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Red Bull Rampage marks 25 years back at its original 2001 site in Virgin, Utah, with women's finals on 8 October and men's finals on 10 October.
Red Bull Rampage, the invite-only freeride event in the Utah desert, marks its 25th anniversary this week with its 20th running, and it has gone back to where it started. The 2026 edition is on the original site on Kolob Terrace Road near Virgin, in south-west Utah, which hosted the event from 2001 to 2004.
Twelve women ride the finals on Thursday 8 October and 18 men on Saturday 10 October. Both start at 10am Mountain Time, which is 5pm in the UK, and are shown live on Red Bull TV (women's finals, men's finals) and the Red Bull Bike YouTube channel.
A hillside built from scratch
Red Bull says the venue is the tallest in the event's history, with 207m of vertical descent across about 90 acres, and it adds a new section of terrain above the original site. The hillside is almost untouched, so there are no lines left over from earlier years: each rider and their two diggers have spent the days before finals building a way down with hand tools and the natural terrain.
"We're at a whole new venue which means there's nothing here that was built in the past to start with," said Hannah Bergemann, riding her second Rampage. "We're all just starting with a mountain side and turning it into the venue that we will be riding in the competition."
Women and men drop from the same start gate this year. That leaves less room at the top, so some riders will share parts of their lines in the upper sections. The heat has been a factor too. "It's super warm so physically challenging and a new venue," said Thomas Genon. "We asked for it, we have it, now we have to deal with it and find our way down."
There is no timing. On finals day each rider gets two runs, a panel of judges scores each one, and the best single run wins. The top four from 2025 in each category qualified automatically; the rest were invited as wildcards by a committee of former competitors, pro riders, judges and industry figures. Robin Goomes (New Zealand) is the two-time defending women's champion, and Hayden Zablotny (Canada) won the men's event in 2025.
British riders
Kade Edwards and Mikayla Parton are both in as wildcards, and it is Parton's first Rampage invitation. Tom Isted was also invited as a wildcard, but Pinkbike reports that he broke his thumb while building his line and will not ride the finals.
Watch
Red Bull's build-up includes 25 years of winning runs on Red Bull Bike and a dig-week report from Rob Warner and Eliot Jackson on the Just Ride YouTube channel, both below. Lineups and the venue guide are on the Red Bull Rampage event page.
Photos: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool