Hope Women enduro reflections
A couple of months have now passed since the Hope WMN Enduro at the Forest of Dean, and we’re still feeling warm and fuzzy thinking about it!
We asked for some feedback to help us grow, and we’d like to give a big thanks to the riders who took part. It’s really lovely to hear your thoughts and to read all the positive comments from you. Thank you!
Of course, we want to keep making the event better, so we’ll dive into the feedback and see what we can do…
Of those 79 riders who fedback 32 riders were racing their first ever enduro! Well done!. We hope it is the first of many!
Favourite track was Twisted Sister with 77% of the votes, followed by Stage 2 Skids & Grins with 17% and Tight and Twisty in 3rd place with 5% of votes.
Least favourite track was Stage 2 Skids & Grins with 61% of votes followed by Tight & Twisty with 33% of votes, with Twisted Sister in 3rd place with 6% of votes.
38/79 used the camping field.
Which takes us to first discussion point…. the camping field. It was free for camping and parking. We put toilets in and made sure they were well stocked up with loo roll, a skip, and a tap for fresh water. It was a basic campsite just like the campsite you will get if you go to any other race in the UK.
Lots of you enjoyed staying in it because it was secluded and not overlooked by houses or others, it was a nice flat camping field in the forest, lots of space.
Some mentioned they would have like showers, large tent to gather in, fire pit, food vendors, bar and security. All valid points to be discussed. These are extras we feel would be at a campsite if you were taking part in gathering or women’s mtb festival and that would then be reflected in there been a charge for camping for the weekend.
Having said that there are some things we can look into and see if we can implement them, the large tent to help folk gather and meet is something we will look into.
We’ve taken on some of your feedback to help improve the event…..
‘Not clearing the campsite signs back up to camp’ Yes, hands up, that was a pretty stupid thing to do from our side! One we shall not be repeating. We can put it down to the efficiency of the marshals stripping the course after it had finished. Signs will remain in place for longer next time!
‘Goody bag was a big disappointing’ The goody bag is an added extra. The goody bag this year was mostly provided by Hope Technology, indicative of the times and the limited resources brands have to ‘giveaway’.
Better explanation of the Signage’ Up at the campsite as you went out of the gate to get the HQ there was examples of direction arrows. Down at HQ as you set off on your lap, there was also a sign explaining the direction arrows. The rider brief was available online from when the entries went on sale. Maybe to make it even clearer we can say over a Tannoy down at HQ. But hopefully the event is friendly enough for folk to feel happy to ask questions of fellow riders or the event organisers.
‘WhatsApp group riders could opt into to connect’ Yes, great idea! Especially if you are attending the race solo. We can set that up at time of entry so riders can contact and find riding buddies.
‘Option of a lite and full course enduro’ This is something we are hoping to implement on the next race. So watch this space!
‘Bag drop at HQ’ We will look into this as we appreciate the campsite is too far for some folk to just nip back to.
‘Tannoy for instruction and welcome’ We had the mic and PA system just means Claire needs to get braver and get on it earlier in the day!
‘Practice time beforehand’ We announced the stage names in good time, the reason for that was so that riders could go find them and try them out first but also could seek some coaching from the coaches in the Forest of Dean. The race on the day was Mash Up format, meaning that you could ride/race the stages as many times as possible in the day. Using your first run down the trail as a practice run if you liked. With that said, there’s a possibility for next year to have stages taped and ready to ride on the Saturday, with racing Sunday.
‘Elite/Pro category’ Yes, we can certainly do this. We think it’s great that the seasoned pros come and race our little race, we think it’s important for first timers to see how the pros do it also and that we have riders like that to look upto. Theres not many other sports out there that you would race against a multiple world champion we think it’s pretty special.
‘Make it a 2-day event’ Watch this space!
Closing words
The enduro was born as an event to provide a space for women where they would feel comfortable and supported to have a go at enduro racing. I think we can all agree that is something we do. The extra bits that would make the day better for folk can be looked at and some can quite easily be implemented. One of the main factors to making this event appeal to people who have never raced before is the price point, we don’t want the entry fee to be a barrier to entry, we (Hope Technology) subsidise the entry fee. Kev of PMBA, the organiser of race says we were 10 entries off breaking even on this event to give you an idea of where we are at.
There’s a lot of unseen expenses that goes into organising an event on this level, insurance a main one, medics on the day, timing, and Forestry England’s fee to hold the event in their forest.
The camp field with marquee, evening entertainment, showers and food/drink vendors are all things that would add an extra bit of enjoyment to the weekend, but we can’t help but feel we would put people off wanting to race for the first time with an entry of £80 plus.
One thing we can’t change is where the camp site is in relation to the Event village, but we can look at either having a bag drop area or a shuttle service running back up to camp to makes things easier.
That been said, we hope the event will build on this year and you’ll spread the good word and recruit more women and girls for the enduro in 2026! We will endeavour to implement some of these extras if we can without having to increase the entry fee.
Pictures : Sadie Aldridge