2024 is a big year for women’s freeride. Following the disappointing news that no women would be competing in the 2023 Red Bull Rampage despite plenty of talented athletes champing at the bit, the #LetThemRide movement could be starting to pay off. At the final stop of the 2024 Crankworx World Tour in Whistler, the Red Bull Joyride slopestyle event saw female athletes taking part for the first time. Six of the twenty freeride competitors were female, marking a major milestone in slopestyle competition.
Joyride has long been the headline event of the Crankworx mountain bike festival in Whistler, taking place on the final Saturday of the event, and attracting crowds in the thousands. 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 to watch, and Joyride is up there as one of the biggest.
With high winds in the forecast, Joyride was moved to earlier in the morning at the last minute which didn’t give the athletes quite as much time to practice. But everyone still showed up and absolutely threw down. The atmosphere in the village was one of excitement, and the busiest it had been all week. Throngs of spectators lined every inch of space near the course, keen to get a glimpse of the action.
Representing 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 kicked off the day with a clean first run, her goal just being to get down the course and to be a part of the inaugural women’s Joyride competition. Having made her goal and earning a score of 52.00, she opted not to complete a second run. Next up, Blanc, despite going big on some of the jumps and getting a little nose-heavy on one landing, manages to hold together a solid first run with a toboggan, a big backflip, and a couple of one-handers for 64.80 points.
Third out the gate was BC local, Miller, throwing together a huge run with tricks on every feature, including a slew of barspins and no-handers for a score of 78.60 points. The Fourth rider down was Burbidge-Smith, throwing a couple of big no-handers and toboggans followed by a backflip, overshooting the landing and slightly over-rotating, ending in a crash and the end of her run, for 30.00 points.
Wiggberg was the fifth woman down the course, laying down a bunch of huge tricks including a barspin, suicide no-hander, tire grab, backflip barspin, backflip one-foot can, 360 and another no-hander for the biggest trick bag and a super clean run good enough for 89.40 points. The last woman to lay down a first run was Reno, with an equally huge bag of tricks, combining a bunch of no-footers, can-cans, and no-handers, tricking virtually every jump, for 78.0 points, leaving Wiggberg in first place.
The first to take a second run was Burbidge-Smith. Keen to redeem herself, she looked a little unsteady and came up a bit short on some of the first jumps. Possibly dealing with an injury, she went for a backflip on the sixth jump, but unfortunately didn’t stick the landing and ended her run short again. Blanc was next out the gate, easing into the run with a toboggan and an X-up, into a backflip on the sixth jump, followed by a 360, landing a little short, but otherwise holding together a clean run for 72.20 points, a 3.80 point improvement.
Next up was Reno in third place, showing the crowd a bunch more no-footers, no-hander to X-up, a pendulum, a barspin onto the whale tail, landing a nac-nac with a foot off the pedals but held it together to finish the run going deep off the cannon for 74.80 points, down by 3.20. Miller is next down the hill, sitting in second place, showing off a bunch of no-handed tricks including a toboggan, tuck-no-hander followed by a barspin onto the whale tail, another clean tuck-no-hander, tricking almost every jump cleanly, scoring 66.80, down by 11.80 points and still leaving her in second place.
The last rider down was Wiggberg, having already won the competition, she cruised down for a victory lap of the course, not needing to trick every jump, she still threw some style into most of the jumps, with a backflip and a backflip-can for good measure. Rolling across the finish line as the first-ever winner of the women’s Red Bull Joyride, the joy on the Swede’s face as she made history was evident for all to see.
Simply getting down the course with enough speed to clear the jumps was the main challenge for some riders, and all riders made it down, bar Burbidge-Smith, who clearly had the speed, and failed on the execution of some properly big tricks. These women have 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 at next year’s Joyride are going to go even bigger and better, and I can’t wait to see it. Congrats Alma for your incredible win, and to all the other competitors for helping to make history and push the sport forward.
Catch the full replay here, and results here.
