Rocky Trail and International Women’s Day: Celebrating Women in Mountain Biking

At Rocky Trail Entertainment, we’re proud to celebrate International Women’s Day and to highlight the incredible women who are making a difference in the world of mountain biking. Rocky Trail is a company with a female co-founder, Juliane Wisata, and female National Event Manager, Jo Parker. They both strongly influence the direction of the company and Rocky Trail’s commitment to women’s cycling is reflected in its events, which include a range of categories and classifications for women.

Juliane and Jo have been committed to building up women on rocky trails and celebrating their achievements. Starting in 2023, another way we’re doing this is through the new Rocky Trailblazer Award, which has two of Australia’s most talented and successful female mountain bikers as its patrons: Olympian and National Champion Bec Henderson and Junior National Champion Zoe Cuthbert.

With the Rocky Trailblazer Awards we want to recognize their enormous achievements of Bec and Zoe in mountain biking and in 2023 find the next round of female athletes who will change the sport, this year starting with riders in the cross-country portfolio of events.

Bec will support us to foster female race participation and the grassroots growth of the sport in general. The adult Rocky Trailblazer titles will be under the patronage of Bec and the Trailblazer Junior Awards will be headed up by Zoe. In summary, the award will not focus on the fastest, but instead, who has improved the most throughout the year.

I really appreciate the effort from Rocky Trail and look forward to supporting this initiative especially in identifying ways to help grow the sport and develop female and younger riders.

Bec Henderson

I look forward to stepping up and representing this award and to providing my expertise in racing, training as well as writing and illustrating too so we can motivate more women and riders to explore their potential in mountain bike riding – and racing.

Zoe Cuthbert

Together with Martin Wisata, Managing Director of Rocky Trail, Juliane Wisata is passionate about advocating for mountain biking and says that they had spent the last 15 years working hard to create an inclusive and professional events environment where every rider feels safe and valued. This included securing female talent for key positions in the business and creating a team of highly skilled, energetic and passionate men and women who share the same values around respect and integrity.

As a company, Rocky Trail has always had a strong focus on racing, but now we recognize that family and business are just as important.

Juliane Wisata

Juliane says that throughout the years, her mission had evolved from thinking life was just about racing, to watching her son come to events, with wide eyes when riders fly by, from thinking only going fast counts, to realizing only smiles matter. And, that this is what the Rocky Trailblazer Awards should all be about.

On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the amazing women who are part of the Rocky Trail family, including riders, staff, volunteers, and supporters. We recognize the important role that women play in the sport of mountain biking, and we’re committed to creating a positive and fun racing experience across all our events. Let’s keep building up women on rocky trails and supporting each other to achieve our dreams. Happy International Women’s Day!