Red Bull Rampage 2025: Has the Freeride Torch been Passed?
After this year’s Red Bull Rampage, I think many of us needed a couple of days to let the dust settle. This year’s competition truly embodied what the event is all about. While it included some high highs for riders like Rampage rookie–turned–Rampage champion Hayden Zablotny, it was also a humbling reminder of just how gnarly this event is and what athletes are putting on the line every single time they drop in.
This year’s competition was one that will undoubtedly live in infamy. In its 19th edition, this was more than just another showdown in the desert — this was a seismic event in the history of freeride and the legacy of Red Bull Rampage. The rookies came out swinging, the vets held it down, and we saw an event unlike anything else we’ve experienced before. New legends were born, and longstanding legends were cemented.
From start to finish, the day was bigger than the tricks that went down. After the lineup was announced, I felt like this year’s competition was going to signal a changing of the guard — but come game day, that somehow proved more true than I could’ve even imagined.
The day’s festivities kicked off with Cam Zink dropping first. With a hefty career built at Rampage, it was almost poetic to see the 17-time Rampage competitor and two-time champ drop first. The legend of the sport — and 39-year-old father of two — was the first one to roll off the top, going straight into the biggest chute on the mountain. The Heart as it’s known, has a mandatory 21-foot drop into it, and Cam stomped his way through the high-speed triple drop, topping out at 43 mph. He flowed through the upper section, linking stylish tricks as he made his way to the crux of his run: a step-down flip into a canyon gap, followed immediately by a massive flat-drop 3. Either of those tricks would be a banger on someone’s line — they’re highly technical maneuvers and equally consequential. To do them both — let alone back-to-back — is another feather in the cap of Cam’s legendary status. He made his way to the finish corral and was awarded an 87.00, a hefty score for the first rider to drop of the day.
From there it was a who’s-who of the last few years of Rampage greatness. Bienvenido Aguado laced a line up top on riders’ left before going classically huge — and snapping his frame. Bienve blew the fork straight through the head tube after taking one of his larger drops a few feet too deep. Reed Boggs followed the same ridge as Bienve but was able to take his run top to bottom. After ticking off a feature known as The Goblin, Boggs flipped and spun his way down the rest of his line and rocketed into first place.
Rampage rookie Tomas Lemoine looked locked in from top to bottom. After taking flight on his Stratos Drop up top, Lemoine spun a massive flat drop and manualed a long section of rollers before cruising his way to the bottom with a blend of raw style and utter control. Lemoine took the lead handily with a mix of a unique line and a deep bag of tricks.
As rider after rider dropped, many of the usual storylines started to play out. Rookies like Finley Kirchenmann and Hayden Zablotny both bobbled tricks in their first runs, signaling that the first-run jitters might have gotten to the young competitors early in the the day. Riders like Talus Turk and Jaxson Riddle laced their lines and received decent scores, but once again opened the floodgates of questionable judging — a staple of Rampage scrutiny. Surprisingly, we saw a few more mistakes from riders like Adolf Silva and Luke Whitlock, who both misjudged speed and had unfortunate but understandable crashes. Adolf bobbled mid-run and was forced to jump over his bars on a canyon gap that had been giving him trouble all week, while Whitlock went down on a 360 before the biggest drop on his line. Putting down a run at Rampage is no small feat. Riders re-racked and made their way back up top.
The day took a sharp turn as second runs went down, and from there on out it was a day of high highs and low lows — a roller coaster of triumph and tragedy. Rampage is difficult to even begin to encapsulate: the lines are bigger, the consequences gnarlier, and the opportunities it opens for riders are unfathomable. This is truly an event unlike anything else, and in the matter of an instant — riding the margins of inches — Rampage can swing from one side of the pendulum to the other.
While we saw classically great runs from riders like Thomas Genon and Tom Van Steenbergen, and many others; in the case of riders like Adolf Silva and Emil Johansson, it was a stark reminder of how much these athletes are putting on the line every time they drop in. For people who haven’t been to one of these sites in person, the things that look big and gnarly on TV are a hundred times more intimidating in real life. Emil’s crash was a perfect example. On the very first hit of his second run, he did what any rider chasing a win does — he pushed the limit, tricking every possible feature. He dropped in, and a routine tailwhip turned into a brutal bounce that nearly sent him over a series of cliffs. Watching his bike fly into the abyss and him tomahawking toward what would’ve been near-certain death was a humbling reminder that at this scale, even a few degrees of miscalculation can have brutal consequences. Emil suffered a dislocated hip but was otherwise mostly unscathed.
And with heavy hearts, we have to discuss the elephant in the room — Adolf Silva’s crash.
Rumors of his double flip had been circulating around the venue all week. While you’re excited to see riders pushing the sport to new heights, you also know that as much as the promise of big reward looms, so do the threats of big risk. You don’t earn the nickname “Loco” by playing it safe — but Adolf is a calculated rider, and one who’s been a pioneer of progression for many years. The contributions he and riders like him have made to the sport are immeasurable.
