Crankworx 2024 opens slopestyle mountain biking event to women for first time

Women riders will compete in a global mountain biking festival’s “pinnacle” event this year for the first time in the world tour’s 20-year history.

A Crankworx boss says elite female competitors “pushed for the opportunity” and “showed us they are ready” to enter the slopestyle event.

One rider describes the move as mountain biking’s “biggest progression”, with slopestyle traditionally the festival’s “pinnacle event for the men”.

The crowd-pleasing event sees riders earn points performing daring aerial tricks on huge jumps and other course features.

The Crankworx festival will start on March 16 in Rotorua’s Whakarewarewa Forest, the first of four international locations.

It spans nine days and was expected to pump $3-5 million into the city’s economy, RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson previously said. It’s the 10th anniversary of Crankworx in Rotorua, with locally raised Tuhoto-Ariki Pene among the top riders set to compete.

In the slopestyle world championship women’s category, each event will host the six highest-ranked riders on the FMB Women’s World Tour Ranking.

Crankworx managing director Darren Kinnaird said the slopestyle event was being opened to women because “it became clear to us that they are ready”.

“Since 2015, Crankworx has set out to create gender equality through equal prize money, shared podiums, and equal opportunity for men and women, knowing that slopestyle would be the most challenging to integrate,” he said.

Crankworx managing director Darren Kinnaird. Photo / Crankworx

He said there had not been a “formal evaluation” to decide when women could start competing in the race.

“We started with some of the lower-level events in 2021, 2022 [and] 2023. With the lower-level events, you tend to not [have] as big of courses or features.”

Last year women began having opportunities to ride the “Crankworx-level courses”.

“The women were ready. They just showed they are ready.

“They were the ones that pushed for this opportunity. They were the ones that said, ‘give us the opportunity’.”

Kinnaird said “development” within other women’s races paved the road “for women to compete at the highest level of the sport”.

Seeing women compete at the most recent Crankworx Summer Series in Canada sealed the deal.

‘Pinnacle event for the men’

Queen of Crankworx 2023 and Australian BMX and mountain bike world champion Caroline Buchanan will be one of the first women to compete in the slopestyle event.

Buchanan said she saw opening this race for women internationally as “the biggest progression … that’s happened within mountain biking”.

Slopestyle was considered the “pinnacle event for the men”, she said.

“They’re always [held] on the last day. They always have the biggest crowd.

“It’s the biggest event of Crankworx.”

Asked why women had not been able to participate previously, she said other action sports such as surfing, snowboarding and skateboarding were more established and had time to close the gender gaps.

Women’s mountain biking was relatively new in comparison.

”Now … we’re opening the doors to the ladies. [Professional mountain biking] is now a viable career option.”

Robin Goomes will be one of the first top international women riders to compete in the Crankworx FMBA Slopestyle World Championship. Photo / Crankworx

Mountainbiker and free-rider Robin Goomes will also be among Crankworx’s first female slopestyle competitors.

“There just haven’t been enough women doing this kind of riding previously,” she said.

“There have been women pushing it [but] just not enough to really get a category going.”

Goomes said that had changed with a “bunch of women” taking up the style of the sport.

She said it would be “definitely pretty special” to be one of the first.

“I think it previously has been hard for women to push those boundaries.”

She said slopestyle riding required specific training including general mountain bike riding, practising jumps and learning to “dial in your tricks”.

“Then you have to be able to put together a top-to-bottom run.”

Social media helps drive change

A Crankworx Rotorua spokesperson said women were “ready to compete in slopestyle”.

“With social media amplifying every new feat demonstrated by women, popularity and belief has slowly begun to change that women deserve a place competing alongside fellow males.”

Crankworx Rotorua event director Ariki Tibble. Photo / Andrew Warner

Crankworx Rotorua event director Ariki Tibble said New Zealand had been at the forefront of breaking new ground for women for generations.

It was a “privilege” to be part of a worldwide event setting the “trajectory for the future of the sport”.

Crankworx 2024 Rotorua dates:

• March 16 and 17: Crankworx Rotorua kicks off in the Whakarewarewa Forest.
• March 20 to 24: Crankworx Rotorua continues at Skyline Rotorua.
• There is no racing or expo on March 18 and 19.

Michaela Pointon is an NZME reporter based in the Bay of Plenty and was formerly a feature writer.