Women on wheels

We speak to two women about female-only cycling clubs

Ican remember my first bike, aged five, a bright blue BMX, with the number ‘1’ painted on the front. This was the bike that got me off stabilisers and onto the open road, or at least, the street where I lived, aptly named ‘Freeland’ Avenue. This BMX became my ticket to freedom, to adventures with my girlfriends to the local shop for gobstoppers or to the open field, or ‘veld’ as we South Africans call it, where we would plonk our bikes beside the stream, wheels still spinning, to catch crabs with pieces of string and homemade bait. Bikes and Freeland Avenue were synonymous with happiness. We would race, we would freewheel, no hands, then sweat up the inclines with our cheeks full of sweets. Sometimes we’d fall and graze our knees and fight back tears until we parted ways, but nothing brought greater joy than those two wheels and that sisterhood.

Three decades have passed and I’m back on my bike again, this time with a group of like-minded girlfriends, or the MOB (Mums On Bikes) Squad as we call ourselves. Those child-like feelings of adventure and daring always return when I’m with these ladies, laughing and whooping with every pedal stroke, and reliving that sweet freedom as we chomp sweaty cheese rolls in a faraway stretch of countryside or glug a cheeky pint after a sprint back before the inevitable ‘summon’ home for the kids’ bedtime. When I’m with the MOB squad, I know I’ve found my tribe, because our love of cycling may run deep, but our friendships even deeper.

Doesn’t every woman deserve to find her tribe? In a sport dominated by men at the top, how can cycling bind us women together and be our solace in a time where chaos reigns around the world and we need those connections and shared experiences more than ever? I chatted to two female-only cycling groups about how they formed their tribe…

‘Our love of cycling may run deep, but our friendships even deeper’