THE O-DUB TRACK WALK

Dig crew member Olly Wilkins talks us through the main features of Brendan’s Rampage run

From my point of view, we built our dream Rampage run this year. I really do feel like we ticked every single box that we’d assigned ourselves. Last year was amazing and we knew we had a solid run. This year was about building o that and improving something already worthy of a top finish. I was very lucky to get to build such a wild line and watch it get ridden with such steeze by my best friend.

FIRST DROP

Bren’s line started with a hipped landing o the start drop – a truly horrible technical feature. The straight drop had so much run-out in case you got it wrong, but not Brendan’s version! It then snaked through giant boulders onto the cli edge and over a baby canyon. If that canyon was back at home, it’d be a feature we all talked about. Not at Rampage though – it’s merely a speed check for the diving-board drop.

DIVING-BOARD DROP

This thing was gnarly! Around 30ft down and 20ft out, it was a hard one to judge. Brendan was locked up after the previous canyon and desperately trying to scrub o speed. A lot of Rampage is about that – ditching speed rather than gaining it. The steep terrain means you’re rarely going to be searching for any extra run-in, quite the opposite. The run-out for the drop headed around a turn and into a blind hip. These set you up for the world-famous (and terrifying) ‘Dwayne Johnson’ rock.

DWAYNE JOHNSON AKA ‘THE ROCK’

This rock is one of the most awful things you can stand on top of and imagine jumping o with your bike. It’s so, so high. Dwayne is visible from everywhere on the Rampage site for a reason. The drop has to be hit at almost no speed, meaning that it’s supersketchy in the wind. The landing is nearly vertical and the run-out is one of the worst on the whole mountain. This thing is truly a sight to behold. It’s kept me, Deaks and Bren up at night many times – I hope that one day it rolls down the hill! After landing The Rock you have a World Cup DH track down a ridgeline into 2019’s scariest feature (for me), Redemption Canyon!

THE CANYON

Brendan has a canyon every year. This time, it changed from a gap to a jump. We spent so much time building it up so that Bren could flip it. What we ended up with looked plausible from some angles and impossible from others. Amazingly, Bren made it happen. I like to think we scienced it out to some extent, but the reality is that he’s just a really good rider! Easily the tensest moment in all of my Rampages to date was when I stood next to this jump waiting for Brendan to drop in. Luckily, it was followed shortly after by the very best – when me and Deaks chased after Brendog!

THE CRACK

This feature is, I reckon, superunderrated. It’s a completely vertical crack in the cli with a double drop included. The Crack really encapsulates what Rampage is about for me. Bren has no opportunity to stop or calm down what’s going on until he reaches the very bottom of the landing to the second drop. Incredibly, he really doesn’t mind riding this one. Personally, I’d probably pick this as my least favourite on the entire run.

THE GIANT UK DIRT JUMP

We built this last, because I was looking forward to it so much. Hidden away against a cli backdrop, this jump is actually a monster. Brendan learned flip tuck no-handers into Matt Jones’s airbag one day before leaving for the desert. Then the day before finals he landed his first one over this beast of a jump – what a guy! I’m going to build one at home, because apparently it was the best jump ever. It’s a shame I’ll never get to hit it. From this point on, we made a goat track to get Brendog across the finish line. What a line and what a run!