FEATURE SISTERS IN THE WILD
Sisters in the Wild is one of the most prominent gravel and bikepacking focused groups open to women, trans, and non-binary people. Rebecca Bland speaks to UK founder Charlotte Inman
PHOTOS: SARAH HEWITT G
ravel cycling and bikepacking have grown both in popularity and in the number of community movements that encourage it in recent years.
Since the restrictions of lockdown, more and more people have discovered their desire to connect to the outdoors, and to nature in an accessible and friendly way. For women in particular, the need to find a safe place to ride and adventure is key.
In the UK, Sisters in the Wild (SITW) is one of the most prominent gravel and bikepacking focused groups open to women, trans, and non-binary people. They lead group bikepacking weekends, gravel events, and host skills sessions where riders can learn from like-minded mechanics – but it’s also about building connections – as UK founder Charlotte Inman explains. “I think in the UK, the reason I felt like there was such an opportunity was that gravel riding and particularly women’s community based gravel riding had become popular during lockdown. People were craving the outdoors, they were craving connection. And these amazing little riding communities were popping up, where people who might have previously been super anxious about going and meeting strangers for a bike ride, now were like, ‘Actually, like screw that. I need to go and talk to somebody and I miss that connection.’ “And actually what came out of that was that it solidified that we all had these shared values and things that were
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important to us and opportunities that we saw to kind of just keep that momentum going. So I think a lot of amazing stuff was already happening, and SITW was just the way that we connected people physically for the first time and then it grew from there.” Originally founded in Slovenia during the Covid era by
Neza Peterca, Inman brought the idea to the UK after taking part in a Slovenian meet up.
“There were 12 of us, and we just spent a few days camping, riding bikes, eating food, and sharing stories. It was a really special, important weekend, I think for all of us, and we all made these really special connections.
Charlotte Inman
March 2024 | 7
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