What It Takes To Ride Red Bull Rampage | Life As An Extreme Sports Athlete!

I'm in Cornwall, England, where I'm going to catch up with one of the UK's most ambitious freeriders, 33-year-old Tom Isted. Last year, he became one of just a handful of Brits to ever compete in the Red Bull Rampage, the most extreme mountain bike event in the world, the kind of event that can make or break a rider's career. Tom started out on BMX. Before making the name for himself in the dirt jump and slopestyle scene, he's always had the reputation for going big, setting a world record in 2021 for the longest dirt-to-dirt backflip at 30.2 meters, which is 120 feet. Rampage is different, bigger, riskier, and broadcast to the world. For riders like Tom, it's the ultimate test and the ultimate opportunity. What does today entail, life after Rampage? The life after Rampage is quite enjoyable, but today we're going to go play golf. Golf? Yes, round of golf. Do you like golf? I love golf. Then we're going to go to Woody's Bike Park, get some laps in, and then go for a pint at the beach. Nice. Sounds incredible. All right, golf. I haven't played golf for a while now. How long's a while? Yes. That's not too bad. It's not bad, is it? You'll be fine. We'll get to hole three and you'll warm up. Hole three. How many holes are we playing? Just going to do a little nine. Nine? A little nine-hole. Is it that way? It is that way. All right, let's go. It's not too bad. Go ahead. Sun's out. It's not too bad. Your clothes are shiny-ass things, do you? I use mine a lot. Yours have been sat in the shed for- In the loft, really. Since 1885, by the look of it. Yes, I'm not that old. I lived across the road from a skate park, like 50 yards away, so I was riding that the whole way. Skate park, was that BMX then? BMX in, a bit of skateboarding. Yes, and then the love of biking came. Then did BMX professionally to the point when I was like 21, and then Mongoose at the time, like, here, try this. Then I never looked back from there. Never, yes. Get rid of the small wheels, get big wheels. Wow. Are your family into two wheels, like motorbikes or bikes or anything? Nothing at all. Nothing? No, just me. So you're the pioneer- Yes, just the outlier. Of the Icedead family. Amazing. Well, that's fair play. I did this more than I did biking when I was younger. You played golf? I played golf from like eight, so I've got my work cut out. No, I'm naff. I just enjoy it. Yes, whatever. Let's see that swing. Oh, I might find it. How did your dog leg get around there? Yes, but it probably hit the trees. I might find it. Remember, it's all in the hips. All in the hips. That'll work. We'll find it. I know we've established that you were a BMXer. You kicked off with BMXing. What kind of style of rider would you class yourself as, BMXer? Well, I was doing park was the kind of discipline I was doing. All I wanted to do was find the biggest gaps, go as fast as I could, go as high as I could. I just got to the point with BMX that I ran out of room. There wasn't really any more gaps or anything to do anywhere local. Luckily, a couple of people had some dirt jump stuff around here so I could go just tickle that fancy. Define those big jumps. Did you do BMX on those big jumps or? No, luckily, I had a dirt jump bike so I went straight onto the big bikes. Oh, because Mongoose gave you? Yes, I could do that. Oh, nice. Which worked out quite nicely. Yes, and that actually inspired you and you went and did the world's biggest flip. Yes. You were the first to hit that big 110? Yes. This is dark fest. Yes, open that one up. Then by the end of the week, yes, with a nice tailwind, 120 feet. 120 feet backflip. That's no small feat that is, hitting that jump. No, it's quite scary. It's very scary. Even the 90-foot's scary. Yes, the small line. That's the small line, yes. You've got to find the balls. Mine's definitely in the trees. Mine's definitely gone down there somewhere. When was the first time you thought, oh, I can turn this into a career? Don't really know. Once I got started to get sponsored and started to get some recognition from the industry that I should be able to do it, I just threw everything into it. Definitely, there's been a couple points in it where I was like, I'm going to have to go get a normal job. It's not working. Then luckily, I'll go do something stupid like 120-foot backflip. Yes, that's right. I heard you saying that in a video. I think it was on a podcast. It was like, I need to make this work. If I can't make it work now, then I'm going to have to get a normal job. By doing that 120-foot backflip and getting recognition from that, people will come in and you're like, actually, this is going to work. I'm going to pursue it. Yes, I just had to push myself to there. I had to take the risk. I was willing to take the risk to do something. It might be something people didn't want to do. If I'm going to do it, I might as well do it now. Then I can try and make it. Own it and say, I did that first. There's