Mountain biking has been a popular sport for many years, more so in some parts of the world than others. Much like most sport, it was more popular among men than women in the early years, but as times have changed and society has evolved, women have started a new era of female mountain biking that has taken the world by storm.

Of course, we still have a long way to go in order to achieve proper and fair representation of women in the sport of mountain biking, but we certainly are getting there. In order to encourage this progress, it’s important to highlight women have succeeded in mountain biking.

Here are the 3 best female mountain bikers of all time.

1. Juli Furtado

With a long list of incredible mountain biking achievements under her belt, Juli Furtado is broadly recognised as the best female mountain biker of all time. Having started off as a very talented skier, Furtado ended up changing her sporting career due to several serious injuries. She ended up picking up mountain biking in college, and the rest is history.

Born and raised in New York, Juli Furtado became the US National Road Champion in 1989 which was her first year competing professionally. After an incredible first performance in 1989, Furtado started training professionally and ended up scoring an invitation to the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships in 1990 – she became the champion, astounding even her biggest fans.

Juli Furtado went on to win an incredible number of high-ranking awards, including World Cup series titles, national championship jerseys, the 1992 World Downhill Championship along with several other titles.

2. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot

One of the best cyclists of all time, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is a master across several different types of cycling styles. With six Elite World Championship titles under belt as well as 13 national titles across the disciplines of rod, cyclocross and mountain biking, Prevot has made a name for herself.

In fact, at 23 years old, Prevot became the first person ever to simultaneously hold the titles of the World road, cyclocross and cross-country mountain biking. That’s like hitting the jackpot twice while enjoying online gambling in Canada.

Although being the best across the board was incredibly difficult to maintain, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot achieved an incredible feat during her professional career.

3. Lael Wilcox

At 27 years old and without very much training or experience, Lael Wilcox won her first cross-country mountain biking race – a whopping 400-mile race. She won’t to train in several styles and on many different bikes with the aim of becoming the best of the best across the board.

In 2015, Wilcox took on the challenge of cycling the length of the United States while taking part in the Tour Divide – a 2,750-mile mountain biking ride that traverses the full length of the Rocky Mountains, all the way from Canada to Mexico.

An unbelievable long distance and endurance cyclist, Lael Wilcox has taken the world by storm with her sheer grit, determination and hard work.