Hope PMBA Enduro Series 2022 goes live this Saturday

The last 2 years have had a massive screw to the bigger events so now for 2022 it's time to address that balance and start the year off with a weekend dedicated to grassroots enduro.

Saturday 2nd April will see a fully trail centre 3 stage enduro for women and kids (age 8+); with an event modelled around the very successful “Hopetech Women” enduro’s we ran in conjunction with Hope for 2017/8/9 but now open for girls as young as 8 as well as novice boys ages 8-16. We will use the same 3 stages we have always used for the HTW, the “fast” kids, and the full-enduro ladies can still do the main 5 stage Enduro on the Sunday – open to ages 11+

Later on Saturday afternoon, the youngest get their shot at glory, with ages 2-10 on a 1 stage mashup that’s FREE to enter (27 berms trail not too far from HQ). We trialled this type of event in 2019 at Kirroughtree and it was an amazing success, it was scheduled for Gisburn 2020 too but alas the ol’rona spoiled those plans. Will be great to kick off the season with a day of genuinely grass roots enduro; if you want to gauge its success the overall winner of that Kirroughtree kids race was one 10 year old “Katy Kaos” now one of the PMBA Ambassadors, several “big” enduro’s under her belt including 3 EWS Qualifiers and still only 12 years old but has her first BNES Championship under her belt, 1st in U16 women last year.

Sunday 3rd April will see the start of the “series” with 2 additional stages from Saturday’s loop, cramming so much into 1 weekend will mean a very busy forest. Please be aware that overnight stays will be possible but on the event field only – no overnighting in the main car park as we need all that room for Sunday’s racers. The same rule will apply for Sunday racers arriving Saturday, as well as Saturday racers staying for Sunday. Please be aware this is field parking and in very wet weather may not be available or available only via being towed on/off. Parking fees to the forest will be as normal.

After the opening grassroots weekend we head off to Wales for our 1st of 2 visits to One Giant Leap Llangollen, this will be a 1 day, 3 stage mashup avoiding the hardest sections of trail. However, with the nature of the steep and fast trails on offer it will still be a good challenge and we have plans to make the stages slightly different from what will be encountered later in the year. Saturday practice (with medic and marshal cover) will be available on the day.

Next up, at the end of May, “The Epic” this is the highlight of the PMBA Enduro calendar and no doubt it will live up to its name. Even more work on the trails and maybe even a lakeside camp/HQ are expected but watch for full info as we confirm everything.

At this time it is not known if the big Llangollen round in August will be an EWS Qualifier or but it is confirmed as a round of the BNES along with Graythwaite.  We wait to see if our EWS qualifier application is successful. PMBA Enduro have hosted a qualifier every year they have existed, and we hope 2022 will not be an exception to that.

As teased above, next up is the “big” Llangollen 2-day 5 stage enduro using almost the entire hillside at One Giant leap including some of its most hardcore sections.

We finish off the season at Kirroughtree in September, Saturday events may well be added during the summer but you can certainly look forward to a great Sunday mashup enduro and lovely camp field.

I’m not ruling out being able to add more events to 2022, if you're a series regular you will notice no mention of Grizedale or Lee Quarry that have been firm favourites of the series since 2014. Without going into detail these venues still have “issues” and I’m therefore concentrating on making the 5 weekends announced as awesome as possible on quality over quantity vibe.

• 2/3 April – Gisburn Grassroots weekender
• 1st May – Llangollen mashup
• 28/29th May – “The Epic” Graythwaite
• 13/14th August – Llangollen
• 11th September – Kirroughtree