Janelle’s 2025

My name is Janelle Soukup. I’m 20 years old and from Centennial, Colorado. I started riding right before Covid, tried pretty much every discipline, and eventually found my home in freeride. I got into bikes because of my older brother, Joseph.
I used to think the whole thing was ridiculous, why would anyone want to pedal all the time? Then I realized he wasn’t pedaling uphill at all… he was riding downhill. Once that clicked, I figured, why not give it a try? I started watching events like Red Bull Rampage and Crankworx Joyride, plus films like Not Bad and Brandon Semenuk’s Rad Company. That’s when the hype set in. Turns out riding bikes is very fun, and very addicting.

To this day, my brother is my biggest inspiration. In my eyes, I’ll never be as good as him (though he strongly disagrees). I also pull inspiration from so many people and sports. I grew up skiing, and I think a lot of my style comes from that. Every person I ride with or even hang out with leaves a little mark on me; I feel like I’m a scrapbook of the people who matter most. I look up to all the women in freeride, the ones carving the path and showing what’s possible for girls like me. They’re not only insanely talented, but also some of the funniest humans alive. And my closest guy friends? They’re unreal riders. I’ll study their clips trying to understand how they move their bikes the way they do.

My biggest achievement so far is being selected for Red Bull Rampage. I truly did not expect to get the invite this year. When I did, I was over the moon, and honestly, I still haven’t fully processed it. This whole season was full of events I’m proud of, and the amount of progression I’ve had feels unreal.

Style-wise, I’ve always been pretty chill and relaxed. When I raced as a kid, my mom used to say, “It looks like you’re barely trying,” right before I’d go win. I like to have fun, flow with the trail, and stay calm, but I definitely still tense up when I’m hitting new features. I just try not to let it show too much haha.

Rampage has always looked insane on TV, and I can confirm: it’s exactly that insane, but about ten times scarier. Being there with the women I’ve idolized for years felt surreal. Sharing lines with them, watching how they build, test, and dial features, it opened my mind. I tried to be a sponge and take in everything I could. Most importantly, I just wanted to have fun. Growing up watching Rampage with my brother, I never imagined that one day I’d be dropping into my own run while he waited at the bottom with my parents. It still feels like a dream.

I found out I’d be competing on July 29th. I was in Kamloops with Vinny Armstrong and Natasha Bradley. We knew emails were coming out at 10 a.m., so Vinny made sure we weren’t on our phones starting at 9:30. At 10:04 my brother called asking if I’d gotten anything. I hadn’t checked yet, so I opened my inbox while he was on the phone. And there it was: “Hi Janelle, Red Bull would like to officially invite you to the 2025 Red Bull Rampage.” My stomach dropped. I started crying. I reread that first sentence over and over to make sure I wasn’t imagining it. Having my brother on the phone and Vinny and Natasha right there was so special. Everyone was stoked, but I also knew a lot of planning and prep was coming.

Since I didn’t expect the invite, I hadn’t planned much. After I found out, it felt like crunch time. I was already on a two-month trip through Canada going to events and traveling around, and honestly, that ended up being the best prep I could’ve asked for. I didn’t need new tricks; I just needed to dial what I already had and, most importantly, start hitting new features on my own. At most zones, speed and setup are already figured out, so you just follow instructions. But at Rampage, nothing is known. The speed is unknown. Whether a feature is even possible is unknown. So every new zone in Canada or Washington became mental training: hitting something new and figuring it out myself. There were exceptions, like the Woolley Fest big ramp, the biggest jump I’ve hit to date, that was all mental. But overall, I tried to be intentional with my time while still keeping it fun and not stressing myself out.

 Event day at Rampage was the final piece of the puzzle. Every day leading up to finals threw something new at us, weather, building, crashes, mental battles, testing features. The day before finals was the most exhausting but also the most successful. At one point, I genuinely didn’t think I’d compete. Hours later, I was doing a top-to-bottom run of my first-ever Rampage line. By finals day, everything was in place. All I had to do was smile, drop in, and enjoy the ride.

My biggest lesson from the desert is that nothing goes the way you expect. Things will test you head-on. How you navigate those obstacles shapes your outcome. The best thing you can do is take it one step at a time, focus on yourself, stay present, and, like I’ve said a million times, have fun.

Words: Janelle Soukup
Photos:  Jim Topliss // lola.wais