VIRGIN, Utah, Oct. 11, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — Fans worldwide are wishing the best for mountain biking ace Gee Atherton, who was reported injured in a crash Tuesday morning during a training run at the Red Bull Rampage competition near the town of Virgin in southern Utah.
According to the mountain biking website pinkbike.com “Gee Atherton has been air-lifted from the 2023 Red Bull Rampage course by helicopter after a crash on the first attempt of his massive mid-mountain drop. Gee is conscious and we hope that the unconfirmed reports of him being able to move his toes on the stretcher are a positive sign.”
While there was no official word on the extent Atherton’s injuries, a message attributed to the 38-year-old rider on social media Tuesday had fans breathing a bit easier. The afternoon Instagram post shows a dramatic and disturbing video of his crash, along with the statement, “Heavy day at Red Bull Rampage, this one was always going to be a beast. #lightweightbaby. Injury update to follow.”
This is not the first time Atherton has been injured at a Red Bull Rampage event, a rugged competition, which Red Bull’s website calls a combination of “downhill, slopestyle, and big mountain riding on the otherwordly landscapes of Southern Utah, USA.”
“Unlike downhill racing, it’s not about how fast riders can get to the bottom of the mountain; instead, Red Bull Rampage encourages creativity, innovation, and progression, setting itself apart from other free ride events in the process,” the RBR website says.
The World Cup winning Atherton, a featured rider in this year’s competition, was injured and hospitalized in his very first RBD appearance back in 2003, when he was 18.
He was injured again in 2008, suffering a separated shoulder which kept him out of the RBR finals.
In 2012, Atherton, was involved in the so-called cliff-face crash, what Red Bull’s website refers to as one of the competition’s “most memorable moments but, unfortunately, not for the right reasons.”
In 2021, Atherton was critically injured in a fall chronicled in the video project, The Knife’s Edge.
Gephardt Daily will update the story as more information becomes available.
