Tag Archives: Cycling

Diversity In Cycling – second edition

Posted on by

The second edition of Diversity in Cycling is published today, celebrating the individuals and initiatives that are helping to make cycling more inclusive and accessible.

First published in 2019 by Andy Edwards, a music business executive and experienced club cyclist, the report explores the experiences of riders from underrepresented backgrounds taking up cycling for the first time – in their own words.

Contributors to the second edition include Great Britain Cycling Team rider Sam Ruddock, representatives from a wide range of British Cycling clubs and coaches such as Richard Liston. Alongside these first-person accounts, the report also highlights a number of community programmes and enterprises – such as British Cycling’s City Academies programme and Bradford’s ‘Hop On’ initiative – which are already making a profound difference in Britain’s communities.

While many of the themes explored in the first edition remain, the updated version goes deeper, and also expands its sights to better reflect off-road disciplines, different areas of the UK and community initiatives, while also reflecting wider societal changes which have occurred since the report was first published in 2019.

The report also presents a series of recommendations for the sport, offering practical suggestions for encouraging greater diversity in cycling.

Ahead of publication, the report’s author, Andy Edwards, said:

“2020 was a landmark year. The murder of George Floyd prompted a more open conversation about racism, and, with the world in lockdown, more people discovered cycling, particularly from under-represented backgrounds. I gave the report a refresh to reflect this and switch things up. 

“The focus remains on race, but the broader scope of diversity is acknowledged. Since publishing the first edition in 2019, I have been diagnosed with ADHD and Autism, two protected characteristics. That means I am neurodiverse. I was a socially awkward teenager, but cycling gave me a sense of belonging. If one thing drives this work, it is a desire that all of us who call ourselves cyclists, whatever our background, feel the same sense of belonging cycling has always given me.”

Chair of the British Cycling Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group, Aneela McKenna, said:

“I am delighted to see the second edition introduce new voices and perspectives from the broader cycling community, including road, off-road, and mountain biking disciplines. The report explicitly amplifies the voices of women in cycling, and, Andy worked with Naomi Rumble, Liyana Pama, and myself to apply an intersectionality lens to the report which uncovers the depth of inequalities uniquely experienced by women of colour in cycling.”

Diversity In Cycling is an independent grass roots project by cyclists for cyclists, written by experienced club cyclist Andy Edwards who worked collaboratively with clubs and groups across the UK.

The second edition takes a deeper dive into some of the core themes first explored in the first edition, including an expanded intersectionality section and a gender-balanced approach to commentaries and content. The term “BAME” is removed, with some context, and suggestions of what to use instead. The second edition introduces fresh voices and perspectives from across the UK cycling community, including road, off-road, Lycra, and non-Lycra. The focus remains race while acknowledging the broader scope of diversity and inclusion across all protected characteristics. 

Commentaries are provided by Shirla Poole of RideFest, Ronn Fraser of Kingston Wheelers, Farooq Chaudhry of Brothers on Bikes Bristol, Naomi Rumble director of Together We Ride, Fozia Naseem co-founder of community cycling programme HopOn in Bradford, Nasima Siddiqui of The Cycle Fit, British Cycling Youth Development Pathway coach Richard Liston and Sam Ruddock of the KC Academy.

Click HERE to read Diversity In Cycling or on the image below.

Diversity In Cycling – Launch Event

Posted on by

To mark the launch of the DIVERSITY IN CYCLING report, we held an event at Look Mum No Hands! which brought to life the themes in the report.  On a hot, sticky summer’s evening, LMNH was packed with over 100 cyclists, male and female, from all backgrounds and all walks of life.  With nine speakers together with audience questions we massively over-ran, but despite this and the hot and crowded venue, people stayed for the duration of the talk and many stayed.

Special guest, former professional and cycling legend, Maurice Burton together with his friend Joe Clovis told of their experiences of racism in cycling during the 1970s and their pathway through through the sport culminating with Maurice acquiring De Ver Cycles and forming Team De Ver C.C.

