Discovering Utah with Nicholi Rogatkin

All season long Nicholi Rogatkin has been touring around the globe, competing in the FMB’s most challenging Diamond Series stops. Now he is less than 300 points away from claiming the 2015 FMB World Tour Championship.

Ahead of his toughest challenge yet, Red Bull Rampage, Nicholi has swapped in his Specialized P-Slope for a Specialized Demo 8. In less than a week, Nicholi will ride the gnarliest line he has ever attempted and will push himself to land tricks which very few have ever conceived are possible on freeride bikes. So he headed out to the Utah desert early to get ready. Artbarn production crew followed him out and captured some of the most stunning shots of this natural world wonder as well as Nicholi’s incredible tricks.

"I love pushing myself as much as possible no matter what bike I'm on and no matter where I am. Mountain biking feels like a video game for me, and this video in Utah felt like a new level of the game. The Utah terrain and riding gives me more of an adrenaline rush than anything else. All the riding is a test. Either you ride something natural and sketchy or you build something that you have no idea will work until you send it. So it makes every run that much more gnarly. It's all about trusting your bike and doing things that you don’t think will be possible and praying for them to work. I’ve had some terrifying experiences in my 14 years of riding bikes, but this really scares the sh*t out of me every time." - comments Nicholi ahead of Red Bull Rampage.

The Artbarn crew had the amazing opportunity to capture this stunning scenery and work with Nicholi on his new edit. But filming in the desert is no walk in the park: "Working with Nicholi is quite a unique experience...he goes from zero to hero with no notice. It blows my mind to think what is to come from him. He posses such a raw set of skills and a big set of balls, the future will be crazy!" - Patrick Henry - Artbarn Producer and Aerial Supervisor.

Tune in on Saturday, October 17^th from 18:30 CEST / 09:30 am PDT on Red Bull TV to watch Nicholi compete against the world’s best freeride mountain bike athletes on the gnarliest terrain at Red Bull Rampage.

Preparing for Red Bull Rampage is an intense undergoing and would not have been possible without Nicholi’s partners. A massive thank you to VP Components, Continental, Spank and Kali for their support and for giving Nicholi the chance to train for his biggest challenge of the year!