2024 is a big year for women freeride. After the disappointing news that no women would participate in Red Bull Rampage 2023 despite a number of talented athletes brimming with impatience, the #LetThemRide movement could now pay off. At the final stop of the 2024 Crankworx World Tour in Whistler, the Red Bull Joyride slopestyle event featured female athletes for the first time. Six of the twenty freeride competitors were female, marking an important milestone in slopestyle competition.
Joyride has long been the main event of the Crankworx mountain bike festival in Whistler. It takes place on the final Saturday of the event and draws thousands of spectators. Combining the finesse and tricks of dirt jumping with the big air and spectacle of freeride, slopestyle is one of the most exciting forms of mountain bike competition, and Joyride is one of the biggest.
With high winds forecast, Joyride was moved at the last minute to an earlier morning, which meant the athletes didn’t have as much time to practice. Nevertheless, everyone turned up and gave it their all. The atmosphere in the village was exciting and busier than it had been all week, with hordes of spectators lining every inch of the course, keen to get a glimpse of the action.
The women on the start line for Joyride 2024 were Kathi Kuypers, Lisa-Marie Blanc, Natasha Miller, Harriet Burbidge-Smith, Alma Wiggberg and Shealan Reno. Kuypers started the day with a clean first run. Her goal was to complete the course and compete in the first women’s Joyride competition. After achieving her goal and earning a score of 52.00, she decided not to do a second run. Next, Blanc, despite going too wide on a few jumps and getting a little top-heavy on a landing, managed to put together a solid first run that included a toboggan, a big backflip and a couple of one-handed flips to score 64.80.
Third was British Columbia native Miller, who had a great run with tricks on every feature, including plenty of barspins and no-handers, for a score of 78.60. Fourth was Burbidge-Smith, who had a couple of big no-handers and toboggans, followed by a backflip where she overshot the landing and over-spun slightly, resulting in a fall and the end of her run, earning 30.00.
Wiggberg was the fifth woman to complete the course. She performed a number of great tricks including a barspin, suicide no-hander, tire grab, backflip barspin, backflip one-foot can, 360 and another no-hander, collecting the largest collection of tricks and a super clean run good enough for 89.40 points. The last woman to complete a first run was Reno with an equally large collection of tricks, combining a number of no-footers, can-cans and no-handers and tricking virtually every jump. She received 78.0 points, leaving Wiggberg in first place.
Burbidge-Smith was the first to do a second run. She was trying to rehabilitate but seemed a little unsure and came up a little short on some of the early jumps. Possibly struggling with an injury, she attempted a backflip on the sixth jump but unfortunately did not land and finished her run short again. Blanc was next out of the gate and started the run with a toboggan and an X-Up, did a backflip on the sixth jump and then a 360, landing a little short but otherwise managed a clean run with a score of 72.20, an improvement of 3.80 points.
Next up was Reno in third place. She showed the crowd another series of no-footers, a no-hander to X-Up, a pendulum, a barspin to the whale tail, landed a nac-nac with one foot off the pedals, but held herself together to finish the run with a deep off the cannon for 74.80 points, down 3.20. Miller is next down the hill and is in second place. She showed a series of no-handed tricks including a toboggan, a tuck no-hander followed by a barspin to the whale tail, another clean tuck no-hander, tricked almost every jump cleanly and scored 66.80 points, down 11.80 points, still in second place.
Wiggberg was the last rider to finish. She had already won the competition and did a victory lap around the course. She didn’t have to use tricks on every jump, but still showed style on most of the jumps, including a backflip and a backflip can for good measure. As she rolled over the finish line as the first winner of the women’s Red Bull Joyride, the joy on the Swede’s face at having made history was there for all to see.
For some riders, the biggest challenge was getting around the course with enough speed to clear the jumps. And all of the riders managed it, except for Burbidge-Smith, who was clearly fast enough but failed to execute some really big tricks. These women set the bar remarkably high, but the thing about a high bar is that it pushes everyone to improve. I have no doubt that the women will perform even bigger and better at next year’s Joyride, and I can’t wait to see that. Congratulations, Alma, on your incredible win, and to all the other competitors who helped make history and move the sport forward.
The full replay can be found here and the results here.
