Behind the Scenes of Vincent Tupin’s Red Bull Rampage

This past October, 21 of the best freeride mountain bikers met in the desert of southern Utah to huck themselves of inhumanly-sized features. Media coverage of this year’s event was better than ever before, but what most of us never see is the preparation the riders put into the event. A large number of riders live in parts of the world where this style of terrain doesn’t exist, so they typically spend a week or two beforehand to acquaint themselves with the intricacies of riding a highly modified DH bike down vertical rock faces and off 40-foot drops.

France’s Vincent Tupin, who competed in Rampage as a rookie this year, spent a week with his build crew and some of his fellow European competitors running laps on legendary freeride trails in the area. When a bunch of stoked Europeans start running trains on King Kong, the old Rampage site, and the local jump trails, you know it’s going to be good!