Vernon’s Brett Rheeder Takes First Place in Red Bull Rampage Mountain Bike Competition – Vernon News

Vernon’s Brett Rheeder took first place in one of the biggest mountain bike competitions in the world on Friday.

Red Bull Rampage is an invitation-only freeride mountain bike competition held in the Utah desert since 2001. Over the years it has become the go-to place for the best downhill riders in the world.

The high-risk competition includes high-speed falls over huge rocky cliffs and jumps that involve flips, spins and other tricks. Riders are scored based on their line choice, technical skill, and the complexity and amplitude of their tricks.

British Columbia was well represented at the event this year, with five of the 18 invited riders being from the province.

Most years riders have two chances to hit their best run, but this year strong winds increased at the site after the first runs were completed. Due to the risk, neither rider decided to risk a second run and Vernon’s Brett Rheeder was crowned the winner based on his first run score – 90.66.

This was Rheeder’s second Rampage win, becoming only the fourth person to have multiple wins at the event. He had to sit out last year’s event due to injury and seemed overcome with emotion after his winning run.

“It was almost perfect,” he said. “I’m at a loss for words because it was a big run and it’s been a really long time since I’ve been here. And it worked.”

Rheeder was born in Ontario but has made Vernon’s home since 2016.

Tom Van Steenbergen, also from Vernon, also competed in Rampage this year, a year after sustaining catastrophic injuries in a fall at last year’s event.

After landing a front flip off a massive drop on his first run of 2021 — a move that would land him the best trick award — Van Steenbergen landed awkwardly on the next jump and went over his bars. He fractured a vertebra, a rib, a femur and both hip joints in the accident.

After a long year of recovery, Van Steenbergen resumed the intimidating course on Friday, successfully completing his only run.

“The most important part is coming down here and kind of keeping my word on what I came here to do…consciously not doing any big tricks this year but just happy to make it here and get to the bottom of it,” said him after that first run.

“I had something bigger planned, but I decided to pull the plug because I wasn’t feeling well and I just had to do it.”

Van Steenbergen hosts an annual slopestyle mountain bike competition in Big White. But while present at the local resort in August, he did not compete as he was still recovering from his injuries.

For his triumphant comeback, Van Steenbergen received the McGazza Spirit Award for “embodying the late Kelly McGarry’s spirit of loving everyone, always being positive and never giving up”. The winner of the prize is chosen by the other drivers.

Whistlers’ Brandon Semenuk, the four-time champion of Rampage, took third place this year after winning the previous two years.

Kurt Sorge from Nelson finished seventh after taking home silver last year. Nelson’s Alex Volokhov, who was in his first Rampage, was unable to compete on Friday after suffering an injury in practice.

The riders and their team arrive at the venue several days in advance and spend many grueling hours in the desert building their own personalized lines on the rock face. During his post-win interview, Rheeder credited his build team for most of his win.

“It was a huge build, eight days of intense building with shovels, pickaxes and rakes. It was a mission,” he said. “You bend over backwards for me. It’s incredible.”

Rheeder’s team received the Digger Award for their hard work.

Photo: Instagram – Red Bull Bike

Brett Rheeder celebrates winning Red Bull Rampage Friday.