Leaps Of Faith

In the arid wilds of Utah, elite riders clear 20m canyon gaps and fly down sheer cliff faces. But what drives them to tread such a precarious line between glory and disaster? MH dropped into the world’s most dangerous mountain-biking competition to find out

- Scarlett Wrench

Near the top of a prehistoric mesa in Zion National Park, Utah, is a sand-coloured boulder the size of a small truck.

It clings precariously to the side of the mountain, poised to plummet to the desert floor below. And it has a fitting name: Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. The Rock was christened by Brendan Fairclough, a 30-year-old freerider from Surrey, who is planning to ride his bike off the top of it.

Once he’s done that, Fairclough explains to MH, pointing up at the vertiginous mountain in front of us, he’ll race down its ridges, sail over its canyons and roll across the finish line, a 237m near-vertical drop below the start gate. These are not the kinds of runs that bikes are designed to handle – nor humans designed to survive.

The Red Bull Rampage is a mountain bike competition unlike any other. Competitors must be invited to take part by a committee of veteran riders, and only the best merit a spot. It’s not a race to the bottom, though points are awarded for speed. Riders are judged on a number of criteria, including airtime and tricks, as well as more virtuoso factors such as fluidity and style. To put it bluntly, they are rewarded for taking risks: riders score points for their willingness to tread the narrow line between victory and injury.

Rampage was founded in 2001 by Todd Barber, who took his inspiration from big-mountain skiing and snowboarding competitions. The first event attracted a motley crew of dirt jumpers, slopestylers and downhill racers. It was, in a sense, the UFC of mountain-biking: a mixed-discipline event, at which competitors pitted their skills against riders from a broad spectrum of backgrounds, with no guarantee as to who would come out on top.