I agree but I have to air a couple grievances: First, you never said why you love or hate Rampage. Unless I missed that part. Second, are you really worried about nationality bias or was that tongue-in-cheek? I'm all for a diverse group of judges, but I see little evidence of bias. Of all Rampage podiums, 11 have been from the USA. 28 from elsewhere. Winners? 3 from USA and 10 from elsewhere. If anything there's a Canada bias, with 62% or wins. Or, maybe winners tend to be riders who come from big mountains and have easier access to southern Utah and similar terrain?
I love a good conspiracy theory, but maybe the reality is, this is just a really hard event to judge. For a few reasons. You have a group of riders from multiple disciplines, who do not compete on the same course, and whose terrain is difficult for the judges (and even harder for the public) to comprehend. I can't think of another event that is this tricky.
Maybe the judges pretty much have it all right according to their criteria and the public just has different tastes, or even worse, we're just clueless about what's really going on out there?
Here's my two cents: after all the hype and all the hard work, it kills me to not see any one of those guys not complete their line. The fact that we didn't get to see everything Semenuk was planning ruined it for me. So I would propose more practice time or more runs in the final. Enough that everyone has a legit shot at cleaning their line.
Second, I'm sick of hearing everyone's opinion except the riders. Why not let the riders pick the winner? They could vote on best overall run, most technical line, best trick... how could we argue with their choice? Not a complete jam session like Fest, but maybe bring in some Fest-type elements? Would that ruin the bottom line for Redbull?
Nov. 8, 2018, 8:19 p.m. - Brigham_Rupp
I agree but I have to air a couple grievances: First, you never said why you love or hate Rampage. Unless I missed that part. Second, are you really worried about nationality bias or was that tongue-in-cheek? I'm all for a diverse group of judges, but I see little evidence of bias. Of all Rampage podiums, 11 have been from the USA. 28 from elsewhere. Winners? 3 from USA and 10 from elsewhere. If anything there's a Canada bias, with 62% or wins. Or, maybe winners tend to be riders who come from big mountains and have easier access to southern Utah and similar terrain? I love a good conspiracy theory, but maybe the reality is, this is just a really hard event to judge. For a few reasons. You have a group of riders from multiple disciplines, who do not compete on the same course, and whose terrain is difficult for the judges (and even harder for the public) to comprehend. I can't think of another event that is this tricky. Maybe the judges pretty much have it all right according to their criteria and the public just has different tastes, or even worse, we're just clueless about what's really going on out there? Here's my two cents: after all the hype and all the hard work, it kills me to not see any one of those guys not complete their line. The fact that we didn't get to see everything Semenuk was planning ruined it for me. So I would propose more practice time or more runs in the final. Enough that everyone has a legit shot at cleaning their line. Second, I'm sick of hearing everyone's opinion except the riders. Why not let the riders pick the winner? They could vote on best overall run, most technical line, best trick... how could we argue with their choice? Not a complete jam session like Fest, but maybe bring in some Fest-type elements? Would that ruin the bottom line for Redbull?