What is Helen100
‘Helen100’ was established to provide opportunities to young women in cyclocross. It aims to grow all categories for riders under the age of 23 by creating a community, race events, rider assistance and stakeholder education.
Due to historical inequalities rider drop out from the sport is extremely high, which doesn’t only impact on the sport at the highest level, it has potential social impacts. We aim to increase rider retention in cycling from women riders whilst showcasing the sport at all levels in the coming seasons.
It’s essential that we create a structured pathway for young riders around the world, coupled with a strong global communication platform. Encouraging organisers globally to add categories for women of all ages will allow a pathway of progress, increased opportunity, and increased awareness. Appointing an inspirational rider ambassador from each key cyclocross market to give much needed reach and focus within geographic communities.
Helen100 History
‘Helen100’ was born to pay the entry fee for 100 young women in the British Cyclocross Championships in 2019. Launched in the middle of the 2018/19 season, this campaign created a huge reach and global interest. It was launched after reading repeatedly that women’s races will never reach the same number of riders as the men; simply untrue.
I appealed to young riders, teams, coaches and parents to come together via social media and in the end we removed a small financial barrier for 140 riders, smashing of our initial goal. This was crowd funded. We also guaranteed the riders free photography, and a race video to give the events a clear visual footprint. Importantly we created a community.
Helen100 Trophy
The success of the initial Helen100 project lead to the creation of the Helen100 Trophy, the first ever Junior Women’s race held at a major international event (Loenhout, Belgium). In conjunction with Golazo, we launched the event with the backing of ‘The Fifth floor’ and a truly international line up of riders set out in front of good spectator numbers for the first race of the day. I’m pleased to confirm I’m now in advanced talks with Golazo to expand the series to 3 events with the addition of an overall classification.
Next season will be the first ever World Championships for Junior Women, something I’ve campaigned for over a number of years. With no Junior Women’s events on the world calendar next season, the Helen100 trophy series could form a key part of many riders preparation for the Worlds to be held in Dubendorf, Switzerland.
The details of which events these junior races will be held at are still to be confirmed as negotiations continue but the key now is securing new partners for the races. Knowing the organisers are keen to make this happen gives us a lot of time to put the right partners in places. We could have one overall partner, or each race can have it’s own sponsor and there has been interest from teams as well as commercial partners already. With costs being relatively low for these events, and sponsorship packages that include video highlights and VIP tickets for the complete day of racing, we hope interest will be high.
Anyone interested should get in touch as soon as possible via helen100@helenwyman.com or use the contact form below. If you feel your company, team or brand might benefit from being a part of this movement to progress junior women’s cyclocross at such a crucial time, please get in touch.
Helen100 Coaching and Clinics
We are committed to provide free of charge cross-clinics to young riders around the world whenever possible. The opportunity to pass on advice and tips to riders, coaches, parents and others can be the difference between riders staying in the sport or leaving. If you feel you’d like to have a cross-clinic in your area, please get in touch.