“Female cyclists do not generally need to push their limits,” Czech mountain bike manufacturer Superior once wrote. “They just want to enjoy the time spent in nature.”
Obviously, this is total bullshit. Women rip on mountain bikes (and they have trophy cabinets to prove it) – from the days of Juli Furtado winning the first ever MTB World Championships to multiple champion Brit Rachel Atherton.
We’ve picked out some of the most badass women dominating the world’s trails…
First up, Rachel Atherton. She has long dominated the top rankings in the women’s UCI Downhill World Cup. In 2015 alone, she won six rounds on the trot, squashing any potential competition.
Back in 2005, she was named Sunday Times Young Sportswoman of the Year.
Despite being hit by a pick-up truck in 2009 and suffering serious nerve damage, she went on to recover and has won the 2012, 2013 and 2015 World Cup titles. What a boss.
Welsh downhill mountain bike ripper Manon Carpenter is not a force to be messed with.
She started racing with the encouragement of her dad and coach, Jason, a BMX track builder.
She went on to defy the odds and do the ultimate double in 2014, winning both the UCI Mountain Bike World Championship and the UCI World Cup Mountain Bike Downhill Series.
If you watch the video above, you’ll see just how badass she is.
Back in 2008, Darcy Turenne was one of the few female mountain bike riders making it big in the freeride world. It’s only natural since she grew up in MTB mecca of British Columbia.
Since then, she discovered filmmaking and has gone on to create an awesome array of films supporting women in the action sports industry, most notably eco snowboarding flick The Little Things with Marie-France Roy.
Check out this seriously funny vid she made a few years back about riding as a couple.
Canadian Micayla Gatto has had over ten years experience in downhill mountain bike racing – but sadly injury forced her out of the World Cup series this year.
Still, that didn’t stop her tearing it up at Crankworx in the summer. She takes pride in breaking on the mould of ‘Oh you can’t do it, you’re a girl’ along with the other World Cup girls.
“Showing the guys up makes us feel good!” she told Total Women’s Cycling.
She’s also a super talented artist and musician – check out some of her work here.
Tracy Moseley is a total boss when it comes to downhill mountain biking.
Over a 20 year career, she has dominated pretty much every title from the Downhill World Cup to Enduro and Cross Country race series.
The 36 year-old doesn’t show signs of letting up just yet. She even managed to complete a degree in Biological Sciences along the way. Inspirational stuff.
When it comes to young British up-and-coming riders, Tahnee Seagrave is up there.
Hailing from South London, she was Junior World Champion in 2013 and took a couple of second places in this year’s Downhill World Cup, bringing her up to fourth place overall.
When she was 15 years old, Tahnee told champion Rachel Atherton that she would beat her one day. She’s edging ever closer. If that doesn’t make her badass, I don’t know what does.
Emmeline Ragot has been racing for 13 years, totalled 60 World Cup podiums and 2 World Cup titles. However, the French rider was forced to retire this year after yet another injury.
“I can’t keep breaking myself like this, it’s time to stop,” she told Red Bull after she sustained multiple ankles breaks and a smashed radius earlier this year.
No doubt everyone will miss the French legend.
Tracey Hannah won her first race when she was just 4 years old on a BMX before following her brother Mick into downhill mountain biking aged 13.
She was Australian National Champion for seven years on the trot but retired in 2008 after lack of support.
Five years later she was back and stormed to fourth place in the World Cup Series.
In 2012, she was air-lifted to hospital in the sixth round of the World Cup after crashing and breaking her femur and collarbone, bruising a lung and a hematoma. This woman couldn’t be anything else but badass.