Biker's Heaven

World champion Gee Atherton takes us on two epic mountainbike tours – first to the Zion National Park and then to Red Bull Rampage as a VIP guest. Here, he writes about the Utah desert he’s longing to revisit

Anyone who signs up for a trip to Red Bull Rampage with me probably knows all too well what riders can expect when they arrive. But believe me, you only see a fraction of the real thing in live broadcasts or online videos. You have to see it for yourself to believe what the world’s best mountain bikers can really ride down. First and foremost, you need to feel the nervous energy building in the air, day after day, until everyone goes out and gives it their best shot on the day.

I still remember clearly how I came to be at Virgin, Utah, for the first time after a successful season in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. Back then, I thought I was actually pretty good on a bike, but there I was in the middle of those iconic sandstone mountains in the desert and I had to rethink. Everything is so big – much bigger than it comes across on TV. I was standing there, feeling so small with my bike, and, like all the others, I was trying to find a way down. I know anyone would say this when they’ve got a camera held in front of their face, but believe me, Red Bull Rampage leaves no one underwhelmed.

My approach was to bend this huge mountain to my will, bit by bit. First, you need an idea of the route you’re going to take. The days after that are all about making it possible with rudimentary tools. It’s back-breaking work, really tough. And you have to make sure you don’t overshoot your target or include jumps that are too big, because all around you are other riders who are all trying to push themselves to the limit, and they’re digging around in this huge sandbox, too. A strong sense of momentum builds up, but then someone actually has to go and ride the course. No, not someone: you. So make sure you assess yourself and your skills correctly!

Red Bull Rampage isn’t just the ultimate test of how well you handle a bike, it does something to your psyche too. You don’t feel comfortable. Actually, you’d like to walk away. And yet you’ve set yourself this challenge, or you really do find yourself going home. If that happens, it means Red Bull Rampage broke you. But as a rule, nobody does that. This battle with yourself – and the mountain – is what makes Red Bull Rampage so special. Plus, of course, there’s the setting in Zion National Park, where the ground below you does at least have the advantage of being relatively forgiving and soft when you fall. (This is also the reason riders can normally get up uninjured after having spectacular-looking crashes, dust themselves down and carry on.)

There can hardly be another place where the energy is so clearly tangible and the tension and relief can change so dramatically. Every time I drive from Las Vegas to Utah and see that iconic landscape with the red ridges, I seize up at the thought of whether in future I’ll be lining up at the start or will I just be a spectator. What line are you going to ride? It’s the question you keep asking yourself, year after year. To start with, just the idea of getting down in one piece somehow seems out of the question. But then you do – and in more spectacular fashion than you could ever have imagined. I first came here in 2004 and came second straight off. You can usually only dream of that kind of result.

Just witnessing the process close up is worth the journey alone. You’ll see how the world’s best bikers negotiate a mountain. You’ll see how creative they are, how they motivate themselves – one minute they’re fooling around and the next, they’re deadly serious. They can act normal and then they’ll go out and try something unprecedented on their bike… that’s what makes the atmosphere at Red Bull Rampage so special.

Quite aside from this one stand-out event, Zion National Park has become a year-round El Dorado for mountain bikers in recent years. A comprehensive network of trails has developed and is lovingly looked after by the locals. Anyone with a trail bike should be able to negotiate them and there’s the advantage that the ground always has plenty of grip and won’t hurt if you fall. The courses are quick and fluent – they wind their way through canyons and head over mountain tops. They are dusty, fun and go on forever, but when you do complete them, there are traditional American bars waiting for you where you can wash the desert dust out of your throat.

And I totally love the landscape. There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the world. I like my damp home trails in Wales, and I enjoy standing at the summit of a mountain in the Alps too. But nothing beats Zion.

Any self-respecting mountain biker should ride here at least once. Zion National Park during Red Bull Rampage is unique. It doesn’t get better than this.