Round Up: Women's MTB Wednesdays - Issue 1
Introducing #PBWMN. Celebrating all the female riders out there working together to push our sport forward. Use #PBWMN on Instagram so that we can find your content and engage with it. We look forward to sharing some of our favourites on our social media and in monthly women’s round ups.
News
The past month has been an exciting one for women's freeride, with both Audi Nines and Proving Grounds announcing women's categories for 2021. Audi Nines will get underway August 24-28, 2021 with Casey Brown, Veronique Sandler, Caroline Buchanan, Joey Gough, Kathi Kuypers and Robin Groomes taking part. Proving Grounds will take place September 10-11, 2021 in Oregon. Casey Brown was the only woman to compete in Proving Grounds in 2019, but this year she will be joined by a field of women including Camila Noguiera, Chelsea Kimball, Hannah Bergemann, Jess Blewitt, Robin Goomes, Samantha Soriano, and Vinny Armstrong. Speaking of which, Casey Brown also announced a brand new event, the Dark Horse Women's Invitational, which will take place in Revelstoke August 16-20, 2021.
In other news, both Marine Cabirou and Camille Balanche picked up Monster Energy sponsorships in the past month. It is great to see Monster sponsoring more women and it will be exciting to see the two continue to push women's downhill racing forward with extra support behind them.
With the good comes the not-so-good, and we wish Nina Hoffman, Marine Cabirou, Anita Gehrig and Tracey Hannah all the best as they recover from injuries sustained in Les Gets and Innsbruck.
Myriam Nicole gives Tahnee Seagrave a hug at the finish line in Les Gets.
Racing & Events
The Enduro World Series takes a breath after a hectic last month before racing resumes with another doubleheader in Loudenvielle, France in September, downhill racers are gearing up for round 3 in Maribor mid-August, and the world's top cross-country racers are headed to Tokyo for the biggest competition of the last four years on July 27th.
Enduro World Series
Harriet Harnden won Round 4 in La Thuile.
EWS La Thuile Race 2 - Round 4
1st. Harriet Harnden: 33:42.29
2nd. Melanie Pugin: 33:43.27
3rd. Isabeau Courdurier: 33:51.54
4th. Noga Korem: 33:57.96
5th. Morgane Charre: 34:25.62
Melanie Pugin leads the overall.
Enduro World Series Standings:
1st. Melanie Pugin 2005
2nd. Isabeau Courdurier 1665
3rd. Harriet Harnden 1665
4th. Morgane Charre 1645
5th. Noga Korem 1355
Downhill World Cup
Tahnee took the win ahead of Myriam in Les Gets.
Les Gets DH World Cup - Round 2
1st. Tahnee Seagrave: 4:10.566
2nd. Myriam Nicole: 4:10.818
3rd. Camille Balanche: 4:15.480
4th. Mille Johnset: 4:16.102
5th. Monika Hrastnik: 4:17.097
Camille holds on to the number one plate.
DH World Cup Overall Standings:
1st. Camille Balanche 390
2nd. Tahnee Seagrave 336
3rd. Valentina Höll 330
4th. Myriam Nicole 320
5th. Monika Hrasnik 282
World Cup XC
Loana Lecomte won in Les Gets in the last World Cup before Tokyo.
XC World Cup Les Gets - Round 4:
1st. Loana Lecomte: 1:27:23
2nd. Jenny Rissveds: +51
3rd. Evie Richards: +1:10
4th. Pauline Ferrand Prevot: +1:51
5th. Rebecca McConnell: +1:55
Lecomte has a solid lead for the overall.
XC World Cup Overall Standings:
1st. Loana Lecomte 1330
2nd. Pauline Ferrand Prevot 955
3rd. Jenny Rissveds 780
4th. Haley Batten 755
5th. Rebecca McConnell 710
Crankworx
Vali took the win in the last event in Innsbruck.
Crankworx Innsbruck Downhill:
1st. Vali Höll: 3:01.060
2nd. Nina Hoffmann: +2.034
3rd. Tahnee Seagrave: +3.248
4th. Camille Balanche: +4.918
5th. Eleonora Farina: +9.728
Harriet Burbidge-Smith leads the Crankworx overall after Innsbruck.
Queen of Crankworx Standings:
1st. Harriet Burbidge-Smith 200
2nd. Jordan Scott 195
3rd. Vaea Verbeeck 191
4th. Valentina Holl 180
5th. Kialani Hines 160
Caro Gehrig with her brand new Norco Range in Canazei.
Tech
We took a look at race steeds from Andreane Lanthier Nadeau, Noga Korem, Loana Lecomte and more in the past month. See how the fastest women in the world set up their bikes.
