Red Bull Formation pushes female freeriders into the mainstream.

WORDS NICOLE FORMOSA

PHOTOGRAPHY KATIE LOZANCICH

Sculpt shapes...

Katie Holden and I are peering up at an amphitheatre of rustcoloured cliff bands in the Utah desert as she points out the zones where 12 of the best female freeriders in the world will drop in over the next week. The lines span the entire ridge, and several trace the same routes made famous by Red Bull Rampage riders some seven years before. Metal tools clank against rock while athletes and their dig crews work feverishly to turn their stone canvases into the biggest and most consequential lines most of them have ever dropped into. The scale of it all is hard to fathom, even when you’re staring at the towering cliffs, but the tiny ant-sized humans perched on the rocks above – some roped in due to the sheer steepness – are a stark reminder of the gravity of Formation, the event we’re about to watch unfold. In the coming days these lines will take shape in the form of sketchy blind drop-ins from the wind-exposed ridgetop barely wide enough for a bike tyre, massive double drops, trick jumps, and steep, loose, full-commitment, fall-line chutes. Honestly, just thinking about riding this terrain is terrifying. Actually riding it? That’s reserved for the most talented, gutsiest mountain bikers on the planet.

Formative terrain

Just three years earlier, when Formation debuted at this same hallowed freeride venue outside Virgin, Utah, the first six invitees utilised just a portion of the site as they tested the waters of both a new event and their own perceived limitations on the bike. The terrain in this corner of south-west Utah is unlike anywhere else in the world – its raw, exposed nature demands experience, and the roll-in speed required to clean sections or features can be tricky, as it’s often much slower than the loose, seemingly tractionless ‘dirt’ might indicate. Indeed, as athletes spend more time in the desert, especially those who have taken part in all three Formations – Hannah Bergemann, Veronique Sandler, Vinny Armstrong and Vaea Verbeeck – the level of riding here has progressed exponentially, in step with the influence of the event itself. Formation has become the loftiest goal for women looking to build a career outside the race tape, and a catalyst for creating more opportunities for women within a niche of the sport that’s historically been occupied almost exclusively by men.