Glyn takes on the best in the world

11/18/2004 - By Tony Bagnall

GLYN O’Brien showed amazing courage to finish the four-day Red Bull rampage.

Despite suffering a torn cartilage in his knee on the third day, the gutsy 27-year-old Newry man, went through the pain barrier to finish and indeed he took eighth place and won a prize of $400.

In this, the fourth and final annual redbull rampage held on Halloween weekend in the deserts of Zion National Park in Utah, USA, Glyn, a mountainbike freeride pioneer, was representing Ireland and was among 30 of the invited international riders from the likes of Canada, USA, Australia, the Czech Rebublic, England, Germany and France.

In this unique and dangerous event, an event that plagued almost half the field with injury by the end of the fourth day, athletes were given an area of extreme rugged open mountain terrain filled with ridge-line up to 100 feet in height.

The athletes were then given two days to design and build a track that would be judged on difficulty of line, amplitude (height of drops), fluidity, control and style.

Day three consisted of two qualifying runs where the highest score qualified the top 12 athletes for the fourth day.

But during the third day the hugely talented O’Brien, then lying in fourth position and feeling confident of beating his excellent third place of last year, had an unfortunate incident that left him with torn cartilage in his knee.

But having scored enough points from the first qualifying run, the courageous O’Brien decided to leave out run two and concentrate his energy for the final day.

On the final day athletes had put to the finishing touches to their tracks and make rampage history by raising the bar and impressing the judges with bike control and determination.

And never before had people witnessed such mountainbike riding; indeed such was the standard that many of the moves were deemed virtually impossible on two wheels.

In the final analysis Glyn O’Brien, despite every bump on the track causing excruciating pain, finished in a brilliant eighth spot on a heavily strapped knee.

In fact shortly after arriving home Glyn had to go to hospital in Belfast to undergo surgery on his knee. But he’s ok now and doctors tell him he’ll be fine in a month’s time.