Ride with the Women of Colour Cycling Collective

A new UK-based charity is on a mission to inspire, empower, and motivate women of color to cycle. And they’ve been using Zwift to help keep their group going during lockdowns.

This Sunday, the Women of Colour Cycling Collective (WCCC) invites you to join them for three special group rides in the Women’s Ride and Run Series!

• Schedule: March 21 at 1pm, 3pm, and 7pm GMT
• Length: 45 minutes
• Route: Ocean Lava Cliffside Loop
• Pace: 1.5–2 w/kg

“We’re encouraging these marginalized groups, specifically women and nonbinary people of color, to come together,” says Sara Nanayakkara, a WCCC board member. “When you see people like you, then you feel like you belong to something.”

The goal isn’t to seclude women of color, she says, but to include them in the broader cycling community.

“The long-term aim of the group is to be like the hub of a wheel,” says Nanayakkara. “You attract people to the center, and build their confidence, give them skills, and build a community, so that they can then happily and comfortably join a ride with a club near them. They can come to us for that security and safety and then go again.”

This also benefits other cycling communities, who get to ride alongside different types of people with different backgrounds.

“The more cyclists the better,” says board chair Jenni Gwiazdowski. “The more people riding bikes, the better the world will be.”

Growing up mixed-race in a white community, Gwiazdowski says she was used to feeling like an outsider. That feeling grew when she started cycling, and again when she began working in the bike industry 8 or 9 years ago. But she didn’t give it much thought until she started becoming more aware of social justice issues.

The inequalities that women of color face are real, Gwiazdowski says. They may not have learned to ride as a child because they couldn’t afford a bike or didn’t have a parent who could teach them. They may have been discouraged from riding, been shamed for it, felt physically threatened, or never found other people they could ride with comfortably.

Belonging to more than one minority group – female cyclists, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, LGBTQ+, immigrants, etc. –  can make that “outsider” feeling grow stronger. But it can also help them connect with and lift up others.

“I think once you start realizing that it’s not a bad thing, then it gives you energy,” says Gwiazdowski. “It gives you strength.”

Collective Support

The group began in late 2018 as a monthly get-together at a London cycling café called Look Mum No Hands. Gwiazdowski started it with author and public speaker Jools Walker, after the two realized there was no group supporting women of color in the United Kingdom.

Nanayakkara used to live in London, and when she moved to Bedfordshire, she was struck by how much less diverse it was. When she heard about WCCC (then called the Women of Colour Cycling Group), she took a train into London to go to her first meeting.

“I was so excited to meet other people that cycle who were women of color,” she says. “It’s like, ‘Wow, I’ve found something important here. There’s lots of other people that are like me.’”

That was the only meeting attended in person. At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the group to move online. But that meant it wasn’t limited to just London anymore, and it grew to be nationwide.

Nanayakkara and Gwiazdowski say it can be a relief to talk about certain topics with the group that they wouldn’t be so open about elsewhere.

They became a support group in the wake of news of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. The shared interest in cycling drew the members together to a Zoom call, and in that space they could talk about their grief.

At that point, Nanayakkara knew that the group could be something more. She began to ask around about forming a working group, who would work toward giving it structure and establishing it as a nonprofit organization. Now, the group numbers more than 100.

“We’re all volunteers who cycle, and we’re all over the country,” she says. “This is the joy of technology, right? Zoom started it, and Zwift is bringing us all together.”

Collective Riding, Indoors and Out

WCCC members have been riding together in small Zwift Meetups twice a week. With the official launch of their nonprofit organization, they’ll be leading three rides this Sunday as part of the Women’s Ride and Run Series. While the Meetups are private, all women are welcome to join Sunday’s rides!

Nanayakkara has been a Zwifter for about 5 years, and she has done enough climbing to have the Zwift Concept Z1 “Tron” bike – but she was late signing up for the challenge! Meanwhile, Gwiazdowski is new to the platform.

“I started last November, and now I’m doing it almost every single day because I love it,” Gwiazdowski says.

Other members of the Board of Trustees include Alison Wood, Dionne Farley, Jo Chattoo, Sidrah Shafaq, and Victoria Hazael. Alison is a Level 2 British Cycling coach, and before the pandemic hit, she was holding in-person basic skills workshops.

When WCCC began meeting virtually, they moved to online education classes led by Gwiazdowski. They hope to resume in-person workshops soon, with more coaches in more locations throughout the UK.

“We’re also hopefully going to be training ride leaders to lead rides across the country, where you can come and have a nice social ride and meet other women of color cycling,” says Nanayakkara. “We don’t just have lycra-clad road cyclists. We also have mountain bikers, social riders, commuters, people who ride for shopping, and people who just picked up a bike for the first time in 40 years.”

Along with riding the Zwift Meetups, when they’re allowed, some members have been getting together in small groups to ride in London.

“We’re intending to keep the online meetups irrespective of lockdowns, so we can continue to connect with people from all over,” Nanayakkara says. “Hopefully after lockdown, we’ll be having national hub rides.”

Eventually, she says, the group wants to encourage a community of allies. An “honorary membership” would let anyone join and support them from anywhere in the world.

For now, minority ethnic women or non-binary people who live in the UK can join WCCC at their website, womenofcolourcycling.org.

Follow the Women of Colour Cycling Collective on Facebook, on Instagram @wccc_uk, or on Twitter @wccc_uk for more information about WCCC!