Following an audience Q&A, the evening was brought to a close with the impassioned words of Yewande Adesida of SES Racing who, having earlier described her own pathway into the sport, encouraged others to take up the mantle. 

Hopefully this is just the beginning of what is a long overdue conversation within the cycling community.

Photographs by Calvin Cheung www.ccheungphotography.com

Diversity In Cycling – The Report

Posted on by

This project started as a conversation, centred around an observation: more people from Black, Asian And Minority Ethnic backgrounds seem to be taking up cycling as a sport, but not necessarily joining cycling clubs.  Overall, the sport of cycling looks very white.  

That conversation led to more conversations which snowballed into my writing “DIVERSITY IN CYCLING”.  Originally the aim was to produce a brief discussion paper for my own club, Kingston Wheelers, but very quickly the report gained momentum, attracting over 60 contributions from riders of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, including a number of Muslim riders, and securing the support of British Cycling, thanks to Comms Executive Chidi Onuoha, who mobilised the support of our governing body, including securing a Foreword from its CEO Julie Harrington.

You can read more about British Cycling’s involvement here and read the report itself here.

Fundamentally, cycling is a sport anyone can enjoy and it is actually more accessible than many people perceive.  The report details challenges, but there is lots of positivity too.  Key themes revolved around representation and visibility, if cycling is seen to be diverse it will attract a more diverse pool of riders.  Telling more than one story is important.  The media often seen obsessed with the narrative that cycling is a hobby for middle class middle age white guys when the reality is that cycling is so much more and the “MAMIL” phenomenon is actually quite recent.  Key recommendations in the report include:

PROMOTE VISIBILITY (BUT BE AUTHENTIC)

If your club has members from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, with their permission, include those members in any visual representation of club membership. This helps make participation visible to others; consider deploying ambassadors as a point of contact.

If you do not have many Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic members or none at all, do not try to be something that you are not, but do promote your values: if you are open to all newcomers regardless of race and gender say so. We all have to start somewhere, but let’s make a start.

PROMOTE ACCESSIBILITY

Many larger clubs have different rides across the week with different start times. Not everyone can make 9am on a Sunday morning. Promote a range of options.  Provide context to cycling club culture, what it means to be in a club, to ride in a group and general dos and don’ts. 

BE INCLUSIVE

Inclusion is essential to diversity. It is not just about having Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic riders present but ensuring riders of all backgrounds feel included and visible. Work with others both within your club and the broader community to share knowledge and promote pathways. 

TELL MORE THAN ONE STORY

Challenge stereotypes that cycling is the preserve of middle-aged middle class men in Lycra.  It is not. Cycling in the UK and Europe has been traditionally a rural and working class sport that has grown so much its appeal is universal. Cycling is for everyone.

RAISE YOUR OWN RACIAL AWARENESS

Many white people are uncomfortable talking about race. That is because most of us are not equipped to have the conversation. Read, listen and learn. If one person stands out in a group, be aware they may feel an extra level of intimidation than any other newcomer.

MONITOR PROGRESS

Quantify your membership through capturing ethnicity data on joining/ renewal forms.  Monitor progress over time. Larger clubs and organisations should certainly do this.

AFRICA UNITE – Nigeria’s Sustainable Cycling Foundation

Posted on by

Earlier this year I led an initiative through the cycling club of which I am a member, Kingston Wheelers, to undertake a kit collection for the Sustainable Cycling Foundation in Nigeria.  The collection garnered an overwhelmingly positive response in terms of the amount of kit collected. This came not only from within the club, but from the broader cycling community.

Cycling Weekly has covered the story.  Their article gives a great overview of the collection, but, even more importantly, the amazing work of Sustainable Cycling Foundation.  You can read the full article as a PDF, here: SCF Nigeria Kingston Wheelers Africa feature.

