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For the first time since its inception in 2001, Red Bull Rampage, the most prestigious freeride mountain biking competition, will include women. Eight of the world’s top women freeriders will compete on Thursday, October 10, on a dirt outcrop in Virgin, Utah, just outside Zion National Park. The riders, who hail from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and New Zealand, have been on site since September 30, building their lines for the big day.

“It means so much to be in the first women’s Rampage,” Casey Brown, a top Canadian rider competing in the event, told �����ԹϺ���. “Hearing the news that women’s Rampage was going to be this year, I was over the moon. I was so stoked to start training.”

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In 2018, �����ԹϺ��� wrote about Brown’s longstanding dream to get the coveted invite to Rampage. For years, she tried to compete among the men, and even got close in 2019, when she became the first woman invited to the then-qualifying event for Rampage, Proving Grounds. But she didn’t make the cut after crashing on the course in high winds and sustaining an injury.

Rampage features athletes descending death-defying lines, hitting massive drops, jumps, and gaps, and generally assuming a lot of risk. It’s a big, multi-week undertaking for Red Bull. The athletes each construct their own line, practice on it for several days, and finally, have one day of competition.

Organizers have cited this unwieldy event format in the past as a key reason not to include women—there simply wasn’t enough time to get all the competitors down safely, in a good weather window. Over the last two decades, there has also been plenty of chatter from professionals and spectators alike about women’s ability, and a debate as to whether female riders are skilled enough to step up to that terrain.

Brown was not the only person who wanted to prove the naysayers wrong, and see women participate in Rampage. In 2019, a group of women spearheaded by legendary mountain biker Rebecca Rusch and professional athlete Katie Holden decided to take matters into their own hands. If they couldn’t join the men, they’d ride the same terrain with a format specifically designed to help women progress to Rampage-level riding. That year, they held the inaugural Formation, with the support of Red Bull. It was not a competition, but instead a collaborative riding session that brought women to Virgin for a week to develop their big-mountain free-ride skills. All eight of the women competing in Rampage this year have attended Formation in the past.

By 2022, Formation had doubled in size to 12 athletes. Organizers and participants hoped its success would prompt the Rampage organizers to finally create a women’s category. Then, in 2023, Red Bull canceled Formation—which many people in the industry took to be a sign that women might get the invite to Rampage. When Red Bull proceeded to hold that year’s event—the 17th edition of Rampage—just for men, the outrage grew to a fever pitch. The move received ample criticism and a flurry of social media posts under the hashtag #letthemride.

Finally, on June 3, 2024, Red Bull announced that women would be included in this year’s Rampage, and that they would receive equal prize money.

The women’s course is adjacent to the men’s and starts at a slightly lower elevation. Unlike the men’s course, which served as the venue in 2018 and 2019, the women’s course has never been ridden. “It’s a blank canvas,” Holden says. “They stand at the start gate and they see the finish corral, and they have to build something from top to bottom.”

Beyond the venue, the competition format is the same for men and women. Athletes get six days to scout and create their competition line, with a three-person team of trail builders who help them sculpt the red-rock landscape into a rideable line that showcases their skill. During the competition, riders get two descents, and a panel of judges scores them on a set of criteria: amplitude (or air time), fluidity and control, tricks and style, and line choice. A winning run typically features a technical, creative line with big features ridden fluidly, at speed, and with tricks like supermans, 360s, and backflips.

“The format is super unique because you get to build your own line, test your own line, and complete a full run,” Brown said. “But it’s also like any other event in that you have to exercise so many different skills during the ten days.”

The athlete roster wasn’t the only glass ceiling to break at Rampage–the judging panel has never included a woman before. But this year, professional athletes Claire Buchar and Blake Hansen join the panel to judge both the men’s and women’s events, according to Holden, who is onsite and assisting Red Bull with communications.

Brown is one of the favorites to take the inaugural top prize, but she has stiff competition, like New Zealander Vinny Armstrong, who has won multiple Crankworx whip-offs and rides huge jumps with style; Camila Nogueira, an Argentinian living in Aspen, Colorado known for her appetite for bold, exposed descents; and Canadian Vaea Verbeeck, who brings ten years experience of World Cup downhill racing and several Crankworx overall titles.

The inaugural women’s event will not be broadcast live, but fans can follow the action at . A time-delayed viewing of the event will be shown at 9 P.M. EST Thursday night on ESPN+, RedBull TV, and Red Bull’s YouTube channel.

Brown, for her part, is most excited about the long-term impact of women’s inclusion. “Having an event like this is integral to getting more women on bikes, especially the younger girls who are coming up in the sport,” she said. “Now they have a top-end event to shoot for, and the trickle-down effect will go all the way through novice and amateur riders.”