Robin Goomes gunning for glory at Red Bull Rampage

Robin Goomes has come a long way since her upbringing in the Chatham Islands, becoming one of the world's top female freeride mountain bikers in recent years.

The 24-year-old is looking forward to the next chapter in Red Bull Rampage history on the iconic Utah mountain biking terrain as, for the first time ever, both men's and women's finals take place. The racing goes from 10-12 October, however as Goomes points out, most of the time beforehand is spent making the track itself.

"It's actually a two-week long event. You get to the venue, and you have to scope your own line down this hill. You then have to spend the next four to eight days digging your line, putting your own features, and, like, drums, shoots, whatever you can to then ride and compete on," she said.

"And then you have a two-run competition format where you drop in and you have to ride top to bottom of your line that you've just built and tricks and go as big as you possibly can."

It was a lot of work for a run that usually lasted around a minute, but Goomes and her fellow competitors bring their own team of diggers to carve out the course in Virgin, Utah.

"I've got a really solid dig team … three diggers and they're all really knowledgeable trail builders and good riders and people that I know. So, I think once we get going on this process with the builders, it'll be just like working with my crew to basically just learn from them," she said.

"So you dig hard for four days, and then you'll probably most likely be digging right through those next four days. But that's when you got to try get as much riding as you can."

Goomes was not alone, as this was the first Rampage event to have an eight-strong women's field.

"It's definitely a new thing for women … it's really hard to know until we get out there and do it. I've been getting a lot of advice from guys who have been in this event for a while. And I've been super helpful just sharing, like the ins and outs of how things work and giving advice on that."

Goomes was also one of the featured athletes in a new Red Bull film, Anytime, something that she said was a "career highlight".

"Honestly, filming for Anytime was so much fun … probably some of the times in my life. Like all of those people in that film are super inspirational riders. And just to go on the trip, I got to be a part of two segments, which was really special."

Goomes' journey to the top of the mountain biking has been an unusual one, after growing up on the Chathams and spending a stint in the army that saw her based in Antarctica for a time. It was not her first time in Utah, having competed in Red Bull Formation 2022. Like most other riders, she has suffered her fair share of injuries, most recently a concussion that kept her off the bike.

"I've had a couple of good injuries throughout my career, and it's always it's always really tough, especially when they come at the wrong time," she said.

Concussion, a bit of a shoulder injury, I think eight weeks roughly. And it was right before one of my other bigger events of the season, so that was pretty tough, just the timing of it. But I think every time you get injured and you have to go through this process of recovering and doing all of that stuff, you can learn a lot in those moments, I think it's in a way there's always positives that you can reset."

Her goals for Rampage were to simply "enjoy the whole process".

"I just want to experience the event, like, really, like, understand how it all works and just enjoy the whole process. That's the goal for this time is just have fun, enjoy it and just be a sponge and learn."