Video: A Close Look at Andreane Lanthier Nadeau's Rocky Mountain Altitude Race Bike
Video: A Deep Dive on Katy Winton's Nukeproof Giga Race Bike
Bike Check: Christina Chappetta's Trek Session
Bike Check: Noga Korem's GT Fury - Les Gets DH World Cup 2021
13 Women's Bikes From the Cannondale Enduro, Llangollen
Bike Check: The Gehrig Twins' Norco Ranges
Bike Check: Loana Lecomte's Winning Massi Aire SL
Ella Conolly rounded out the top five in Race 2 in Canazei. She chatted with Chris Hall ahead of the 2021 season, click on the link below for the full podcast.
Podcasts
There's nothing like getting to know someone in a long-form interview. Here were some of the podcasts that we listened to in the past month.
Tahnee Seagrave & Veronique Sandler Open Up About The Issues Women Face In MTB
Tahnee Seagrave Shares Her Thoughts On Racing Prize Money: Is The Risk Worth it?
Trail EAffect with Lacey Heward Adaptive Mountain Biker
Ella Conolly Talks About Her Journey to the EWS Podium
Micayla Gatto Goes Joke for Joke with Brett Tippie
Elise Empey on Being the Second Fastest at the Australian National Champs
Chatting about Training with Sian A'Hern
Camille Balanche Chats About Becoming World Champion & Leading the World Cup Overall
Andreane Lanthier Nadeau took third in the first race in La Thuile and had a dramatic weekend at round 4.
Interviews
We catch up with Andreane Lanthier Nadeau after her eventful weekend in La Thuile, get to know 15-year-old Vanessa Petrovská who would have finished 5th in the elite category at Crankworx Innsbruck, and chat with Catharine Pendrel about how she came back to the World Cup circuit just three months after she gave birth to a baby girl. Oh, and we didn't know for sure at the time of the interview, but she's officially qualified for Team Canada alongside Haley Smith and will be competing in Tokyo.
Getting to Know Vanesa Petrovska - The 15-Year-Old Who Would Have Finished 5th in Elite DH at Crankworx Innsbruck
Interview: Catharine Pendrel on Racing World Cup XC 3 Months After Giving Birth to Her Daughter Dara
Getting to Know North American Enduro Cup Winner Kate Lawrence
Getting to Know Robin Goomes, the First Woman to Backflip in a Crankworx Competition
Interview: Andréane Lanthier Nadeau on the Massive Crash That Took Her Out of Contention for the Win - EWS La Thuile 2021
Vali was on one in Les Gets before a crash in the final corner. See her preview of the Crankworx Innsbruck course below where she took the win.
Videos
Social Highlights
From Tahnee Seagrave's winning run in Les Gets, to the hug of the year at the end of Andreane Lanthier Nadeau's disastrous final stage in La Thuile, to Rachel Atherton's belly at week 37 (just about to pop!) to a 40-year-old neurologist and mom getting air for the first time, there are a ton of gems on social media to celebrate. Use #pbwmn for a chance to be featured in the next issue of Women's MTB Wednesdays.
Introducing #PBWMN. Celebrating all the female riders out there working together to push our sport forward. Use #PBWMN on Instagram so that we can find your content and engage with it. We look forward to sharing some of our favourites on our social media and in monthly women’s round ups.
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
How to Watch the 2024 Mountain Bike World Cup [Update: Staylive Offering Access in New Zealand, South Africa & More]
60119 views
60119 views
[UPDATED] Final Elite XC Results & Overall Standings from the Mairiporã XC World Cup 2024
41094 views
41094 views
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
Would love to see you add a privateer section, maybe an “up-and-comers” to be on the lookout for section or a “shout out” section for first descents, etc.. where you could give exposure to these women and help their social media.
Boggles my mind that the US Champ who won by 15 seconds barely has 5K followers on IG. I have HS students with more followers.
Keep up the good work!!!
Just a note: "Harrier" Harnden 1665 may become the next Marine Caribou......flap flap
Can't wait to put this hashtag to more use! Literally just had a convo with my daughter about how lucky we are now that there are so many more women riding.
If you're all looking at it from an untapped-market perspective then it makes more sense to include more women content all 7 days of the week.
We also need Moaning Mondays, Tough Tuesdays and Training Thursdays
Maybe something like Theatrical Thursdays? Think-it-through Thursdays? Thoroughbred Thursdays (exclusively biker vs horse interactions)?
All kidding aside, my previous post/suggestion is sincere.
But really cool concept and keep at it
Thanks @sarahmoore
(Couple of small typos I noticed "Harrier Harnden" which sounds awesome tbh and a bunch of "Holl" with no umlaut).
Pinkbike LGBTQI+ Fridays - getting more LGBTQI+ people into biking.
Pinkbike POC Mondays - getting more non-whites into biking.
Pinkbike Junior Sundays- getting more under 18s into biking.
Pinkbike Marx Saturdays - getting more communists into biking.
Because it's not enough to just be human anymore. To promote inclusivity we need to be exclusive.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
But you probably knew that and aren't saying any of this in good faith.
Time and energy are limited so factually your conclusion is wrong.
I don't care who gets covered cause they ride better than me and invest more time and energy into the sport than I do. But you're still completely wrong.