TLD Bike | Brandon Semenuk wins RAMPAGE and Peoples Choice!
BRANDON BECOMES A 2X WINNER OF REDBULL RAMPAGE AND VOTED "PEOPLES CHOICE" BY THE FANS
ANOTHER REDBULL RAMPAGE HAS COMMENCED AND TLD HAD THE LARGEST & MOST SUCCESSFUL TEAM IN THE DESERT. READ ON FOR THE STORY ON OUR CREW; SEMENUK, VAN STEENBERGEN, ZINK AND FAIRCLOUGH!
BRANDON SEMENUK TAKES HOME
$70,000 1st PLACE PRIZE & A POLARIS RAZOR
FOR PEOPLES CHOICE!
Brandon Semenuk came to Utah with his dig team, as he has for almost 10 years to build an impressive and innovative line down the raw southwestern landscape and hopefully come out of the event with another win as he did when he was 16 years old, in 2008 which was his first RedBull Rampage. Brandon's challenges were a bit different as he came into the event nursing a severely torn ligament on his thumb that will require surgery. So, with a special brace made for his hand and thumb, a modified ACE glove, Brandon survived days of digging to complete one of the most memorable runs in history.
Days of construction shaping the terrain with his boys Evan and Justin, created a spectacular line, that many had said "if he can clean that run, it will be the winning run" and sure enough, it was clean perfection. From the start of the peak Brandon immediately dropped in a couple steep drops leading into the gauntlet-one of the most technical, steep and gnarly chutes on the mountain, this led him into his massive 50' gap where he did a flat 360 spin on a gap so huge it required more than a few burly pedal strokes-pedaling downhill-in his hardest gear to get the speed to clear it-it was phenomenal.
A few more gnarly bits before Brandon arrived to his little ledge-lilly pad that was chipped into the hillside where he pulled a flat drop back flip and the crowd lost it, to stand on that ledge-let along flip it was something thought impossible. Brandon scored an 84.33 on his first run, this would later go on to not only win the event, but his first run also overwhelmingly won the PEOPLES CHOICE voting that went on during the event-seen worldwide by over 10 million people. This put Brandon into the record books as only one of 3 riders to ever win Rampage 2 times.
Brandon wore his custom painted TLD PAINT Carbon D3 helmet with MIPS, ACE gloves, Tbone Knee Guards and debuted the new 2017 SPRINT kit, 'Red 50/50' that will be available for sale with the new 2017 Spring collection coming early 2017. Brandon walked out of the event with $70k in prize money and by winning the Peoples Choice fan voting-for the 2nd year in a row, he wins another Polaris Razor 4 wheeler!.
"I want to thank all the fans at home that voted for me, everyone rode so sick today, built crazy lines, I think it was hard to pick a favorite. My run was pretty dialed, I couldn't have done much more, it's so gnarly up there, and after days of digging and sculpting, you really have one goal, to make it down without getting hurt. I was psyched on my new Sprint kit, red and dark red looked sweet in the desert! Just headed back home to get my thumb surgery done recover quick and get back to filming, we have some super sick projects coming with REVEL Co. that I can't wait to show to everyone" Brandon Semenuk said at the finish.
Video link to Brandon's winning run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqY3LBawDXc
Entire Redbull Rampage re-broadcast
http://www.redbull.tv/live/AP-1M77N5KZ92111/red-bull-rampage
CAM ZINK SURVIVES A HUGE 360 DROP CRASH
Cam Zink always comes to Rampage to go big, this year certainly did not disappoint. As the undisputed king of world record flips and 360's, most had an idea of what Cam would attempt. As suspected it was the mid section of the mountain where Cam would build his takeoff for a huge 360 spin, falling 100'+ down the face of a cliff that basically resembled an elevator shaft. In his finals run Zink over rotated quite a bit, which blew his tire off the rim on impact and forcing him into the ground landing on his head and right hand. Zink was immediately back up, thanks to the MIPS D3 and rise up to see his wife Amanda and daughter Ayla running to him. Cam was going to be ok, but his thumb was too sore to push his shift lever and hang on to yank another 360, so he decided wisely to not go back up for a 2nd run.
Zink did debuted a new Sprint Kit for 2017, Starburst Yellow and Blue and it looked brilliant against the desert mountain terrain, he decided to wear shorts today that showed off those new RAID knee guards for 2016. We also did some custom paint work on Cam's YT bike that added to the classic TLD look for Cam. Zink commented while icing his thumb in the rider tent; "I am pretty bummed I just torqued that spin too hard, it was getting a little breezy and I thought I needed some extra spin, I ended up doing a 420 spin instead (laughs), luckily the landing is so steep, I was able to roll out of it pretty good. Kit was on point, custom painted bike looked rad and I will be ok for the next one, get well Aggy!"
TOM VAN STEENBERGEN PULLS OFF AN INSANE FRONT FLIP!
Tom has a had year of recovery and what gnarlier of a comeback event than RedBull Rampage!? Tom had ACL reconstruction a year ago which always takes time to get back up to top shape, but Tom was more than ready. If you recall it was Tom Van Steenbergen who attempted the worlds biggest front flip at last years RedBull Rampage, he landed it, but got bucked so hard on the landing he was tossed away and unable to compete. Tom is a master of front flips on terrain that doesn't seem possible for doing front flips-but what people may not know is what a master all around mountain bike rider Tom is. He built a line that was classic, big mountain free ride, sharing the upper portion with his Trek Bicycles team mate, Brandon Semenuk. Tom's big moment of his Rampage was his front flip after the steep upper chute, it was a sight to be seen and can be seen on the Rampage replay here: http://www.redbull.tv/live/AP-1M77N5KZ92111/red-bull-rampage Tom got up and was ok with his score being enough to be invited back to the 2017 Rampage.
Tom chose to wear his stealth looking all black SPRINT kit and MIPS D3, Raid Knee Guards, AIR gloves. Great to have Tom back on the circuit, at only 19 years old, he has a bright future ahead. If you haven't seen his edit, THIS IS HOME, make sure you see it:
https://vimeo.com/185736985
BRENDAN FAIRCLOUGH BUILDS ONE OF THE MOST DEMANDING LINES
While many had said Semenuk's line was a winning line, everyone was talking about Brendog's line as being one of the most insane. Brendan had come to Utah with the mission of building a mellow-racier type of line, as he was coming off World Cup DH season but also has more filming to do with Clay Porter for next year's release of "Death Grip" film project, but things went a bit sideways in the middle of the build session when Bren and his crew built a couple of massive canyon gaps. On that practice run Brendan made it 49' of the 50' gap, cased it hard, went over the bars just 2 days before finals and the impact was enough to cause severe swelling in his thumbs. Brendan made the wise decision to sit out of the finals, focusing on his upcoming film projects and ultimately getting back to what he does best-Downhill Racing.
Brendan had a brand new SPRINT kit to debut too, from the 2017 line, so you will just have to wait until early 2017 to see it. Brendan's crash in practice that caused him to sit out:
https://www.facebook.com/brendan.fairclough/videos/1000675193375509/