a quote I heard from Klaus Vashana was, I don't have the same skill as some of the people, but I'm willing to take a little bit more risk. Definitely does more risk. I went there, you went up there. I'm up there somewhere. Are you sure? Mine was over here. You're over here somewhere. Well, I found it. It's gone somewhere. Lovely, mate. That works. That works. He's on the dance floor. Come on. Well done. What could be good? You're on the green. Am I? Yes. Oh, there we go. Thank you. Am I? Yes. I thought I went over. No, you're on the green. Away from the bike, Tom's competitive streak doesn't really switch off, but behind the joking and the golf swings is a rider who's worked for years to break through. I'm curious, was there a single moment or one trick that really changed everything? I guess the one that sticks in my mind that was the main thing that made me want to focus more on mountain biking and big bike stuff was I was at Loosefest one of the years, and I flipped the middle jumps. I think it was like 85 feet. That was big then. I flipped it every run for three days. What? It was actually more comfortable to flip it than it was to jump it straight, so I was going to flip it the whole time. That's a weird thing you say that because when it comes to a big jump like that, it's harder to jump it straight and dead sailor it than it is to control a backflip over it because more in the moment you can judge your speed better. You don't just react to landing, you're like, oh my gosh. That was the first time I was like, this is what I want to do. This is where my passion is going to be. There's one. Found one. That was fun. That was really good. Yes. Thank you very much. What's up next? A bit of lunch. And then bike park? Yes, let's go ride some bikes. Back to doing something that we're really actually good at. Tom's brought me to Woody's Bike Park, his local spot, a place he knows inside out. It's here he fine-tunes his riding and keeps pushing himself between the big events. I was curious on how things went from here to Red Bull Rampage. For riders like Tom, Red Bull Rampage isn't just a contest. It's an invitation into a big leagues of free ride mountain biking. And with that comes pressure. I want to know how Tom sees the opportunity and whether he thinks it has the power to define his career. So I think for the last three years, I've been on the list to get invited. The last year was the first year I actually took it seriously and went and filmed an entry video and submitted that. You have to submit a video of like, it could be anything. So it could be like Instagram videos of you riding bigger features. But I wanted to film a video to really show that I'm wanting to be there. So I went to New Zealand, filmed a video there, submitted that, and then put in some dark press clips as well to prove that I can ride a big bike pretty much. Then I will give him a punt and give him to see how he goes. So you've taken part. Are you automatically locked in to the next one? The next stop? This year's stop? Top eight get invited instantly for the next year. I wasn't in top eight, so I've got to submit another video again. But hopefully, I've done enough proving that I was there last year. They've had, usually, you get a couple of years to try. First year being there, you haven't got a line on any of the hills. You've got to build a full line. It's the first time at the event. So they kind of give you a little bit of grace. I think Adolph's been there for four or five years, and this was the first year he actually got a full run. I think they give you a little bit of grace to get a couple of runs. To prove yourself. So hopefully, I get to go back this year. I'm hoping so. I hope you get in. Tell you what. Let's go and do some rampaging down here. All right, sounds good. What kind of track do you want to go for? Cruisy flow? Let's go cruisy flow. Because we've got our golf arms on, so we're just a bit wobbly. So let's get in there. All right. So you got invited to Rampage. Was it a dream, or did you have to- Was it something you wanted to do, or was it something you had to do? I think it's something I wanted. I don't really have to do it, but it's definitely one of the events that you watch growing up as a kid. Like, that'll be cool to go to. Yeah, I made it a bit of a choice to try and make sure I got there, and I managed to go. Definitely an experience. Yeah, I was going to say, is it a dream, but is it also fear? I didn't find it that scary, but I'm weird. To be honest, when I was stood up there with you, when you did that drop in into the lily pad off, and then you did just before the canyon gap. