FLASHBACK FRIDAY: BRANDON SEMENUK SCORED THE COVER OF MBA
He didn't win Rampage that time, but he still made the cover
Brandon Semenuk scored the cover of our January 2013 issue of Mountain Bike Action with this jump off one of the cliffs at the 2012 Red Bull Rampage.
Semenuk has won the event five times so far, taking the title at Rampage in 2008, 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2024.
The top three riders in the 2012 Rampage were Kurt Sorge, with a score of 86.75; Antoine Bizet (of France), with a score of 79.00; and Logan Bingelli, with a score of 78.50. By the way, Logan rode a 27.5-inch-wheeled downhill bike in the event, and he told us that he would never ride a 26-inch downhill bike again.
Semenuk ended up 14th in the 2012 Rampage, with a score of 63.25, which is a good indication that his run didn’t go nearly as well as he planned, since Semenuk always does everything he can to win the event.
Among the other riders in the event, Tyler McCaul came in fifth and Cameron McCaul placed seventh.
Kyle Strait placed ninth that year, matching his finish in the first Rampage in 2001, when he was only 14.
Brett Reeder placed 17th. He and Kyle Strait have each won the event two times over their years of competing in it.
Rampage is a vey challenging event. The riders take a lot of risks, and even the world’s best riders will sometimes crash when they’re trying to put together a winning run there.
