Tom Key Discover Natural Selection Mountain Biking
The Natural Selection Tour was never supposed to be predictable. That was the whole point. When Travis Rice first brought the idea to life, it was a radical departure from the manicured halfpipes and slopestyle courses that had come to define competitive snowboarding. Here, riders would trade perfect landings for powder pillows, learn to read a slope in real-time, and embrace the kind of improvisation that only backcountry terrain allows.
That philosophy made the tour exhilarating, but it also made it volatile. Now, as Natural Selection expands beyond its snowboarding roots into skiing, surfing, and freeride mountain biking, the experiment is being put to the test. Not on the theoretical level—no one questions whether big-mountain bikers belong in the mix—but on the brutally practical one: Can a competition that thrives on natural terrain be made safe enough without sanding off the edges that make it compelling?
The first iteration of mountain biking under the Natural Selection banner hasn’t exactly gone smoothly. Five riders injured before the contest even started. A course in Queenstown, New Zealand, so raw and punishing that it seemed to take rather than offer opportunities. And a question lingering in the air, unspoken but obvious: Was this a necessary baptism by fire, or was the whole thing rushed?
From Controlled Chaos to Actual Chaos
It’s one thing to take snowboarding into the backcountry. While unpredictable, powder softens crashes. A snowboarder can dump speed and find flow in ways that mountain bikers simply can’t. But on dirt, the consequences of miscalculation are different. Traction, braking points, and suspension all introduce variables that freeriders understand intuitively, but which can become unforgiving when terrain is left almost entirely untouched.
The Queenstown course was exactly that—untouched. Built (or rather, not built) in the same spirit as Natural Selection’s snowboarding venues, it demanded that riders piece together their lines in real time. The problem? Instead of inviting creative expression, the course quickly turned into an attrition test. Before the first official run, five riders—including Lucy Van Eesteren, Thomas Isted, Dylan Stark, Barb Edwards, and Thomas Genon—were sidelined with injuries.
But was this due to a lack of preparation? Not entirely. The event organizers spent over two years securing permits and designing the venue. They aimed for a “light touch” approach, letting the land dictate the course rather than reshaping it into something more predictable. (queenstownnz.co.nz)
This philosophy aligns perfectly with Natural Selection’s ethos, but it also created challenges. A fully raw, unshaped line can be a double-edged sword: what looks beautiful on paper can become punishing in practice. In snowboarding, a bad landing means sinking into powder; in freeride mountain biking, it means hitting dirt at speed with nowhere to go. The Queenstown course may not have been rushed in terms of planning, but the high rate of injuries suggests that more time for testing and adjustments could have made it more rideable.
Was It Rushed?
There’s no shame in growing pains, especially when pushing the boundaries of a sport. But the lead-up to this event does raise a fair question: Did they take the time to get it right?
From the outside, it’s easy to see why organizers might have felt pressure to move quickly. Natural Selection’s shift into multi-sport competition is a massive undertaking, and momentum matters. The world of freeride mountain biking is also in flux. Red Bull Rampage—the closest thing to a true freeride championship—has been met with increasing scrutiny from riders, some of whom feel that its judging and invitation system no longer represent the full breadth of talent in the sport. That leaves an opening for something like Natural Selection to emerge as the new proving ground.
But proving grounds require a foundation. If the Queenstown event was the first draft, then the next version needs more time in the edit bay. Not a full rewrite—just enough refinements to ensure that the course doesn’t punish before it allows progression.
Where It Goes From Here
Despite the early hiccups, there’s no doubt that mountain biking belongs in the Natural Selection mix. If anything, the Queenstown injuries underscore just how much potential the format has—if they can get the execution right.
A few key adjustments could make a massive difference. Giving riders more time to scout and prep lines would be a start. Not full-on Rampage-style shaping, but enough to make sure that technical features are meant to be hit, rather than just obstacles waiting to take someone out. Course design will also need to be re-evaluated—not to make things easier, but to ensure that risk and reward are in balance.
It’s worth remembering that the first-ever Natural Selection snowboard contest in 2008 had its own share of turbulence. Mother Nature threw a wrench into things, formats were tweaked, and it took years before the tour became what it is today. That’s part of the process. You test, you adapt, and eventually, you get it dialed.
Mountain biking’s inclusion in Natural Selection isn’t a question of if—it’s a question of how. And right now, it seems like that answer is still being written, one crash, one lesson, and one adjustment at a time.