As he descended his line, he rode the canyon gap that had taken him out in run one and made it to the massive step-down he planned to double flip — but from the pull, things just didn’t seem right. For Adolf, it didn’t end how he or any of the rest of us had hoped. In that moment, we all got a brutal reminder of just how much is at stake. In a contest defined by evolution, the same spirit that pushes riders to redefine the limits year after year is the same one that can turn a split-second mistake into pure chaos — or, in Adolf’s case, a life-flight to the nearest hospital.
That’s the paradox of Rampage: progress and peril, always inches apart. With such a fine line between glory and tragedy, it really puts into perspective just how undeniably amazing these athletes are. This is mountain biking’s Super Bowl — but unlike the actual Super Bowl, a mistake doesn’t mean a dropped ball or a turnover on downs. Mistakes out here have serious, potentially life-changing consequences. From all of us at Bike, we’re sending love and support to all the riders who’ve paid the piper for doing what they love and progressing the sport.
Rampage is about riding the line — both literally and figuratively — balancing the possibilities and the realities. In any given year, Rampage is a platform that gives riders a chance to change their lives, and this year, I truly believe we just saw the life of 22-year-old rookie Hayden Zablotny change for the better before our very eyes.
Zablotny is a hardworking and focused young rider who’s hungry to throw down — and on Sunday, he left an undeniable mark on the history of freeride with his second run. After a bobble in his first run, Zablotny dropped in off the top on a new feature he called the Zablin. He flowed effortlessly down some of the gnarliest terrain the venue had to offer, tackling a seldom-ridden part of the mountain and a chute he dubbed Big Unc. Zablotny was on another level of locked-in and after going down early in his first run and was dead-set on making this one count.
Zablo rearranged some tricks in his run and it paid off massively. He traded the spin transfer he fell on in run one for a nac and despite pulling early on a massive flat-drop flip — he stomped it. He nailed an oppo spin, and from top to bottom hit all the judges’ talking points. His line had it all — consequential moments from top to bottom, chutes, big drops, and jumps that matched the terrain and his riding like a hand to a glove. With an exceptional blend of style, line choice, and trick selection, he was awarded a 96.44 and moved into the top spot. Zablotny said he’d never felt a rush like rolling into the finish corral, and judging by the look on his face after receiving his score, it’s safe to say it was a day of many firsts — from first complete run at Rampage to first place. Surrounded by his mom, dad, and sister, Hayden stood beaming, having just accomplished one of his lifelong dreams.
After Emil went down in his second run, three riders remained up top: Talus Turk, Cam Zink, and Reed Boggs. Turk decided not to drop for his second run amidst the delay following Emil’s crash. Nearly two hours after Emil's injury, Cam Zink dropped in for what will undoubtedly go down as one of the most legendary moments in Rampage history.
With the wind blowing strong and sideways, Cam charged The Heart and looked impossibly smooth from top to bottom. He nailed a highly technical run in the upper section and was poised for a top spot after lacing the step-down flip and spin that had us all on the edge of our seats. Heartbreak, however, struck on his second-to-last jump, as a superman seat-grab got the best of him. A potential victory literally slipped through his fingers, and as the legend lay in the dirt wondering how it all went so wrong, a new champions fate was sealed.
With only one rider still up top with a chance to upset Zablotny, the tension mounted as the wind howled through the valley. In the finish corral — surrounded by friends, family, and a sea of cameras Zablotany sat anxiously waiting to see if his life-long dream would come true. Reed Boggs — the young veteran who was in the start gate gave the nod to the camera and thus Zablotny before deciding not to drop in for his second run. The moment was an undeniable passing of the torch from one generation of freeride to the next.
For every legend like Zink, who reminded us why he’s still here (and is undeniably one of the best to ever do it), there was a newcomer rewriting what it means to compete on the stage that is Red Bull Rampage. As the sun dropped behind the mesas and the final scores locked in, it was hard not to feel like we’d just witnessed something pivotal — the day freeride welcomed a new generation into its fold.
Zablotny’s win wasn’t just a personal victory — it was a signal for the next generation of freeride. His run combined everything Rampage has come to represent: vision, technical mastery, and the nerve to trust your instincts on the edge of chaos. Zablotny has been steadily on the come-up since we met in 2022, and I can say almost beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is just the beginning for him and the next generation of freeriders. Zablo is a rider who works incredibly hard, takes advantage of opportunities as they present themselves, and more than anything, leads with his heart and an unrivaled confidence in himself. To come to Rampage as a rookie and leave as a winner is a feat matched only by Brandon Semenuk. Only time will tell if this is the beginning of the rise to G.O.A.T. status for Zablotny.
Because Rampage isn’t about who wins — it’s about what moves the sport forward. And this year, Hayden Zablotny didn’t just win; he began writing a new chapter in how we understand what’s possible on two wheels. He kicked the door open for the next generation and stamped the podium for the up and coming generation of mountain biking's next up.