‘If the aim is to design cycling for everyone, then everyone needs to have a seat at the (Round)table.’ Earlier this month, I attended the Women and Cycling Roundtable, hosted by Sustrans Scotland and gave a keynote talk at the event. With the aim of exploring how to widen female participation in cycling, I discussed the barriers that I and women like me faced – and still do – when it comes to riding bikes… and highlighted what still needs to be done to break these down. Sustrans Scotland invited me to write a blog post about my experience of the #WomenAndCycling Roundtable… which you can read (along with watching […]

UPDATE: Missed the event? The full conversation with Ayesha was filmed! Watch the full video RIGHT HERE thanks to LDN Bike Kitchen! 🎥 Representation is important. If I’d seen another black person in cycling when I was a kid, maybe I would have been inspired to get into it sooner. Ayesha McGowan – a.k.a A Quick Brown Fox. Statements like this hit home hard with me… as do women like Ayesha McGowan. If you’re up on your cycling game you’ll know that Ayesha is on a mission to become the first female African American professional road cyclist. She’s also spent the last five years working her way up the ranks […]

Earlier this month, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking at the Women and Cycling Conference (WACC). Bradford Council won the bid to host this years event, and heading it up was Healthy Life Cycles; a charity originally set up by just four youth and community workers with the aim of improving the health, resilience and well being of people across the Bradford district, and helping those who wouldn’t normally have access to certain physical activities to get involved. When large ‘conferences’ like this happen, two of the big topics that often get discussed are gender inequality in cycling and building (or improving) high(er) quality infrastructure when it comes to […]

There is PLENTY going on in Yorkshire when it comes to cycling over the next few days. Not only has the Tour de Yorkshire kicked off today, the Women and Cycling Conference is coming to Bradford next week. With the aim of “inspiring more women to cycle more often to more places”, the conference will be filled with plenty of conversations and encouragement… and I’m thrilled to announce I’ll be the Keynote Speaker, alongside hosting workshops through the day! It won’t just be me on my cycling soapbox at the event – Olympic medallist and Commonwealth and World road race Champion, Lizzie Deignan (nee Armitstead) will also be taking to […]

March 7th 2017 marks a few special moments for VCG: I started my affair with ‘Frankie’ and cycling 7 years ago. I had my mini stroke one year ago. It’s crazy that the two events fall on the same date… and it’s also slightly bonkers that with a lot of other stuff going on at the moment (I promise, I’ll update more on that when I can…) I’d actually forgot about the significance of today. Life has changed a lot since I decided to get back on the saddle. I had no idea where the journey was going to take me and what an incredible adventure it would continue to be. I […]

Its been a while since I’ve attended a big cycling trade show, and there now has to be quite a pull for me to go to one these days. So when VeloVixen spoke to me about an idea they had put together with The Cycle Show at the NEC, they had my attention… and me saying “HELL YES” to being part of their plan. VeloVixen created the Women’s Cycling Hub: a year in the making, they laid on an area solely devoted to women’s cycling. It offered a mix of female-specific clothing brands to try and buy and it boasted its own speaking zone – giving a platform to women […]