About Us

The Women of Colour Cycling Collective is a hub for connecting minority ethnic women and non-binary people across the UK, while reducing barriers in our sport. Our mission is to inspire, empower, and motivate our members to love cycling and challenge themselves (as well as the status quo).

We deliver projects aimed both at bringing more womxn of colour into cycling, and at helping the existing ones fulfil their potential.

You can reach us at womenofcolourcycling@gmail.com.

How it started…

 

In October 2018, this article came out in Gal Dem, asking where all the women of colour were at Ride London. Jenni Gwiazdowski (director of the London Bike Kitchen), and Jools Walker (aka @LadyVelo) decided it was high time to start up some sort of a group. We didn’t know what it would be like, we didn’t know what people would want, we didn’t have an agenda. We just had an inkling that there were other people out there like us, who were tired of being the odd one out.

One month later, we held our first meet up as the Womxn of Colour Cycling Group London. The cycling café Look Mum No Hands set aside a space and time for us, and we put the word out via our social media channels. And wouldn’t you know it—people showed up! And people were excited to be there. We even had Ayesha McGowan tune in via Zoom (a premonition of what was to come). Monthly meetups were agreed, and we carried on as a casual group for a year. And then Covid hit.

A blessing in disguise, the coronavirus forced us to take our work online—this meant that we could expand our group to welcome anyone in the country. When the BLM movement was galvanised after the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, our group felt that we could do (and be) more than just be a casual social space. We had become a support group in more ways than one—politically, socially, emotionally. And so in November 2020, we became a registered charity and changed our name and became the Women of Colour Cycling Collective.

How it’s going…

 

We have an active WhatsApp community and a private Facebook group—you can join either or both. It’s a space to share our experiences, hatch plans, and reduce the isolation and lack of visibility that some of us feel out on our bikes. You are welcome to get stuck in, or just sit back and watch.

WCCC is a hub not a club, and so membership with us complements other cycling groups you may already be part of. New members can look forward to free training, monthly online meet-ups and juicy discounts—sometimes even free entry—to cycling events all over the country.

This group is for any woman of colour that rides a bike or is thinking about riding a bike—from roadies, to leisure riders, commuters and newbies. It doesn't matter what gear or bike you have, or what kind of riding you do—we have room for you.

We want this to be a safe and welcoming space for all women of colour to discuss their experiences of riding bikes. We welcome all self-defining women of colour including trans women and non-binary people, and women from multi-ethnic backgrounds. Please complete this form in order to access the group.

Membership is free.

Our strength comes from our diversity. We are women of colour, and we love cycling.

Meet our leaders

  • Jenni Gwiazdowski - Founder

    Jenni is the founder and director of the London Bike Kitchen, specialising in bike maintenance for the masses since 2012. Prior to COVID-19 she taught classes and hosted drop in workshops, as well as LBK’s Women and Gender-variant nights. During the pandemic, she took to teaching maintenance online.

    Jenni is the author of the book, How to Build a Bike, and is one half of the Wheel Suckers Podcast.

  • Ade Ola - Chair

    Ade’s a budding ultra-cyclist who’s working her way towards completing the Transcontinental Race someday. Until the pandemic, she hadn’t owned a bike since childhood and cycling was something she did sporadically, on hired bikes.

    Lockdown changed that and she bought a gravel bike truly believing it would be her one and only, however it wasn’t long before she succumbed to the inevitability of n+1. A Brompton soon followed, and even though she’s still ‘only’ on two bikes, numbers 3 and 4 have already been picked out.

  • Georgia Yexley - Secretary

    Georgia's love of cycling began while living in Beijing. She’s now a passionate advocate of inclusive active travel and an influential voice in the micromobility industry. She’s worked with hundreds of cities across the globe on their active and sustainable transport aims. 

    Harnessing that experience and after leading global giant TIER Mobility's e-scooter and e-bike operations across the UK and Ireland, Georgia set up and now runs her own consultancy firm, Loud Mobility.

  • Joanna Harris-Tench - Trustee

    Joanna started cycling as a child and busted herself up in various ways doing BMX. She loved it and can often been seen doing a standing start or no hands when the core and legs can take it!

    At the moment various health conditions are slowing her down, her bike can be a mobility aid, which is a beautiful thing. The distances she can travel by bike, compared to walking make her super grateful for what mastering two wheels can help you achieve.

  • Jess Morgan - Trustee

    After a thoroughly un-sporty youth, it was being a skint art student in 2008 that brought me to cycling—I needed a bike to get around London cheaply. I was purely a utility cyclist for a few years before meeting the London fixed gear community, who introduced me to the joy of social city rides, and longer rides to new places like Brighton.

    In 2013, I visited Herne Hill Velodrome for the first time and got a taste of track cycling. Competitive juices unlocked, I started racing track, fixed gear and road crits at amateur level. My last year of racing properly was in 2019 and since then I've taken more of a community-focused role, leading beginner sessions and social rides.

  • Cai Otter - Treasurer

    Cai’s journey into cycling began on a second-hand bike during the pandemic, as a commuter. She loved the freedom it offered and things gradually snowballed, with her seeking out increasingly longer rides, this time for leisure. An alumni of the Ultra Distance Scholarship, Cai completed the Pan Celtic Race in 2024.

    She’s on a mission to spread the joy of cycling and inspire more people to give it a go: Whatever bike you own, however you like to ride, however fast or far you want to pedal — the secret is to head outside with an open mind, take it one small pedal stroke at a time, and good things will start to happen.