At Jenson USA, we want to extend a huge congratulations to Jenson Athlete, Tyler McCaul, on his incredible 3rd place finish at the 2024 Red Bull Rampage. As a proud supporter of Tyler, we have seen the incredible hard work and determination that lead to his first podium finish at mountain biking’s biggest event.
The story of Tyler McCaul’s podium finish at Red Bull Rampage surprisingly starts in the coastal town of Aptos, California, far away from the giant cliffs of southern Utah. Aptos, Tyler’s hometown, is a small village in the greater Santa Cruz area that was once home to the now demolished Post Office Jumps. The Post Office jumps gained international attention during the late 2000’s because of the staggering amount of professional slopestyle/freeride mountain bikers that the jumps seemingly produced. The early days of international slopestyle competition were dominated by many of Aptos’ residents including Tyler’s older brother, Cam McCaul.
Cam McCaul is a name you may recognized from today’s live mountain bike broadcasts, but before his announcing days, Cam was paving the way of modern-day slopestyle competition. As Cam pushed the boundaries of slopestyle, his little brother, Tyler, was quickly rising the ranks of competition as well. Tyler soon went from “Cam’s little brother” to a top-name rider himself. Tyler competed in the slopestyle circuit for many years and received impressive results. Many don’t know this, but Tyler was the first mountain biker to land a triple tailwhip on a single jump. During the later years of his slopestyle career, Tyler grew a heavier interest in freeride mountain biking on his downhill bike. Tyler rode several Red Bull Rampages during his slopestyle years and soon realized his true calling was big mountain freeride. After much consideration, he moved from his hometown of Aptos to southern Utah to further pursue this calling.
Now as a resident of Toquerville, Utah. Tyler has mastered the skills needed to ride the unique ridgeline terrain of southern Utah. It’s a perfect homebase to push the limits of his own riding and push the boundaries of freeride mountain biking. Many would think that living in the same location as Red Bull Rampage is perfect training for the event. The short answer is yes, but the long answer is more complicated than that. Riding in extreme locations can lead to big injuries, and Tyler has had his fair share of obstacles within the last couple years. Tyler had to take almost a year off riding as his ankle healed from a huge stepdown overshoot at the original Red Bull Rampage site. Following a season or so on the healed ankle, in 2024 Tyler decided to get surgery on the ankle to allow it to heal properly. A 6+ month recovery period before the biggest event in the sport is obviously not the best preparation you can have. Once the ankle was fixed, Tyler had to push hard into training and getting comfortable on his bike. On top of that, Tyler welcomed a new son into the world, Ripley. A huge congrats to Tyler and his wife, Skyler.
So now the scene is set. Tyler has just recovered from one of the longest riding breaks in his career, began the crazy adventure of fatherhood, and now must focus on the biggest event of his life. The 2024 red Bull Rampage was hosted at the same venue as the 2018 and 2019 event. Luckily for Tyler, he competed at the event both of those years and had a top to bottom line already roughed in. Being no stranger to pushing it, Tyler decided to add a new gigantic canyon gap into his line, sharing it with fellow competitor Tom Isted. If you haven’t seen practice hits of this canyon gap from both riders, I highly recommend you check it out. The gap is about as rowdy as they could get away with. Besides the new gap, Tyler’s line still included his famous “Triple Dipper” drop which essentially has him dragging his handlebar against a cliff edge, along with some tech drops and chutes at the top of the hill.
Another factor of Red Bull Rampage that many people don’t fully understand is the amount of digging and planning that goes into the event before finals day. The teams of 1 rider and 2 diggers are given 7-8 days to build a top to bottom run with only 75 sands bags and hand tools, no machines or wood allowed. Luckily the watering system on the mountain has improved a lot in recent years which allows for much better and safer digging. But now imagine this, performing a week of hard physical labor, and then right afterwards, you need to ride down the gnarliest line you’ve ever created. The mountain doesn’t care that you are bruised, sore, and blistered. You must be on your A-game or things can go south fast!
Tyler’s 1st finals run included a backflip tabletop off the first stepdown, a technical drop, a suicide no-hander on a stepdown and a large left-hand hip which led into his huge canyon gap, called the BFC. BFC stands for Big F’n Canyon, I’ll let you determine what the F stands for. After the canyon, Tyler rides down a little ridge into a hip jump right before the triple dipper drop. Tyler greases the landing on the drop and then enjoys the less stressful trick jump where he sends a backflip nac-nac. To finish off the run he does a classic huck-to-flat into the finish corral, a move that any mountain biker can relate to.
Due to a rider crash and high winds after the first round of runs, many riders, including Tyler, opted to not take a second run. Tyler knew his run was the best he could do, especially as wind conditions got worse and worse. At the end of the day, Tyler held on to a 3rd place finish, giving him a step on the podium in mountain biking’s biggest event. An incredible ending to a decade long story. Congrats Tyler!
Thumbnail Photo: Lear Miller
Article Photo: GT / Ale Di Lullo
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