Brendan Fairclough won’t be at Red Bull Rampage in 2025, after revealing just how “gutted and butt-hurt” he is about finishing in 11th place at this year’s event, his worst result in nine years riding the famous freeride competition.

“I basically never ever want to go back and entertain it again,” he said in an interview for The Ride Companion, a podcast hosted by his longtime friend, and dig partner at Rampage, Ollie Wilkins. 

Brendan Fairclough and Ollie Wilkins discuss their Rampage results in 2024

Red Bull Rampage was mired in controversy after Brendan ticked off arguably the gnarliest line in the event’s illustrious history, one that included a chute so exposed it seemed impossible, but scored just 76 points. The crowd watching at Virgin in Utah booed the result as it happened, and social media lit up with outraged fans.

For reference, the top three riders at Rampage 2024 all scored over 90, with Brandon Semenuk scoring 92.73. Szymon Godziek came second with 91.66 and Tyler McCaul finished third scoring 90.66. Red Bull Rampge is probably the gnarliest bike event on the planet, it sees riders compete to build and then ride the most aggressive and stylish lines possible.

Brendan said the sheer amount of work that went into his run at Rampage, from his dig team including Ollie and Ben Deakin, to his sponsors, and the impact on their respective families, was the cause of his decision not to want to return in 2025.  

It’s also possible Brendan wouldn’t even be welcome at the event next year, as only the top eight finishers automatically qualify for the following year. “And then we had a comment from a judge at the end,” Brendan says. “What was it?”

“Film and edit and you’ll be in with a chance for an invitation next year,” Ollie replies. The irony wasn’t lost on either Brendan or Ollie, both of which are established YouTubers who arguably provided the best Rampage coverage this year. Brendan put out ten full videos from Rampage, while Ollie pumped out eight.

Despite the ridiculously unfair result from this year, neither Brendan nor Ollie actually appear unduly bitter about the result, with Ollie pointing out what a difficult job the judges have. “Honestly, you’re talking to a lot of people with a lot of experience and it’s easy to hate on them,” he says. “But should you have won Rampage 2024?” he asks. 

“Definitely not,” Brendan replies. “I do think this time [the judges] made a few big errors. Not necessarily with our result, but further up the pack. It’s errors if you sat them down they couldn’t explain themselves out of, which is the problem. The whole atmosphere there was completely ruined by it, it was a really weird vibe, there was no energy there, everyone was deflated.”

Judge’s support

It’s all the more weird then that the Rampage judges seem to have told Brendan just how much they appreciated his wild line. 

“What makes me bummed is each judge came up to us and was saying individually how sick our line was, how much the sport needs this line. ‘Please stay on your bike, please get this done, the sport need this, this is so sick’

“We even had apologies for last year’s event. We had some apologies from last year’s performance [from the judges]. Honestly I’m not salty about last year’s performance, it’s all up to opinion.”

End of an era?

Is this the end of Rampage as the coolest event in mountain biking then? Certainly there are plenty of riders missing from freeride’s premium competition: Brage Vestavik, Kade Edwards, Kaos Seagrave and Vinnny T, to name just a few, and Brendan looks set to join them. Their omission can only hurt the event.

Rampage has also increasingly become a slopestyle event, where tricks are valued more highly than raw lines, which is off putting for many of us. In the end perhaps Rampage 2024 will go down as a pivotal year then, and give greater licence to Red Bull Hardline, which grew into a two-event series in 2024.