MTB
Graham Agassiz and Makken Haugen give us a tour of their spartan Rampage accommodations.
Day one at Red Bull Rampage means a few things for the riders: anxious scouting for new lines, hiking in the hot sun, and digging... a lot. Rampage is not like any other contest, where competitors show up to a groomed course, do their thing and split -- they're actually putting in grueling work days to make their vision of mountain biking a reality.
So when the day is done, these top athletes relax at a five-star hotel to refresh and recharge for the following day, right? Not exactly. This is a tough bunch of dudes, and things like bubble baths and 800-count sheet sets are not on their list of priorities. Or even a bed, in some cases.
During day one's afternoon siesta, when the desert sun at the venue is at its highest intensity, competitors Graham Agassiz and Makken Haugen escaped to relax at their temporary homes and allowed us a peek into their Rampage sleeping quarters, which may surprise you.
"We're pretty dialed," says Aggy as he walks us through his digs in the above video. "We've got a nice little flatscreen TV here, no big deal...we've got everything we need here."
Then there are the less luxurious options -- i.e. a rented crew-cab pickup -- as Norway's Haugen shows us. "This is my car," he says. "I've been crashing here for four or five days and I have two weeks left. It makes it a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning because you're so ready to get out of it."
Red Bull Rampage competitors aren't just tough on the mountain -- it's a full-time job for these guys.
Watch them compete in the live webcast of the finals on Sunday, September 28 starting at 12:30 p.m. MT, on the official Red Bull Rampage site, as well as Red Bull TV.
