Me & My Bike - Rose Down

How did you get to where you are on your cycling journey?

Like a lot of people, my first experience with cycling was as a child. I mostly just remember hating it, riding around on our road, embarrassed by my stabilisers and then feeling unstable without them. It was a long time before I got back on a bike as an adult. A few years ago I decided I was going to an Ironwoman 70.3 for charity, so that kind of forced me into the world of cycling. And since then, I haven't really looked back! Working at Rapha has provided an incredible, ever-enthusiastic collection of colleagues that have certainly helped grow my love for the wonderful, and sometimes weird, world of riding bikes.

What do you get out of cycling / what has it brought to your life?

Community and independence. Whilst they're somewhat different ends of the spectrum, riding bikes has brought both of these things to my life, in abundance. Riding alongside others and the aspect of shared experience, the pain and pleasure, highs and lows, creates a kind of underlying connection that's quite hard to describe. But, there's also a lot to be said for the solo riding experience. It instead creates a connection to your surroundings, and once you realise that you alone got yourself to where you were going, you're unstoppable!

What barriers to getting into the sport do women face / have you experienced?

There are a few barriers to getting into bikes in general. But in terms of gender-specific ones, I think they're similar to other sports. It's a pretty male-dominant sport, women's races get barely any coverage in comparison to men's, many clubs are male-heavy, and there's a hell of a lot of mansplaining when it comes to changing a tire. That said, the cycling community is a pretty incredible one and my experiences have always been positive. There are also a lot of female and non-binary focused groups out there for anyone looking to get into it. I think it's important to just have fun with cycling, it doesn't have to be all shaved legs and groupset discussions - I personally don't know much about either.

Who's a source of riding inspiration to you?

Always and forever Lael Wilcox. She's an FKT-fiend whilst also being just a great person and always encouraging people to get into cycling. I think there's nothing cooler than being a hardcore, ultradurance rider and one of the best to ever do it, whilst also being so approachable and down to earth. Long live Lael.