A big IWD compilation!
Happy international women's day 👯
Hello lovely subscribers! ✨
When your entire premise is women-centred content then International Women’s Day is just another day in the office kinda thing. We scratched our chins a bit this year over what to do and agreed that we didn’t want it to feel forced. Finally, we decided that the best thing to do would be to use this platform to amplify some voices we don’t always hear so much from while we’re busy talking about racing.
So time for me to shut up and crack on with it!
Amy x
P.S. whose voices do YOU think need uplifting in the world of cycling? We’d love for the comments to be full of amazing women doing amazing things ✨
Read
“Do not forget the women and girls of Afghanistan” - Zahra Atayee’s story.
Yulduz and Fariba Hashimi: Escaping the Taliban, chasing a dream
Inspiration and achievement from top to bottom of Cycling UK’s list of 100 Women in Cycling.
People and organisations to follow
Self-described “fat cyclist” Marley Blonsky is an adventure rider and the co-founder All Bodies on Bikes: “a movement to create and foster a size inclusive bike community.” There’s even a podcast!
And here’s Marley appearing as a guest recently on the Slow Guy on the Fast Ride pod.
Cycle Sisters
Cycle Sisters are a network of Muslim women's cycle groups in London with plans to grow nation-wide.
Evolve Cycling Network are doing similarly great work to get more Muslin women on bikes.
Kamar Omar documents her adventures riding around London on her Brompton and life as a Hijabi cyclist (here she is reviewing Adidas’s cycling hijab for Cycling Weekly)
Adventure cyclist and podcast host Vera Ngosi-Sambrook is inspiring the next diverse generation of cyclists.
A must-follow to learn more about cycling in Africa.
You can read more about Eyeru’s journey here.
One of the most exciting new projects in women’s cycling in Africa is the Bugesera team in Rwanda - recently highlighted by the Tour du Rwanda and Israel-PremierTech’s Field of Dreams project.
Australian BMXer Kalinda Robinson is representing LGBTQ+ athletes as one of AIS’s Thrive with Pride ambassadors.
To extend the inclusion of IWD past women, Amsterdam-based Sebastién Sutherland is a non-binary cyclist, activist and founder of Pride and Sports (and like, the ultimate cool Amsterdam person).
If you’re not already following the brave and inspiring Emily Bridges, go and do that now!
Paracycling is something the cycling world tends to forget about until the Paralympics, but para cyclists race their UCI series all year round. You may remember Toni Mould from this viral moment from Tokyo 2020, and her Instagram is an excellent insight into the lives of para cyclists.
Thanks so much for reading, see you on Friday!
Amy and Tilda x
If you enjoyed this we’d love if you could
I’d like interviews with Taylor Wyles - Laura Verdonscotte etc about being gay women in the peleton - Austen Killips about being a trans woman and the challenges it brings and Ceylin Carmen del Alvarado and Teniel Campbell about being black riders in a very white space. Given the challenges that straight white woman in cycling face it must be even harder coming from a minority background as well. You could also link this to the UCI s role in promoting women and diversity in cycling.
Have y'all heard anything about what the Silicon Valley Bank failure will mean to EF Education First-TIBCO-SVB?