Round Up: Women's MTB Wednesdays - Issue 3
Welcome to the third issue of the Women's Wednesday round up, a monthly digest of some of the most notable achievements from women in the bike world. We want to highlight all of the women who work to push our sport forward, so we plan to share news, race results, our favorite video clips, and more. You can help us find more content from rad women by using the Instagram tag #PBWMN.
News
The past month has been a wild one for women's freeride progression, with Dark Horse, Audi Nines, Proving Grounds and Hangtime all taking place within the past 30 days. Highlights were 12-year old Tayte Proulx-Royds riding the massive drops and jumps on the Dark Horse Invitational course and taking the Dark Horse Award, Caroline Buchanan landing the world's first female MTB frontflip at Audi Nines, and a women's category at Proving Grounds for the first time, which was won by Cami Nogueira.
It was also an exciting one for racing, with the final rounds of the World Cup DH and XC taking place in Snowshoe last weekend at the same time as the penultimate round of the EWS in Finale Ligure. This week, we've got Crankworx BC to look forward to and next week we go to the Tweed Valley for the final round of the EWS.
Speaking of enduro, the Gowaan Girls made a short film about how the women's scene of racing in Enduro has become more and more competitive over the last few years and their value which is worth a watch. They also gave £1000 to Robin Goomes to help her get to freeride events through their A Gowaan Gift initiative.
It was also great to see Lorraine Truong back on the bike for the first time after Orange made her the Phase AD3 Adaptive bike, a labour of love nearly six years in the making designed to help get Lorraine Truong back in the saddle.
The final XC World Cup of the year in Snowshoe, West Virginia.
Racing & Events
We've now wrapped up the World Cup series, with the final round taking place in Snowshoe, West Virginia last week. It was a busy week for downhill riders, with two rounds crammed into six days of riding to wrap up a long season. With two mistakes in as many races for Myriam Nicole, she lost her lead in the overall to a charging Vali Höll. Höll came to Snowshoe without an elite World Cup win to her name, but left with two and an overall title to go with it. Nicole finished second in the overall standings with a consistent Camille Balanche in third, Tahnee Seagrave in fourth and Marine Cabirou rounding out the top five.
Loana Lecomte was able to clinch the overall World Cup XC title in Lenzerheide, but sat on the sidelines for the Snowshoe World Cup XC due to ongoing health problems that have sapped her energy. We wish her all the best for a return to health for 2022. Taking second in the overall was Evie Richards, who followed up her impressive win at World Champs with two World Cup wins. She also took the win in the Short Track ahead of the longer event. Third place in the overall standings went to Jenny Rissveds, fourth to Rebecca McConnell and Sina Frei finished in fifth place.
We've got one more round of the Enduro World Series left in the Tweed Valley in the UK on October 2. As of now, Melanie Pugin leads the series ahead of Morgane Charre and Isabeau Courdurier.
Enduro World Series
Domination in Finale for Morgane Charre.
EWS Finale Ligure - Round 8
1st. Morgane Charre: 28:40.60
2nd. Isabeau Courdurier: 28:57.45
3rd. Bex Baraona: 29:12.07
4th. Melanie Pugin: 29:13.24
5th. Noga Korem: 29:17.87
Melanie Pugin leads the overall.
Enduro World Series Standings:
1st. Melanie Pugin 3885
2nd. Morgane Charre 3450
3rd. Isabeau Courdurier 3375
4th. Harriet Harnden 3225
5th. Noga Korem 2985
Downhill World Cup
An incredible second season in the Elite category for Vali Holl.
DH World Cup Snowshoe - Final Round
1st. Vali Höll: 3:39.679
2nd. Marine Cabirou: 3:39.935
3rd. Camille Balanche: 3:45.100
4th. Tahnee Seagrave: 3:46.236
5th. Nina Hoffmann: 3:46.948
Your overall World Cup winners for 2021.
DH World Cup Overall Standings:
1st. Valentina Höll 1125
2nd. Myriam Nicole 1079
3rd. Camille Balanche 1065
4th. Tahnee Seagrave 936
5th. Marine Cabirou 691
World Cup XC
Evie Richards takes the World Champs stripes and then back it up with two World Cup wins.
