OG Cam Zink took an absolutely ghastly crash on his first lap at Red Bull Rampage 2024. After pulling a clean 360 high up on his run, he went for a backflip off one of the big drops at the top. The winds were gusty and a crosswind bucked him off course. He literally rag dolled down the slope. A helicopter lifted him off the mountain, halting the broadcast for some time.
At 38-years-old Zink was the oldest guy in the event. He won Rampage in 2010, placed second in 2014 and won it in 2023. In September he launched his own bike brand Zink Bikes and no doubt, hoped a win at Rampage would propel his new venture.
On his Instagram feed Zink let us in on what his injury consisted of.
“Six broken ribs, all right next to my spine. That was one of the most terryfying moments of my life. When I couldn’t breathe because of my collapsed lung, but all the pain was coming directly from the spine, but turns out it was just ribs. It went bad. A horrible crosswind. There’s nothing I could have really done, other than wait it out, but you can’t time a whole run based on wind. I was eager. I was feeling it. I was ready to drop. Ready to win that thing again.”
Zink was lucky enough to escape with six posterior broken ribs and a punctured lung. Yesterday he was cleared to go home after his chest tube came out. We’d like to wish him a speedy recovery and Cam, if that’s your last Rampage, we’re all good with it! You put in one heck of a show over the past 14 years and we’re excited to see what you get up to next.
If you want to watch the crash, it’s at 1:31 into the replay, but its seriously a Faces of Death moment. Not the kind of thing you may actually want to see; consider yourself warned.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…