Caroline Buchanan on Red Bull Joyride and this moment in women’s slopestyle

Caroline Buchanan can do it all. She’s a five-time World Champion, two-time Olympian, and the reigning back-to-back Queen of Crankworx. Two years ago, she restyled herself as a freestyle mountain biker, and has become one of the best in the world at that, too, while riding the crest of women’s slopestyle’s rising popularity.

This year, women’s slopestyle has been featured on the Diamond Level Crankworx World Tour for the first time ever. And this Saturday, a group of the most obscenely talented, high-flying ladies in the world will take on the mother of all slopestyle contests: Red Bull Joyride in Whistler, Canada.

Buchanan became the first person to ever drop into a Crankworx women’s slopestyle event in Rotorua last March, and she finished third to stand on the first ever podium, thanks in part to an iconic Superwoman seat grab. She took fourth in Cairns and Innsbruck to establish herself as a force within the scene.

She won’t be competing in slopestyle in Whistler, but she’ll take on the pump track competition this Thursday and speed & style this Friday. On Saturday, she’ll team up with Cam McCaul to provide commentary for the Joyride broadcast on Red Bull TV, before heading to Paris to commentate on the Olympics. In Whistler, she’ll have a privileged seat as six women make history by sending it at the biggest slopestyle competition in the world. 

The Race Shop spoke with Buchanan to get her thoughts on this weekend’s competition, and what it has been like being a part of this moment in women’s cycling. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

This is an incredible moment in history. Has the excitement worn off at all at how far women’s slopestyle has come?

Caroline Buchanan: Not at all. I started at five years old in the sport of BMX, and at 14, when I wanted to make a career out of riding a bike, it just didn’t exist for women. My dad was like, “You really need to build your brand, your identity, and lift the sport of BMX to a mainstream image,” and there has been a big shift in the sport due to the hustle over the years.

This year, it has almost felt like the stars have aligned for my entire career. I thought, “My gosh, this is what I’ve been pushing towards for so long.” And now there’s gender equity in the sport. Now, there’s equal pay in the sport. There’s this massive platform. There’s all these opportunities. Now, there’s freeride, and Red Bull Rampage, and slopestyle at Crankworx. There’s all these sports now in the Olympics, it’s not just BMX racing. 

The best saying to put it all together is, “Pressure is a privilege.” We all had this pressure, in that we wanted to compete, and then sponsors and media in the bike industry, and fans on the sidelines, put an even greater external pressure on us. We had never competed at a Diamond League level in slopestyle. At this time last year we had no idea we would be competing at Crankworx, and then suddenly we had four months’ notice to prepare. 

It’s a snowball effect, right? The snowball starts small and grows slowly, but eventually it’s growing exponentially and rolling so fast it can’t be stopped. What’s it been like to see the leap this year?

Buchanan: I leaned into the moment. 

We had this opportunity to go, “Who do you want to be seen in slopestyle?” And I’ve always loved motocross. I’ve loved that moto inspired style, and I just thought, “These are the coolest looking tricks.” And it was such a wild experience to then have the first slopestyle event being in Rotorua, and then little girls having posters and images of me just doing this big, Superwoman seat grab.

And then now, obviously the event. We’ve come to the end of the season, three stops in, and there’s six girls lining up for Joyride. And I’m really proud that I get to speak for the girls on the broadcast with Cam McCaul and talk about the emotions and the feelings of this year, and the story that was, and then also speak to what the future looks like.

Two years ago you started making freestyle MTB your primary focus. Did you foresee the sport progressing like this?

Buchanan: Oh, absolutely not. I didn’t think any of the girls really could see the platforms that were going to open up. We obviously had dreams of being in a Diamond event like Joyride, or doing Rampage. There had been a push for a while, but there hadn’t actually been any breakthrough leeway. 

So subconsciously, without even realizing it, there’s been some few characters among the women. It’s Robin Goomes, and Kathi Kuypers, who rides for Trek. She was the female that pioneered this slopestyle space going back 10 years ago. She would do rebel runs with the guys, where she would compete unofficially and just try to ride the same courses. She was the one that got a women’s slopestyle progression session into Red Bull District Ride, which was a Diamond League event in a medieval castle. 

So I think with Robin Goomes being the first ever girl to backflip in competition, and with myself doing the world’s first front flip, and then Kathi Kuypers really paving the way, a lot of those doors opened. And Casey Brown from the Trek perspective as well, pioneering more big bikes, free riding, and doing whip-off and showing that you don’t have to be a racer.

