she) is much less likely to kill any fans.
I don’t think increasing prize money will have any (positive) effect on safety. I checked wikipedia and the prize money has been increasing each year. I also wonder if compensating people for their injuries will have any effect on injury rates. But it is the right thing to do especially since the injured party will have lost the ability to make money from the sport.
