The team at Trailrippers Project CIC are running a one day inclusivity course at The Lodge in Staylittle to help showcase the diversity of the wider population.
The first of hopefully many Beyond the Trailhead workshops will be hosted at The Lodge in Staylittle and led by the gang a Trailrippers Project CIC, featuring some excellent guests.
Beyond the Trailhead: Anti-Racist Action for the MTB Community
A Full Day Workshop on Building a Truly Inclusive Scene
The adventure and community of mountain biking should be for everyone. Yet, the data and lived experiences confirm a persistent reality: the outdoors, and the mountain bike industry, is currently failing to reflect the diversity of the wider population. This reality limits our community, stifles our growth, and fundamentally keeps the best lines closed to talent, passion, and new perspectives.
This workshop is for everyone in the MTB scene—from shop owners and trail builders to brand managers and coaches. We’re here to talk to you about how you can take personal ownership and use your influence to remove negative stereotypes and ensure the future of the sport is genuinely open to all riders.
What We Will Cover (Key Learning Objectives)
Map the barriers:
- Identify the specific, often hidden, cultural and logistical systemic barriers that limit participation from underrepresented, racialised communities.
Actively welcome:
- Implement practical, ground-level strategies to create visibly and genuinely welcoming spaces—from local bike shops and group rides to coaching and club environments.
Challenge and change:
- Gain the language and confidence to address negative stereotypes and exclusionary behaviours within their personal influence sphere, shifting group culture toward inclusion.
Develop an anti-racism action plan:
- Create a practical, resource-informed plan for their own group or role, focusing on practicable steps to remove systemic hurdles and intentionally increase representation and equity in the mountain biking community.
Practical Details:
- Date: Monday 27th October 2025
- Time: 9am – 4.30pm with shared supper at 5.30pm
- Location: The Lodge, Staylittle SY19 7BU
- Duration: 1 day (optional inclusive ride in the Hafren Forest on Tuesday 28th October)
- Cost: £200 which includes buffet lunch and 2-course evening meal.
- Please enquire about team rates and subsidised places.
- 15 people max., 8 spaces available
- This event is in collaboration with Mòr Diversity, The Anne Matthews Trust & Trailrippers Project CIC and facilitated by Aneela McKenna, Maria de la Pava & Lita Wallis.
- Optional Accommodation and Ride:
- Participants travelling from further afield can book bunk bed accommodation at The Lodge for Monday night at just £50 per person which includes breakfast. Additionally, we’re offering a free guided ride through the stunning Hafren Forest on Tuesday, 28th October. Please let us know as soon as possible and by 15th October at the latest if you’d like to take advantage of these options.
How to Register
Email [email protected] and complete payment before 15th October to secure your place. If you are part of a small business or charity, or if your organisation has the capacity to sponsor an additional participant, please let us know—we’re happy to offer concessions or discuss subsidised spaces. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the event further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Trailrippers Project CIC was set up by young riders Nathan and Ruben de Vaux aka the “Trailrippers” with the help of their mother Ina De Smet. Their non-profit organisation aims to remove existing barriers to mountain biking and make the sport more inclusive.
Our Facilitators
Aneela McKenna
Aneela McKenna is an award-winning diversity and inclusion change-maker. With a lifetime career in this field, she is founder of the Mòr Diversity Consultancy. Aneela has 20 years + plus experience in Diversity and Inclusion and consults with numerous cycling and sports organisations across the UK and globally to enhance their inclusion practices including the UCI, Cut Media, Santa Cruz Bicycles, Trek Bikes, 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, British Cycling to name a few.
Aneela prides herself in bringing an open-minded approach to equality, diversity and inclusion – she has a desire to understand how others view and experience the world, and a consistent focus on empowering individuals to be the best they can be. Aneela’s passion and commitment to diversity and inclusion have been publicly recognised – notably receiving the ‘Women in Leadership’ award at the Scottish Ethnic Minority Impact Awards, and in cycling she received ‘Local Hero of the Year’ at the Scottish Mountain Biking Awards for services to widening participation in cycling.
Maria de la Pava
Maria has more than 20 years experience of working with community groups, organisations and individuals, both in the UK, Colombia and Jamaica. She is co-founder of Caisa Maloka (centro de accion, investigación social, agroecologica) based in a small village in the mountains of South-West Colombia. She moved to the UK in 2016 to support the development of the Braich Goch centre. She is currently studying Clinical Herbalism part time and is an fervent believer in the healing powers of plants and uplifting ancestral knowledge held and practised by many communities in the global south. Her dream is to return to Colombia to learn from practising communities and to set up a herbal clinic that supports campesino communities to access and reconnect with this ancestral knowledge and practice.
Lita Wallis
Lita worked in community with adults and young people in London for eight years. She brought a youth group to stay at the Braich Goch in 2019 and loved it so much she asked to come back to volunteer and ended up moving to Corris to join the team in Spring 2021. She is committed to the principles of Popular Education and learned about Participatory Action Research working at a women’s cooperative in Brixton in 2015. Since then she has practiced PAR with adults and young people in many different settings in the UK and abroad. As well as working in community Lita has been a part of direct-action movements for housing and migration. She is a founding member of The Hologram, an international network of people who are finding sustainable ways to support each other through the end of Capitalism.
Email [email protected] and complete payment before 15th October to secure your place.
