Previous Rampage winner Cédric Gracia has voiced concerns that the event is becoming more about built-up slopestlye tricks rather than freeride hucking.

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Cedric sez: “They’re going to be building and building and building. Please guys, I hope it’s not going to be a slopestyle. This is big mountain biking. I hope they’re going to consider this as […] judges. Because we used to go there with a rake, a shovel, fix the takeoff, we fix the landing. Even if we knew there was a lot of chance we go over the bar at the landing, that was part of the deal.

“We tried to keep it natural and that was part of big mountain riding.”

“That’s what made Rampage so unique and so exceptional.”

As a previous Rampage winner he has the right to comment. Check out his winning Rampage run from 2003.

Cedric is also a bit unimpressed at the news that a lot of riders are using the same lines that they used at last year’s event (albeit tweaked in a few ways); “Do we really want this? Um… no. I think we want to see new stuff.”

Is this criticism just ‘eee, back in my day’ nostalgic killjoying of the new wave of riders, or does Cédric have a point? Even though the tricks have got bigger and more dangerous, as a spectator event Rampage doesn’t feel quite as sketchy or on-the-ragged-edge as it used to.

We have been here before. And not that long ago either. Red Bull moved Rampage to its new site only last year. This was as a response to similar criticisms as Cédric’s; the wooden super-structures of the previous era of Rampage had seen the event resemble a bikepark slopestyle event that just happened to be located in a Utah desert.

It seems some folk, and it’s not just Cédric, are still not happy with the modern Rampage.