Why mountain biking's most prestigous competition is still reserved for the boys

Crankworx, the world's biggest mountain bike festival, is marking its 15th year in Whistler, B.C., this week, but female mountain bike athletes still can't compete in the festival's highest profile event, the Red Bull Joyride slopestyle competition.

Slopestyle mountain biking is similar to freeride skiing or snowboarding. Athletes perform tricks like backflips, frontflips and elaborate spins to impress judges.

Women compete in most Crankworx events, including downhill races and other timed events, but the main-event slopestyle competition, which attracts tens of thousands of spectators, is still reserved for the boys.

Female athletes have traditionally been excluded from that event because they haven't been able to perform the same level of tricks on the same size of jumps, some of which measure more than 15 metres in length.

Advocates for the sport said that's because there have been few opportunities for women to compete or practice but with more grassroots events taking place across the world, that's changing and so too is the perception that women's mountain biking is a lesser sport than men's.

Crankworx general manager Darren Kinnaird said his goal is to elevate the profile of female athletes to the same level as the men.

"There's so many amazing female talents in this sport that deserve equal recognition, equal attention from mountain bike fans."

'Womensworx' fell flat

In 2009, Crankworx gave women a venue to compete in slopestyle with "Womensworx" but the one-off event wasn't revived in the years that followed.

Professional downhill mountain bike racer Micayla Gatto said at the time, the level of competition just didn't justify a reboot, but that's starting to change.

"As much as I don't want to admit it, we just weren't there yet," said Gatto, adding that there were only a few women doing tricks at the time.

But the field has grown and women are now performing bigger and better tricks.

Lisa Mason founded The Women's Freeride Movement, a group that works to raise the profile of female riding.

She said she frequently sees women executing backflips, 360-degree spins and other tricks on their bikes but she said providing more spaces to practice and compete would likely push that further.

"If we had a venue where little kids and their moms and dads could go out and hit this . . . and grow the slopestyle field in Whistler, I think that's what we need," she said.

Mason pushed Crankworx organizers to host a starter-event for women to run parallel to the men's slopestyle.

First ever ladies' 'jump jam'

Thanks to Mason's persistence, Crankworx will host its first women's-only jump competition on a set of "dirt jumps" big enough to encourage progression, but not as big as the Joyride jumps.

Kinnaird agreed to hold the women's jump competition and he expects some big names to show up with some big tricks.

"When we started to see the level of riders who were entering the competition it was like: Guys, this needs to be delivered like it is the [Joyride] slopestyle," he said.

"We had been creating heroes of the men in mountain biking for years and we felt we needed to create female heroes as well," he said.

Kinnaird expects the level of performance at the women's "jump jam" event could set the stage for future women's slopestyle competition and maybe even serve as the first step toward getting women on the big stage.

Mason said she'd love to see that happen but still sees a need for more avenues for women to progress before that becomes a reality.

"There's a small percentage of people that can perform at that level . . . I think we need to have a mini-slopestyle series that bridges the gap," she said.

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