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You dropped down there. You were walking along the top there, and you were like, I'm not scared. I'm like, man, have you seen down there? I don't want to say that, but in my head, I'm like, dude, have you seen what you're going to be riding down? Yeah, it wasn't that bad. But I feel like when you're in the zone and you're digging, you feel one with your line, don't you? Yeah, it's like from doing Rampage, then doing Premium Grounds a couple months afterwards, Rampage was a lot almost easier to comprehend because you're looking at it for two weeks, but Premium Grounds turned up to similar size stuff, but you're like, okay, go work it out straight away. Here's your bike, go. At least for a week, we were just building, staring at it, working out every rock was made it a lot easier. Do you see this event as validation or like a test? I took it as a challenge, that's something I wanted to do. I guess by being invited, it's validation that you're one of the better freeriders, I guess. But I took it as a challenge, just something I wanted to try and do. Yeah, Rampage, the whole industry is looking at this event right now. Does that come with pressure with a lot more eyes on you or you can't answer the question, but is there more pressure? It is stressful and everything else, but I think because at that point it was my seventh comp of the year, I'd kind of been used to having a camera pointed in my face for a start tower and the only thing that was different to that one is on top of a mountain and a helicopter 100 feet off buzzing. But yeah, it was still nerve-wracking, but I think I handled it as best I could. So the one thing I kind of struggled, which I touched on earlier, was like when I'm stood, when I competed, when I stood on the starting gate or the race tower or the drop-in tower and they start calling your name, I have a sense of like, I get scared. As soon as you drop in, you're like, you zone in, it's like you're in a tunnel. You're in there. What's that called? Think the technical term for it is called the deep now. There it is, yeah. And that's what they call it. So you just fully focus in on what you're doing. You just blank out any noise, anything else and just focus on what you're doing. And it's weird, like noise goes away. Oh, it does, yeah. Well, you can hear it's there. Yeah, but you don't pay any attention to it. It's a weird thing, isn't it? It's actually, it's quite a hard thing to get engaged into. Like it's a hard thing to find if you're not looking for it or you're trying to concentrate and then to try and get into the deep now is actually, it takes time. Yeah, and it's just being focused enough to actually like, but once you're there, you're going to be focused. You have to be fully committed to what you're doing there. You're not messing around. You're not messing around with your life. Yeah, that's fine. Now, here's a question for you. For the viewers mainly, because I kind of understand it, but do you learn how to get into this deep now? Does it come with time or can you focus on it? How do you get into that? I don't think you can ever learn it. You kind of just, it happens as you're doing these things. I guess I've done it from riding in BMX and over the years, it's just you get used to going into that mode. But yeah, it does just, you're not someone you can choose to do. You can't be walking to the shops and just go, cool. Like, it doesn't work like that. You have to be doing something that's pushing your limits that you just have to lock in and it will happen automatically. Bye, Kim. That surprisingly held up that rim. You were definitely on your rim most of it. I was definitely on the rim. Look at that. The hell, that was benching in there. Pub? I think that means pub. That means pub. Yeah. We've got to find some more fluids, but back in there to like reseal it. Yeah. I think that could be like a cider. Yeah, I think a cider. While we're in Cornwall, fish and chips cider. Pasty? Pasty tomorrow. As we've got more tomorrow. Cut. It's the next morning and I've been told to meet Tom here, an old abandoned tin mine, not far from where he lives. A strange place for a catch up, but apparently, it'll make sense when he turns up. There he is. Morning, Tom. Morning, mate. How's it going? Yeah, good. You brought me to a tin mine. Yeah, pretty much. Is this a tin mine? Am I correct? Should have been, yeah. Should have been. Yeah, something like that. This brings back memories. Cornets. Well, not this actual area, but the vibe, the landscape. Yeah. You brought me here because of Rampage. This is our mini Rampage site that we used to slice a python quite a long time ago. Oh, that's where I've seen this from. Yeah. I bet there's some sexy lines here. There's some good bits. It's all a bit loose though, don't you think? Yeah. Needs some rain. We can go have a little wander around, share the old lines. Yeah, go for it. Look at that. To anyone else, this is a series of dangerous rocky drops. For Tom, it's a practice place for a highly risky event. Standing here, it's hard not to wonder, when does taking risks stop being about progression and start being about career survival? And where does Tom draw the line? This is where the foundations for the Rampage kind of vibe started and the seed was set, I guess. So we built this as a step down here. Did my