Today is International Women’s Day. To celebrate, this blog is dedicated to the women I ride with and what they bring to my life.
Since moving back to London, there’s been a real shift in my friendship group; more women. Most of my relationships are based around sport and cycling sits right at the heart of my passion for the sports I do.
Cycling is still a male dominated sport with three times more men than women in the sport, but more women are discovering cycling and falling in love with it every day. The women I ride with are doing everything they can to get more women on bikes and discover for themselves what this wonderful sport has to offer.
Queen of the Mile
First up is Lorna North, Founder of Queen of the Mile, a blog dedicated to women and men who challenge themselves and focus on one mile at a time as the path to achieving big goals. We’ve cycled London to Paris in 24 hours together, are regularly out at sunrise in Richmond Park and are planning a trip to the highlands of Scotland to cycle and camp in mountain bothys.
Queen of the Mountains
Alicia Bamford is Founder of Queen of the Mountains, a performance women’s cycling brand launching in May. The brand celebrates the beauty and freedom in cycling. Combined with Alicia's passion for inspiring women to experience what it’s like to cycle in the mountains is a winning combo.
Together with Abi Williams, Kati Jagger, Emily Favret, Debbie Richards and a bunch of other awesome ladies, we head out on our bikes to train, to find brunch spots, to explore the world and let our minds wander in the way they only do when you’re on a bike.
Why do I love riding together?
These ladies are badass. We create this supportive, friendly, motivating and fun environment to share our hopes, dreams and goals, and sometimes to share the brokenness of all of those. We build each other up, there are no egos to crush you and make you feel like you don’t belong, or aren’t fast enough.
The vibe is, come as you are and ride.
It’s simple, beautiful and free.
We explore sunrises on frosty mornings.
We explore London streets doing laps in the rain before work.
We explore country lanes and smile when it’s snowing even though we can’t feel our hands or feet.
We explore new cafes to find avocado on toast, cake or coffee.
We explore our hearts, minds and opportunities to grow as people and cyclists.
It brings so much to my life.
Come join us!
All these photos taken on GoPro Hero4Session many with the help of Abi Williams.
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