Jess Blewitt has broken her collarbone after crashing on the huge step-up at Red Bull Hardline.
After a nasty crash in practice on the step-up jump Jess has broken her collarbone for the second time this year after first cracking it
at the Fort William World Cup. Jess has been looking great on the massive drops and jumps of the Hardline course and has won the BF Goodrich rider of the week award. While she won't be continuing to hit the massive sends on course we have been told that she is doing well and will be cheering on the rest of the riders in finals tomorrow.
We wish Jess all the best with her recovery and hope she is back riding soon.
Heal up soon!
@ Jess, Heal up well! Looking forward to see you race next season(if this is the end)!
No, like raspberry preserves.
Jess Blewitt may be some kind of pioneer by entering the Hardline "race", but I'm sure Rachel Atherton had many opportunities to participate, as did Tracey Hannah and Miriam Nicole (Red Bull sponsored). They declined for some good reason, and there's no shame in that.
"Preserve women from this", as RedBurn said, is not about limiting women's opportunities or denigrating their powers. His statement is about keeping the pressure off these talented riders who have no business risking their careers at this frat-boy event. 56 riders in 8 years, nearly 40% of them never came back a second time (Hart, Bruni, Hannah, Wilson to name a few great racers)... 100 foot jumps... let's be real and admit that this is a spectacle, not a race.
dude your comment is wrong because assumes the sponsors are forcing those athletes to participate in a relatively small event. Are you as vocal where riders are afraid of features on world cup dh tracks? For hardline it's an event from riders by riders. No one is forcing anyone. Sometimes we bite more than we can chew and it's not gender related. Do you even ride?
And yeah people dont come back because yeah it's a risky event but some of the ones who are afraid still do (Jono Jones to name one)
Are we at a point where biological aspects such as strength and power may be the limit to what is possible for women here?
As someone said, pedalling hard between 70-100ft jumps? It’s a hugely physical track with so many large impacts etc.
Men do jump higher, run faster, swim faster, lift more at the same level of sport - that is statistical fact, so why would we expect women to be able to run the same course that some of the best men out there can literally only just manage?
Amazing riding from Jess though and the clips I have seen of her hitting those huge jumps show the skill is there.
Jess is an amazing rider but there are many hundreds of male amature (let alone professional) riders that ride faster and jump bigger than she can. Imagine the insanity if an amateur rider of her ability received a wildcard invite to Hardline.
The problem with this format for riders that are not the very best of the very best is there is no working your way up to these features. Each feature is literally the biggest and gnarliest you will find in a race format. Even if you are a first time racer here chances are you are already confident on features 85 to 100% of what's on track. There are 4 days to prep you to get to a solid 100% (while still freaking out).
That said I would like to hear what Jess has to say about the track and most importantly if she thinks she could actually put together a solid race run in 4 days.
The progression of women on bikes has been huge. Regardless of what you think, like I said, this is just the beginning. We’re seeing women at Provingground, they’re holding their own events like Dark Horse, and Formation. These women are absolute shredders!
You genuinely think women can reach the same level as men at this sport?
Of course the women competing by are phenomenal athletes but they will never be as strong or powerful as their male equivalent who can only just cope with such a track.
When I was in high school, I ran 400m faster than any women ever has, to this day.
I was a never ever got a top 10 in Norba Nationals Pro, back in the day.
Let’s not pretend that girls are better athletes than men.
That’s just silly.
No of course I couldn’t, but I already said that earlier on, didn’t I? Is also said how skilled these women are and how it’s great to see how much women are progressing in the sport.
I just find it odd how we are happy to remove the biological aspect altogether in what is a very physical sport, you say yourself women will never reach the same level as men so how can we then expect women to ride the same track that the best men struggle to even get down?
I upvoted you only because of the truth.
I’m 50, and only do ultra endurance, both running and mtb.
Back in high school though, before I really found my niche, I ran a 440 (that’s yards - that’s how old I am) read: 400m
faster than any woman has to this day.
I was a pretty good Norba racer, back in the day, but I was just pretty good.
You are not an elite athlete - so finding a women who is faster, more powerful or stronger than you is no surprise, we are talking like for like here, as in elite sprinter v elite sprinter or elite mtb rider v elite mtb.
Tell me one single time In the history of World Cup do racing where the top woman’s time was faster than the top men? Or the top woman’s 100m sprint time was faster?