XC World Cup Snowshoe - Final Round:
1st. Evie Richards: 1:14:53
2nd. Rebecca McConnell: +1:31
3rd. Anne Tauber: +1:54
4th. Sina Frei: +2:10
5th. Anne Terpstra: +2:31
Loana had the overall secured after Lenzerheide.
XC World Cup Overall Standings:
1st. Loana Lecomte 1550
2nd. Evie Richards 1510
3rd. Jenny Rissveds 1275
4th. Rebecca McConnell 1215
5th. Sina Frei 1110
Robin Goomes styling up the 60ft hip on Freeride
Audi Nines Results:
Savage Award: Gemma Corbera (ESP)
Best Trick: Caroline Buchanan (AUS), Frontflip
Best Style: Vero Sandler (NZL)
Ruler of the week: Robin Goomes (NZL)
Cami Nogueira took the win at Proving Grounds.
Proving Grounds Results:
1st. Cami Nogueira
2nd. Hannah Bergemann
Tech
With events all across the board this month, from Audi Nines to EWS and XC races to Dark Horse, we have a whole range of bikes to check out.
Bike Check: Isabeau Courdurier's Leopard Print Lapierre Spicy
Bike Check: Sina Frei's Custom Rainbow Stripes Specialized Epic
Joey Gough's "Miami Send Machine" GT Force from Audi Nines
Bike Check: Robin Goomes' Yeti SB165 - Audi Nines 2021s
Bike Check: Jolanda Neff's Olympics-Winning Trek Supercaliber
Bike Check: Kade Edwards' & Casey Brown's Trek Sessions - Audi Nines 2021
Bike Check: Veronique Sandler's Santa Cruz V10 - Audi Nines
Video: 6 Pro Freeride Bike Checks from the Dark Horse Invitational
Miranda Miller finished third on the Pro Stage in Finale.
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.
Miranda Miller on Challenges, Pushing Boundaries & Mental Health
Katy Winton on The Drop in Podcast, Factory Team Vs Privateer
Podcast: Tianna Smith Talks About Her Son Stevie Smith & Upcoming Doc From Anthill Films
On Learning, Falling Over & Progressing with Luise Rohland
UK National Champion KJ Sharp Talks About Her First Downhill Season
Haley Batten on the Adventure Stache
12-year-old Tayte Proulx-Royds took the Dark Horse award.
Interviews
We got to know two young guns in the sport, Tayte Proulx-Royds and Gracey Hemstreet. Proulx-Royds is just 12 years old but was sending the jumps at Casey Brown's Dark Horse event and took the Dark Horse award, while Hemstreet took the bronze medal at the DH World Championships in the Junior category as well as a couple of World Cup podiums.
Getting to Know: Junior World Champs Bronze Medallist Gracey Hemstreet
Getting to Know Tayte Proulx-Royds, the 12-Year-Old Who Won the Dark Horse Award
Videos
Social Highlights
As always, there's a lot to celebrate this month, and we love to see it. Remember to tag #pbwmn on Instagram to help us find more content from all the rad ladies out there.
Celebrating all the female riders out there working together to push our sport forward. Remember to 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.
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WC racing / Audi/ Formation , in the last few weeks Tahnee Seagrave , Myriam Nicole, Micayla Gatto, Vero S have all featured in front page videos.
Im completely for promoting the womens side of the sport and DH should be proud having had equal prize money and men and women riding same tracks but shouldnt the focus be on inclusivity and reporting everything mens and womens equally?
Not divisively by having specific women's Wednesday? It smacks of tokenism and accountability.
An example of change - BBC
They now headline their main BBC Sport page with womens football and cricket just like they do for the mens versions.
They dont have a specific - 'heres the womens round up if you're bothered' option.
You need to catch up with Anneke Beerten and the works she's doing not only with women's & youth MTB but Brain Injury Recovery. IMPO, it would make for a good article in your PBWMN series.
As for the rest of your assertions, well, they're about as well researched as the bike sizes one. Mountain biking is a dirty, smelly, messy, high risk, high technology, high fitness, high time investment, moderate cost sport that keeps away a significant proportion of men.