The most important mountain bike freeride competition "Red Bull Rampage" in Virgin (USA) once again gets the spectators' blood pumping. Almost unrideable downhill lines and huge, unimaginable jumps over which the athletes perform daring tricks push the boundaries of what is possible in mountain biking. American Kyle Strait wins the "Rampage" for the second time after his victory in 2004. The decisive factor in his triumph was his jump from the highest drop, where he performed a "suicide nohander", taking both hands off the handlebars and behind his back, and landed perfectly.

Cameron Zink is one of the big favorites to win. He makes his ambitions clear by doing a backflip and jumping the big "Oakley Sender", the biggest drop. Having been confident, Zink makes a big mistake. Instead of making the most of the remaining jumps, the American casually rides to the finish and shortly afterwards experiences disillusionment when the points judges rank him second. Zink was also denied the chance to do better in the second run. The strong wind prompted the organizers to cancel the second run and only score the first one.

Zink even slipped back a place. New Zealander Kelly McGarry starts the first run as the last of the 25 "Rampage" participants. McGarry already shows a backflip in the technical terrain. Shortly afterwards, he is the only rider to jump a backflip over the 22-meter-wide "Canyon Gap". The judges reward the New Zealander with second place.A loud roar goes up among the Swiss fans when Ramon Hunziker is sent out onto the course. Hunziker, who finished 16th last year, rides a steep and technically demanding line. On the huge jumps, the skier from Thun avoids rotations and instead opts for a clean style. This tactic brings him up to eleventh place. Astonishing when you consider that Hunziker qualified in twelfth place. As the top twelve riders from the previous year are each pre-qualified for the final round, a further thirteen riders have the opportunity to qualify for this round.

At such an extreme competition, crashes are not far away. Some athletes had to leave the competition area with concussions or on stretchers. Despite the difficulty of this competition, however, it is amazing that no serious accidents occur.