I think these key players created the foundation, which has then made the platform visible. And then I think it really gave this event side the opportunity and the pressure it needs. And once one event allows the women to be in, it then creates the next pressure opportunity. So we really saw that Swatch Nines was one of the first freeride mountain bike events to go, “We’re having ladies.” And then Crankworx was like, “Oh well, we need to open up speed & style,” which was men’s only. And then there was a flow effect where now it’s Crankworx slopestyle, and then now it’s Red Bull Rampage, and all of a sudden everything has opened up.

This year you’ve been part of a select group of six or seven riders competing in these events. What is the camaraderie like among you all, knowing that you’re all pioneering this level of competition together?

Buchanan: It’s been awesome because we’ve all had to live this new shift together and ride the unknown, one bite at a time. 

For a lot of the guys, they’ve rode these courses for 10 years. For us, we’re turning up, and we’re not only learning the course, we’re learning every feature, and then we’re trying to learn what tricks we’re going to do within that line as well. So we saw this year that quite a lot of the girls were doing never-been-done tricks for themselves in competition finals. So the level up trajectory that we’ve seen from the start of Rotorua through to Cairns has been wild.

We all know the risk/reward, and we all know the internal pressure and external pressure. And I think the perfect thing is we’ve all been traveling together and staying together, too.

The sport is still so young that influential riders like you, Kathi, and Casey are all still on top of your game, even while this new generation is really heating up. What’s it like being both a mentor and competitor in this space?

Buchanan: We knew that we weren’t going to be doing those really high level progressive tricks, which are the future of slopestyle. So we knew we weren’t going to be doing flip triple bar spins like these 16 year olds in this next generational wave. But we knew our strengths to be more like the “slope mums” of the group this year. We have the experience of competition and being able to show up and represent the sport well, do those media interviews, as well as dropping in and executing. 

I’ve competed on this huge stage of the Olympic Games and faced extreme amounts of pressure before, but competing at Crankworx was different. I really liked the first round in Rotorua, and after I finished I got so emotional, so overwhelmed, so nervous. And it showed on TV. We knew that we needed to lay down that first run. And for me, I was the first girl to drop in because I had been the Queen of Crankworx the year before.

It was just this huge magnifying glass zoomed in on slopestyle. We knew that we had that Red Bull broadcast. We had insane viewership. We had awesome prize money. And the emotions hit me like, “Wow, the narrative has changed. We’re not imagining if we had equal prize money, or gender equity. We’re in it. We’re living it. We’ve got every opportunity. This is insane. And you’re the first girl dropping in.”

What makes Joyride so special in particular, and why is it such an important event for women to finally compete in?

Buchanan: This is the birthplace of Crankworx. This is really the home of where it all began. This is the point that connects the fans, the riders, and the community, as well as the industry. This one is not only the biggest from a viewership perspective, but I would say probably the most important event that supports the entire season.

It’s also the biggest course. So it’s 11 features, the longest course. It’s the Super Bowl.

Before this year, no one really thought Joyride and Diamond League level events would be a reality for women so soon. In my mind, I was thinking this was going to be three to five years down the track. I thought I was probably going to have kids and a family, not even in a trajectory of thinking this would be a reality. So I think for everyone, it was more of a shock to go, “Wow. All right, we’re jumping a few levels, but let’s just lean into that pressure and deliver.”

And finally, what should we expect on Saturday? What’s the course like, and who are you excited to watch?

Buchanan: The top two riders in the overall from this year are out. Robin Goomes, she’s No. 1, she’s out with injury. Then I was sitting in second in the overall for the series, and I’m out with this Olympic commitment. So with the top two players out, it has left the podium wide open for the overall. 

My guess is that Alma Wiggberg, who’s won one stop already this year, will take it. And like the men, if you win Joyride, you’ve got a ticket to Joyride for life. 

With Robin and myself out, it’s meant that the young gun, 17-year-old Natasha Miller, has a chance to step up. And then another rider, Natalia Niedźwiedź from Poland, she is replacing me, and she was the first girl to double backflip a mountain bike to an airbag at the Swatch Nines last year. She’s been doing the Masters of Dirt shows where she does flip bars, flip cans, double back flips, front flips, and front flip tuck no handers. So she has a huge bag of tricks, but she hasn’t had the opportunity to ride a Diamond course yet. 

In terms of the course, probably the most challenging feature will be the finish cannon log, and that’s a new feature. We haven’t seen the finisher being a big cannon log to the finish, so keep your eyes on that. And I just encourage everyone to tune in to Red Bull TV. I can’t wait to watch alongside Cam McCaul.