THROWBACK THURSDAY: THE FIRST RED BULL RAMPAGE

In October of 2001, MBA’s drove out to Southwestern Utah to cover the first Red Bull Rampage. There were only about 100 people there, if that, including the riders, their families, their friends, their sponsors, the Red Bull staff, a few journalists, some photographers, and a few spectators.

“I thought it was a really cool event,” recalls MBA’s John Ker, despite the fact that the event didn’t draw much of a crowd. John shot the photos of the event, including the one on the cover, and he also wrote the article that went in MBA

The Red Bull Rampage was an unusual event for that time, when almost every other mountain bike event seemed to be a race or a bike show.

Kyle Strait, who was MBA’s youngest (and most radical) test rider of the time, was only 14 years old, and he was also the youngest competitor in the event.

That first Red Bull Rampage would end up being won by “The Godfather” of the freeride mountain bike movement, the legendary Wade Simmons of British Columbia.

When it came time for MBA’s publisher Roland Hinz to pick the cover for the issue, though, the photo he liked best for the cover was this one of Richie Schley. Richie was one of Wade’s riding buddies, along with Brett Tippie, and the three of them would be inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame nine years later as “The Froriders.”

Richie was one of the most famous freeriders in the world in those days, but the competition at that first Rampage was tough, and Richie didn’t make the finals in the event.

In one way, though, Richie was one of the biggest winners of the event, since he ended up getting on the cover of MBA with his riding in the event.

Here’s the cover of the February 2002 issue of Mountain Bike Action, showing Richie Schley taking the drop off one of the biggest cliffs in the event.