Blog

Oct 16, 2024

The First Red Bull Rampage to Include Women Was a Success

The iconic freeride mountain bike competition in Virgin, Utah, welcomed women for the first time, to great success. The men weren’t so bad either. New perk: Easily find new routes and hidden gems,

The iconic freeride mountain bike competition in Virgin, Utah, welcomed women for the first time, to great success. The men weren’t so bad either.

New perk: Easily find new routes and hidden gems, upcoming running events, and more near you. Your weekly Local Running Newsletter has everything you need to lace up! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}">Subscribe today →.

On Thursday, October 10, seven of the world’s best freeride mountain bikers lined up to compete in the first-ever women’s Red Bull Rampage in Virgin, Utah. Since 2001, freeride’s biggest competition has only ever featured male riders. After years of advocating for women’s inclusion in Rampage, attempting to qualify for the event, and hosting their own events, the community of top women riders finally got their chance.

Robin Goomes, of New Zealand, was the first rider on the venue. Her run—punctuated by two flawless backflips, several huge drops, and steep, technical riding—set the tone. The panel of judges, which critiques riders on their style, jumps, and line choice, awarded her 85 points.

The women that followed demonstrated a keen understanding of how to ride dry, loose terrain, and how to manage their speed to clear consequential gaps, make tight corners, and land large drops. They were stylish, powerful, and confident in puckering terrain, and every rider who made it onto the course came out with a scoring line. (Riders who crash are given three minutes to complete their line if they still want to receive a score.)

Casey Brown and Vaea Verbeeck stood out for their aggressive line choices. Brown neatly rode a feature nicknamed the Laundry Chute for its verticality and tightness, and Verbeeck laced together a triple drop with three separate, consecutive airs. Canadian Georgia Astle, who took second, approached her line with remarkable speed and fluidity—almost making it look easy.

But ultimately none of the other women topped Goomes’ first run, and she took the victory.

I watched the two-hour event replay with a few other women mountain bikers at home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and was surprised when I found myself tearing up. I’ve been a mountain athlete for my entire life, and have been riding mountain bikes since my early twenties. Seeing women like Goomes, Brown (who has held a torch for women’s inclusion in Rampage for nearly a decade), and Vinny Armstrong—at 25, the youngest woman in the competition—step up to that terrain and succeed, with the support of the industry, was really powerful. Many of the participants had fought for years to convince the event organizers that they belong at Rampage. They were finally given a chance to prove themselves, and they did so in a major way.

I’ve followed the conversation over women’s inclusion at Rampage in comments sections and online forums, and I’ve seen plenty of support from men who want women riders to get their opportunities to shine. I’ve also seen chatter to the contrary, including a frequently-repeated refrain that women would be getting in over their heads, and that someone was going to end up seriously injured (or worse).

At Rampage, the women demonstrated that these fears were, at best, overblown. The seven competitors put down clean lines. Just one rider, American Chelsea Kimball, crashed (and was still able to ride out her line and head up to the start gate for a second run). In practice, Argentinian Cami Nogueira did take a heavy slam that resulted in a concussion and broken nose, and doctors advised her not to keep riding while she recovered.

But some level of carnage is typical amongst the men that compete at Rampage, too. The reigning champion, Cam Zink, was evacuated by helicopter with broken ribs and a punctured lung after crashing during the men’s competition on Saturday. Which is all to say—Rampage is dangerous, period, and the women proved that they’re more than capable of their own risk management.

The women’s competition produced a dramatic finish. Each athlete had the opportunity to ride their line twice, but with winds picking up, just Kimball opted to give it a second go. With one final opportunity to descend her line, Kimball hit a drop that had given her trouble in the first round. But she skidded out in the same spot as she did on her initial run and lost control of her bike. Cameras waited for Kimball to raise her arms and signal she was OK. Then, the TV crew showed Goomes, whose victory was secure.

The men’s competition, held on Saturday, came down to a similar scenario: after an impressive first round, just one of the 17 riders—Brandon Semenuk, who won his first Rampage in 2008 and has taken first four times since—braved the wind to head back up for a second attempt. His solitary second lap won him first place: After a long wait for the wind to die down, he landed a flip whip on a step-down jump that he had crashed on in his first lap (among a dizzying number of other technical slopestyle moves). Semenuk and Goomes each took home a $100,000 prize purse.

The event was a profound step for women’s freeride, and the camaraderie and excitement beamed through the livestream. Brown greeted many of the riders with a massive hug at the bottom. Verbeeck wore a kit decorated with art from young mountain bike fans, in an effort to make them feel like a part of the event. Riders autographed hats, posters, and apparel for excited young fans in the finish corral.

Despite my own excitement as I watched the event replay, I also found it a little surreal—like I was watching a broadcast from a different time, of something that should have happened a long time ago. The fact that it took until 2024 to create a women’s division is still a little hard to believe. And yet, biking events across the globe have been slow to give adequate opportunities to women athletes—take, for instance, the fact that there wasn’t a true Tour de France Femmes until 2022 (and it’s still only eight stages, to the men’s 21).

Many of the arguments against women’s professional sports—nobody watches, athletes aren’t capable, events lose money—are being proven wrong. Instead, more fans are waking up to the chicken-or-egg reality in women’s competitions. Nobody will watch a sport if it isn’t televised. Athletes won’t improve if their teams or leagues lack funding.

That’s why I was incredibly heartened to see Red Bull and the Rampage organizers make the right call this year. Hopefully, this event will provide the scaffolding that women freeriders need to continue building their sport.