So no, women will never progress to be ‘as fast as men’ - that is biology, not me being oppressive or ‘Marty mcfly’.
Men and women have different biological traits, a fact of reality and this defines physical performance, it’s an unarguable fact.
You can't see into the future, perhaps there will be a time when men and women have equal performance in terms of mountain biking, the point made above is for most of us keyboard warriors the level that women are riding at surpasses our amateur efforts significantly.
Jess took part in Hardline this year which is a significant first for the sport, she made the road gap and several other shit-your-pants features. She's an accomplished freerider and evidently an accomplished racer given her recent podium.
Yet here we are again with comments focusing on what women can't do rather than what they have done. Lame.
Again though you say - ‘you can’t see into the future’ regarding equal sporting performance between men and women in DH - yes you absolutely can, it’s called biology and in no way is that denigrating or ‘holding women down’ - it’s reality, in the same way women are not going to sprint as fast as men in the future.
Just a point, at VDS DH the winning woman’s time was 40 seconds slower than the mens who finished in the mid 3 minute mark, no amount of ‘progression’ will ever close that gap (it will make it smaller of course) as it’s biologically dependent.
My point about never reaching equal performance is that asking women to ride an identical track such as hardline may (and I say may as I don’t know, this is a discussion, it’s not definite) not be able to work because of biological factors and that you need the same performance as the top male riders in order to complete the course.
It isn’t ‘Lame’ to discuss biology and I have praised Jess and will continue to do so, her riding is amazing.
Again, nothing but praise and admiration for Jess and other women that have pushed the sport of cycling in recent years - Rachel continuing to be a role-model for all, but that does't stop me from discussing a factor that is based upon undeniable, scientific, fact.
How on earth have the biological differences between a man and woman become a subject that is outright denied as a reality and also unable to be discussed is beyond me, the pysical limits of men and women are different and are factored into all sorts of sports all around the world.
I was having a wider discussion as you can clearly see 'old boy' (you are a lot older than me btw stevie) it wasn't specifically about the achievement (of which I praised several times as her riding is facking awesome) Jess has made at this event, do you have anything to add to the discussion other than consistently rolling out the same re-written trope 'you stop telling tha womuns what they cant do' when you know I am not doing that.
I am simply asking (yes asking, not telling) if maybe this very specific kind of riding could be hard for women to participate in due to the biological differences between them and men, but this discussion seems to be out of bounds or is labelled as 'gatekeeping' 'telling women what they can do' or other such nonsense.
"If you´ll walk across my camera,
I will flash the world your story,
I will pay you more than money, Ingrid Bergman.
Not by pennies dimes nor quarters,
But with happy sons and daughters,
And they´ll sing around Stromboli,
Ingrid Bergman."
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What does it mean that a race is "internationally recognized" ? I don't remember there is a definition.
Also using your logic Rampage, Megaavalanche and nother non world cup big races are also scrapped. We just abolish any event that is not world cup downhill
A family based three piece combo from another dimension, not unlike our own reality's Hanson, probably.
I bet Dan's the drummer.
Was great to see you hit that stuff bit by bit!
Next year...?
In fairness, Crank It Up sees .00001% pro riders, with the rest kamikaze punters like us. Hardline is 100% pros.
www.cyclenews.com/2018/12/article/neck-brace-effectiveness-study
Clearly these guys who are very accustomed to big features and big slams have a good reason for not wearing them, can we get them asked?
Dr. Leatt spent a lot of effort to set the record straight with newer studies.
I too would really like to know why pros have ditched them. I think it’s a very uncomfortable conversation and the people to ask are recently retired pros with no more contracts to worry about.
Pinkbike podcasts, do your magic!
Does anyone know if she broke the her collarbone on the same side again?
This course is always a gnarly puzzle like old school freeride lines used to be. Very intense and techy, hard to ride smoothly.
“She blewit!”
Healing vibes, wish a speedy recovery
Yea it was a joke (at someone else's expense) but when repeated 100,000 times its no longer remotely funny and all it does is create negativity to the person on the receiving end....
(Flashback)
November 2013...
Dan: We got the contract! You gotta ride!
Gee: No F'n way, stooooked! In it to win it! Yo, Rach! you gotta do it, you know, for the sistaz...
Rachel: You wankers just go on and pull yourselves-- glad you got a paycheck, but that's some batshit crazy stuff right there and if you expect me to be the female guinea pig, f' off. I win races and make bank, thanks.