About Us
The Women of Colour Cycling Collective is a hub for connecting global majority 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 are a volunteer-led charity that delivers projects and opportunities aimed at helping womxn of colour fulfil their cycling potential in safe and non-judgemental spaces.
You can reach us at info@womenofcolourcycling.org.
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, 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 racers, 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
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Jenni Gwiazdowski, Co-Founder
Jenni is the co-founder (alongside Jools Walker) and director of the London Bike Kitchen, specialising in bike maintenance for the masses since 2012.
She taught classes and hosted drop in workshops, as well as LBK’s Women and Gender-variant nights before the Covid-19 pandemic and took to teaching maintenance online while we were all shuttered away indoors.
Jenni is the author of the book, How to Build a Bike, and was one half of the Wheel Suckers Podcast.
Although she’s no longer involved with running WCCC, we’ve left her up here as a way of saying a continued thank you for bringing us into existence.
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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.
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Tammy Fong, Trustee
Tammy is a cycle instructor based in South Yorkshire.
When she's not teaching cycling in schools and to adults (primarily women of colour!), she is cycling around the Peak District and eating cake.
You will also find her at Sheffield's monthly Critical Mass bike rides or walking her two rescue dogs Rocko and Rosie.
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Tami Pizarro Fernandez, Treasurer
Tam grew up in Sweden as the child of Chilean refugees, where cycling was simply a universal way of life. Moving to London 20 years ago brought a stark reality check: a city with virtually no bike lanes, where commuting felt genuinely dangerous.
Determined to ride safely and build a home in the city, they began volunteering for cycling charities and qualified as a ride leader. What started as simple transit quickly transformed into a vibrant community and a defining lifestyle.
Now serving as Treasurer, Tam combines their unique lived experience with financial oversight to drive the charity forward. Their core aim is to significantly increase WCCC's funds, directly expanding our capacity to meet the growing needs of the community.
Driven by the barriers they witnessed—particularly how cycling culture historically excluded women—they ensure our resources actively empower minorities, break down systemic walls, and help everyone safely take up space on the road.