first big bike step down flip. We had a little hit before it. Yeah, it's quite fun. Very nice. Coming to it though, we're going to talk about this obstacle because pulling out of doing something, have you ever pulled out of doing something within your career? You thought the risk is too crazy or the risk to reward wasn't up for it or do you just go all in? I have done that before. I've definitely wound back tricks I want to do and features where it's like, this doesn't make sense. Let's do something different. Because you obviously go to the event with a plan, let's try this, this, this. You always overthink it. Then you get there and go, oh, that's not going to work. And then you wind yourself back within realms of possibility. Is there any unseen expectations of being a Rampage? It's not doing with your mind and mind games and stuff, but you're on a perfect setting to do something big. It will boost you. You're definitely on the biggest platform there is and the biggest stage. So it's like you want to perform and you want to do something good to prove your worth of being there. There are a lot of people who want to be at that event. And if you go there and kind of just ride down the goat track, what's the point in doing it? You may as well try and do something impressive. Well, not impressive, but just that you're stoked with and people are stoked to watch. Yes, which brings risk. Yes. But hopefully, massive reward. Yes. Is there a point where there's too much risk for not much reward? There is risk to reward and there's stuff that you need to be able to play the game of where can I take a risk? Where can I not take a risk? And I think I took the maximum amount of risk I could get away with without ending up in hospital, I think. There was still a chance of that, but I was willing to take that risk to do what I did. High risk. Yes. Big reward. So foundations have been built within Red Bull Rampage for the future. I reckon we should go to a place where you actually do train. Okay. Where you start to learn how to throw your body around in the air. Some acrobatics. Let's do that. It is just over there. Is it? I believe so. Somewhere in that general direction. Training zone. Nick, have you ever missed the bag? I've never missed the bag. I've had two people go off the side of the bag, do a 450 and ride off the side of it. Oh, gosh. Which way? One went that way. One did a 450, went that way. One did a Superman flip and somehow went right on landing and came off this side. Is this an air bag or air landing? It's a landing bag. Oh, it's a landing. Landing, yes. Oh, so you have to land stuff. Yes. But I can soften it up and it's pretty good to crash on. And then if I get the hose out, make it wet, it just turns into a slip and slide. So you can crash craziest things and you just go, Yes, because sometimes you don't want to crash and dig. That's when things go. But it's quite funny when I have groups of lads come up to ride it with me, it will start raining and they'll go, Oh, I can't ride anymore. But because I put roofing felt on the rolling, it all works fine still in the wet. And then it just turns into slippy slides. You're like, cool, try silly things now. It doesn't matter. You can try 360 quad whips if you want to. You can just slide out. Yes. What's the size of that kicker? I think it's 11 foot. 11 foot. Man, you're going to go tree tops. Yes, probably about that one that sticks out somewhere along there. I'm going to definitely have to put some big boy pants on. I'm nervous about this. I don't think I want to get my bike up. No. I'm scared of heights. No, you'll be fine. I thought it was an air bag. The landing bag. Yes. So just land stuff. That's the issue. I'm actually quite nervous. Look at that. The Niles coming down it. The River Nile. How do you prepare for rampage run? Forget about rampage. Yes, it's a big topic, but any slope style, crankworx, how do you prepare to take on an event like that? Depends on like rampage is a bit different to crankworx stuff because obviously you turn up to a crankworx course and it's all there. You just get a week to ride it and try and work out what you want to do and just try and get yourself in the headspace to do a contest run. Rampage is different because you're literally staring at it and building and sweating and just dying basically in the desert for two weeks and then have to try and drop in. Yes, more mental, I guess, that just has to be, okay, now it's work, drop in, do what you got to do. But yes, I just kind of try and stay relaxed and be as confident as I can on course. So now, how do you practice for those events like trick-wise? Do you work on certain aspects of something like for an obstacle at a slope style event? Depends on if I know I'm going to go, say, to Whistler, I'll look at the course because you'll get sent the course layout what's going to be there. And I go, okay, so that's going to lead into X, into this jump is going into that jump. And I go, okay, what's going to work? And I'll