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Kyle Strait Wins Red Bull Rampage

2.11.2004

Red Bull/Oakley prodigy Kyle Strait took his 2nd major international
freeride competition win for 2004 when he won arguably the biggest event of
its type in the world, the Red Bull Rampage which was decided yesterday in
Virgin, Utah. The event attracts the biggest names in freeride and is an
invitation only event that Kyle has ridden since 2001 when he was only 14,
and finished an impressive 9th.

This year, boosted by his September win in Germany at the "Ride To The Lake"
event, Kyle qualified 3rd for the Rampage finals on Saturday. Unlike other
years, and due to recent wet weather (and snow higher up), the finals
location was not different to the qualifying location, so the 12 riders for
the finals got to further test the gaps and drops from qualifying. Kyle was
a little sore after some training crashes, but had faired better than many
others who didn't get that far due to injuries. Winner of the past two
Rampages, and 2nd in qualifying, Cedric Gracia (FRA) went out in practice
for the finals with a suspected broken shoulder.

Kyle: "My main goal for the 2 runs in the final was to keep it clean and to
get strong but consistent scores. My first run was solid and I got the
scores I wanted from the judges, so then it was a matter of keeping it
together for the final run. I was one of the last to go, and Gee (Atherton)
had a great 2nd run, he really killed it. I heard on the radio that he'd
gone into the lead by 2 points and that I was now in 2nd place."

Next up was Lance Canfield (USA) who crashed in his run and broke his femur
and had to be airlifted from the venue.

"Waiting to ride after Lance crashed was hard. Watching him get airlifted
out wasn't so cool, and to make it worse, it was super cold up top as we
(Thomas Vanderham and I) were the last to go and we had to wait a long time
in our riding gear. Then Thomas went and he crashed towards the end of his
run, and that's when I knew I'd either be 1st or 2nd, my best result ever at
Rampage. I didn't change my planned run after Gee scored well, and after the
other guys crashed out, I just focused on doing my run as I had it in my
head and just keeping it tidy."

Kyle hit everything as planned including the 60 foot gap over which he did
his suicide no hander which most felt was easily the big point scorer. Only
three other riders did that gap all weekend, and Kyle's suicide no hander
got the crowd on their feet.

"When I got to the bottom I had no idea if it was enough to win. I was just
stoked that I did what I wanted to do. People kept coming up to me before
the official results were known and saying 'hey dude, you won Rampage' but I
just kept trying not to get too excited until I heard it over the sound
system."

Shortly after finishing his run it was confirmed that Kyle had indeed won,
and as it was Halloween, he went back to his truck, got into a bear suit and
rode his 50 up to the podium in the full bear suit.

"I just received my new Specialized Demo 8 before the event and it was
perfectly set up for this competition, the perfect bike. The Specialized
crew were on hand to help me all weekend, as were SRAM and Hayes Brakes, so
I'm really grateful for everyone that helped me this weekend".

Great Britian's Gee Atherton (Muddy Fox) who qualified 1st and was beaten by just two points in the final. Gee went to Rampage last year in the hope of getting a
wildcard entry if anyone got injured in training. He super impressed the
judges and organisers and this year secured an invite as one of the 30 official starters.

Having the opportunity to prove that he is more than just one of the best
World Cup Downhill racers was not something Gee was going to let pass. He
dominated the qualifiers with the two best scores of the day that soon had
many in the freeride community asking who he was. His first run in the
qualifiers scored 77.2 points, a clear 3 points ahead of the next placed
rider, Steve Romaniuk (CAN). In the 2nd qualifying run, Gee threw done a run
that scored him 81.2 points, 1 point ahead of Cedric Gracia. In the finals
his two runs were super solid and he put the pressure on the rest of the
field to respond to his 83.8 point second run, and only Kyle Strait could
answer it.

Both riders took a solid bite out of the $15,000 prize purse, and capped off
a great weekend at the Red Bull party....celebrating the end of an era in
Utah. Big thanks to Todd Barber and all at Global Event Management and Jamie
Simon of Red Bull USA for an extraordinary 4 years of free-ride action.

For more information visit www.redbullrampage.com