you can’t be what you can’t see

3 min read

Last week, Derby City Council’s cycling branch and the largest provider of cycle training in the city, Cycle Derby, started their Active Travel Tour of primary schools across the city to round off Sustrans’ Big Pedal initiative which took place at the end of last month.

Derby City Council covered it in a newsroom article describing it as consisting of an “inspirational assembly” by World Record Breaking Cyclist and Mental Health Ambassador Leigh Timmis and an “exciting stunt display” from 5x British and European Champion Cyclist Danny Butler.

More gushing words came from Mark Smith, who has led Cycle Derby for 14 years, in his below personal LinkedIn post.

We’ve been aware of this tour since March when I politely asked if it was possible for Cycle Derby to consider more diverse representation. I felt that two white male able-bodied elite athletes would not be the easiest to relate to for someone like 8 year old Fatima who attended a Dr.Bike I supported in Normanton Park a couple of weeks ago. I figured I’d have the most success by sticking to the record breaking theme, so I therefore suggested the wonderful and local Kajsa Tylen and provided contact information. Unusually, we actually received a reply but we were told she would have to do the tour for free. When I asked Mark Smith if Leigh and Danny are also doing the tour for free he deleted the above LinkedIn post.

The reason we suggested adding a woman to the line up, or better still replacing one of the men, is because we want to support, encourage and empower more girls to cycle. Mark Smith may say Leigh and Danny are inspiring but I think they’ve been chosen because they are his friends and because it is the easy option given that they’ve done it before. In fact, we’ve discovered Leigh Timmis has been touring (the same) schools every year since 2018. I doubt they were the first inspirational people who cycle that sprung to Fatima’s mind but then I think that neither Fatima, nor any other children, were even consulted.

I have over 10 years experience of working with children and young people in education and the community, particularly those from deprived areas and underrepresented groups. I’m all for inspiration and amazement but I also know it is really important to be inclusive, especially given that Derby is an incredibly diverse city with varying levels of socioeconomic status.

We should always strive to be ambitious but the point of Big Pedal was to encourage kids to walk, cycle, wheel or scoot to school. Telling them of travelling the world for 7 years, high profile sponsored World Record attempts and extreme stunts is to tell them tales of privilege that sadly are mostly exclusive to the world of straight white able-bodied men.

Without naming names as I’ve already had to spend last week learning new legal terms, I also reiterated my concerns about Cycle Derby’s specific choice of men given that one of them has unfortunately harassed and objectified women in a work capacity, and mocked people of colour and gay men via his personal social media over the course of the past six months. I feel has shown no meaningful acknowledgement or remorse for how he has conducted himself despite multiple formal complaints. Cycle Derby are aware of his behaviour, yet he remains a choice role model for children in our city’s schools which I personally find very disconcerting.

It may therefore come as no surprise to learn that Cycle Derby were the only cycling delivery partner in the city to ignore our multiple requests to sign our International Women’s Day choose to challenge pledge to create a safe and inclusive environment for girls, women and non-binary people. Also, as with my previous attempts to ask them about diverse representation at meetings, the response to my questions has been to delete all traces, remain silent and carry on with plans as normal.

Cycle Derby have even quickly re-written their social media posts to include the previously omitted ‘ladies’, and some photos of women and the only person of colour who works for them. If you take a look at their Facebook page, not a single other post on this subject has ever referenced anyone apart from Leigh Timmis and Danny Butler. If they suddenly have an abundance of women then why isn’t their own ladies World Champion featuring on the tour? I actually invited Tracey to be a speaker for a cycling event I organised last year. Sadly we’re very familiar with these virtue signalling tokenistic gestures to give the false illusion of diversity and inclusion, with no acknowledgement of the challenging work groups like ours do to raise awareness and push for change. I would kindly point this out but they’ve removed me from LinkedIn and Facebook too.

Selectively rewriting history and continuing to ignore these issues does not mean they will simply go away. Instead having important, and inevitably difficult, conversations about the lack of diversity and tolerance of discrimination in our cycling sector is not only a much more mature approach, but it is also much more likely to result in positive change, and ultimately more people on bikes which is what we all want, right…? Or is it actually all just about appearance, power dynamics and control? My money is sadly on the latter.

Maybe in 2022, the Active Travel Tour will feature someone’s Mum who does the school run with a second hand e-bike, an older sibling who cycles to college every day on a BMX or a disabled foster carer who completed a charity bike ride to Skegness last summer on their handcycle.

We greatly admire the amazing work that Cycle Derby do across our city to get more people on bikes. All I am once again asking for is for the views and needs of girls, women and non-binary people to be listened to, respected and represented within this work. It isn’t about these men giving up their limelight (although they have had it for centuries…), it is about sharing opportunities to include and inspire everyone to be what they can see.

In solidarity,

Lucy

founder | spoke out