try and work out in my head and I come to my compound where I've got my airbag and bone log stuff set up. And I can work out the tricks that will link together and just try and dial those particular tricks in for the contest runs. Having all this extra spotlight, all this extra exposure on yourself, does that give you less freedom? Definitely a little bit. Not as much because I could still do what I would be doing before because that's what people wanted me to be doing. That's what people came to see was what I was doing before I had the spotlight on me. So I just kind of continue doing what I was doing and just try and deal with the extra cameras and stuff pointing in your face. Like that one right there. Oh, he's dropping in. No pedals. Oh, what? That was his first drop in, right? And he did a front flip no-hander. Banging, that was really good. Thank you. I'm so nervous. I ain't quite scared. I am. I've never felt so squiddy in my life. I promise you. Your first roll in though, it's fine. No, I wasn't expecting the bottom. Yeah, that's what I mean. You have to attack it and then it's fine. I thought I was going to loop out. That's because you haven't ridden the dirt jump bike. This is so twitchy, super reactive, compared to a big old, well, I'm riding a 180, 170. Oh, that scared me. It's good being scared. Yeah. What's the heart rate gone? 104. It's gone up a bit then. Yeah. I actually don't want to do that again, but I'll try again. Yeah, now you've done it once, you know what to expect. Yeah, loop out. Let me go tighten my headset and I'll be back. I'll go and do it and not look embarrassed in front of you again. I'm not going to lie, I thought I was going to loop out at the bottom. It actually, I was quite scared. I pressed up all the brakes. That's what a beginner would do. You freak out, you hit the brakes, and that's probably the worst thing to do when you're in a situation like that. Oh man, I felt so, so weird. Some of your younger viewers, Blake was actually a really good slopestyle rider. Yeah. He could definitely do some very good maneuvers. Yes. I feel like there should be at least one kind of maneuver. Yes, I just did them, two of them. I'm going to put my hands out. I feel so alien on that thing. I know it's an excuse, but it's like I can't even control my body. You've hit it twice. Hit it a few more times and then get used to it. Anyway, so when are we going to go play golf again? Oh, I'm actually quite nervous for that, to be honest. Fair enough. You are 40 now, so it makes sense. Yes, I'm 40. I'm 48, actually. I'm just really good for my age. It's weird to think that now, there's tricks that you've done that you'll never do again. It's true, yes. Yes. The three double whip. Yes. I can't go and do them again. No. I actually didn't want to do it. You can do a backflip now, apparently. No, I don't do backflips on small bikes now. Oh, cash roll, dude. Wow, on the button. Then watch this. I'm scared of that. Spending time with Tom has been eye-opening. I've done my fair share of wild things on a bike, but watching the next generation take it further with more speed, more risk, and more control is something else entirely. The things that once felt familiar now seem almost alien to me. And in Tom, there's a quiet determination that's hard not to admire. He's made it to one of the world's biggest stages in the sport. And somehow, it still feels like the beginning. I'm left wondering, not if he'll go further, but just how far he's willing to go. What would it mean to you to do a full top to bottom at Rampage in your career? It's not even doing the perfect run. It's the run that I want to do. I don't really worry about trying to keep everyone happy anymore. If I'm happy with the run, then I'm happy, and I go home happy. So I was a bit upset this year that I didn't get to do a top to bottom run and finish it off. I've sat at the top for six hours trying to do the second run, but obviously, weather didn't really play the ball. But hopefully, back again, I'll get it done. So you started off in BMX. You moved into dirt jumping, slopestyle, and then the big bike stuff, Rampage. How would you like to be remembered? Is this the top, or you got more to look at? I think I've still got a little bit of room to improve. There's some things I want to go do. But obviously, being at Rampage, that is the biggest stage in the sport. So I'm trying to stay there for as long as I can, hopefully get some good top to bottom runs, and just be happy on my bike, really. Which is the aim of the game. That is the aim. So we spent a whole week with each other, well, kind of, in the desert. Now we've spent a few days in your local home. It's been amazing to be here. Thanks for having me, dude. Problem, mate. More than welcome. I reckon we should go and find a golf course, because I like playing golf. I've got you back into it now. You have, yeah. Another hobby of Blake's. All right, let's go. Let's go. I was waiting for you to hit me in the nuts. No, I was being nice.