My main contact at the SCF is Iboroma Akpana, a Harvard educated corporate lawyer with his own law firm in Lagos and Abuja.  Iboroma travels extensively and while he was in town for Ride London last year we got together for a Regents Park ride and Look Mum No Hands coffee stop. This is where we hatched the plan.

Kit collections are not a new thing.  Former pro Matt Brammier has been active in this area and it was Garry Palmer of Sportstest who introduced me to Iboroma in the first place, has organised several kit collections.  Allied to organising a kit collection, I wanted to build a narrative about cycling in Nigeria and across Africa.

This meant informing the UK cycling community about the opportunities and what is already being achieved not only in Nigeria, but also across Africa.  Even to this day, when people think of Africa they think of a single story that is fed to us by the media.  The reality is far more impressive that we are often led to believe.  Poverty exists in Africa, but African nations are not defined by poverty.

There is also organisation, entrepreneurialism, resilience, ingenuity and, fundamentally, talent. The SCF was formed by a number of prominent members of Lagos based cycling club Cycology.   The club has in excess of 300 members and counting and the socio-economic profile of its members is probably not vastly different to Kingston Wheelers.  Through the SCF, they are building the sport of cycling in Nigeria pretty much from scratch.

The SCF not only organises their own kit collections, but tap into their network of friends, including Kingston Wheelers.  They fund training for riders to develop careers as mechanics and coaches/ personal trainers, organise races, training, nutrition and for the more advanced riders the opportunity to ride in pan-African events.

 

Moreover, the SCF has been very active in encouraging women’s cycling in way we can probably learn from in the UK.  Not only is there a strong network of women at club level, the Nigerian Ladies team won the gold medal in the TTT at the All African Games beating the formidable South African team into second place.  Rita Miebaka Aggo (above), one of their prominent riders, was interviewed for the Cycling Weekly article.

     

In pulling all this together, there was a conscious effort to avoid “white saviour syndrome”, an accusation levelled at Comic Relief and Bob Geldof amongst others.   I bug an awful lot of people with the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the acclaimed Nigerian novelist.  In her seminal TED Talk The Danger Of A Single Story, Chimamanda confronts the single story narrative that is often applied to “Africa” and instead she presents a more complex and diverse reality.  If you watch Chimamanda’s TED talk, you will witness an important touchstone for this initiative:

 

Not only did we as Kingston Wheelers collect an awful lot of kit, but we did so in a genuine spirit of partnership with the SCF and with a strong grasp of the needs of the Nigerian cycling community.  We were allies, not saviours.

Hopefully this will be the start of an ongoing relationship that could take in more collections, rider exchanges, sponsoring and supporting local race teams in Nigeria in addition to rider mentoring and coaching.

Included in the article are some suggestions for UK based cycling clubs who are interesting in putting together an initiative like ours, it is worth restating here:

HOW CAN PEOPLE ACT ON WHAT THEY HAVE READ?

1) Be an ally, not a saviour.  Africa is a vast continent with many cultures, there is huge inequality but do not underestimate local expertise and resilience.  Africa has many stories.

2) Tap into the diaspora.  Many first and second generation Nigerians live and work in the UK, while retaining strong ties to their roots.  This is true of many Commonwealth countries across Africa and around the world.  Speak to friends and network.

3) It is OK to do some due diligence.  The SCF were very transparent with us, even providing financial accounts and strategic plans. Not everyone is that organised, but do not be surprised to see that level of professionalism.

4) Look for new opportunities. South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda and Eritrea are all doing great things, but explore the potential in other countries too.

5) Kit must be wearable and rideable.  When doing kit collections, do not donate what you would not personally ride or wear.

6) Respect local knowledge.  The British cycling community has a lot to offer nations like Nigeria, but we don’t know everything. Build a dialogue and ask what is needed locally. Identify what you can contribute.

7) Promote with purpose. Talk about what you do and start a conversation.  Feedback outcomes to demonstrate what is possible and bring people together.