Imrana speaks with Iffat Tejani (British Cycling Breeze Champion) on today’s edition of the Book Club Show. Tune in to hear about her cycling journey & the work that Evolve Cycling Network does.
The following podcast is taken from a live broadcast on Inspire FM asalam alaikum and welcome to the book club show on Inspire 105.1 FM my name is imrana Mahmud and I am back with another fantastic um session today with a wonderful new guest and today we are going to be talking a lot about cycling um so for those of you who might be
Really really Avid cyclists and you know spend a lot of time on the road or you know doing lots of cycling this is definitely a perfect show but it’s also a perfect show for you to listen into if you are hoping to get into cycling maybe
You were learning to ride um when you were younger and then there’s been like a huge gap and you haven’t been on a bike again um so this will be perfect for you to hopefully um get that slight nudge and encouragement to get back on a
Bicycle um and today I am really really excited to be speaking to ifet Tani um ifet is the co-founder of evolve and British cycling Road and time trial coach um and later on in the show we’ll be talking a little bit about some of um um an initiative that if is working
Alongside Revolution women’s fitness group in ltin as well so I’m going to welcome iFit onto the show so asalam alaykum if alikum Salam thank you very much for having me on thank you so much for taking the time I know you’ve been quite busy um with a recent ride and
They’ve got an upcoming ride as well um but for our listeners I thought what would be really interesting to start off with is to ask you how you first got into cycling right so I did not know how to ride a bike as a child so it was very
Much um in my adulthood and when I settled with when I had my kids um I might as well say it when I was 37 I learned how to ride uh ride a bike and it was I had a bucket list um basically I was diagnosed with cancer and uh you
Know as you’re sitting through chemo you kind of make a bucket list and there were few things I really wanted to do and one was to learn to ride and one was learned to swim so as soon as um I finished my treatment I was like okay
Let’s put this into action um and yeah and it was really hard trying to find um someone to actually teach me how to write and mean going we talking we talking about 10 years ago um you know when there were not that many female coaches around and cycling was not that
Diff you know was not that was not that diverse as we see it now um so I yeah um I went on Google I found someone to I think um he was a St John’s ambulance driver who taught me to ride and the the whole idea was learning
To cycle and learn to swim was so that I could do these activities with my children I was not on the sidelines anymore and I could you know take them out and you know uh don’t have to walk while they ride yes yes yeah it sounds
Familiar right yes it does very much so that’s really wonderful I mean so it’s I mean firstly obviously you know so inspiring that it was I guess through a difficulty that you were facing that you were able to you know um do something really wonderful for yourself I guess
You know for your family and and this idea of a Bucky lus I think is really um really you know amazing and I think you know do you think actually do people tend to make buckus a bit later on in Life or do you think people do it when
They’re young or or what what kind of idea is that and what other things do you have anything else on your bucket list I think for a time when you do a bucket list is when something you’re like you’ve been hit with a tragedy and something has happened and you’re like
Oh I need to reevaluate my life or my life can’t just be looking at the kids and working and coming home you know there is more kind of more to me so in a way it would be nice if we actually met this list a little bit
Earlier uh to say hey look you know what you know kind of revalue it and say Hey you know where what should I be doing and I think especially with us women we find it very you know we get so busy being moms being wives and you know uh
Being you know nurturing and looking after we kind of tend to forget ourselves so it would be kind of nice for us women to perhaps make this list early and not wait until something happens for you to go and you know make a list and then try and action it yeah
No no absolutely and it’s such an important reminder and I love that you you use the word like nurturing because you’re right I think we do tend to nurture others and like you said we we forget that nourishment and and nurturing for ourselves yeah um and what
I really kind of feel is obviously so I I mentioned in the introduction that the you’re the co-founder of evolve um and I would say from what I’ve seen and experience that is a nurturing space so could you explain for our listeners um what what exactly is evolved and how it
Came into being yeah so evolve so from my journey from learning to write and actually forming evolve if I were to say to you it took about 10 years to come to it and actually to form evolve is when I had a relapse and and the cancer back
Came back and evolv came let’s say bucket list number two so because while I was kind of riding and I was riding with u i don’t know if you’ve heard of Breeze which is a women only Network for of Bri cycling where they just take you
Out for rides and stuff I was really missing that Community Field you know when we out you know we share our values we’ve got that comfort blanket of riding within your own community and I could actually see that Gap and I would meet friends and they were like oh you know
When are you taking riding with us you know can you take us can you teach us can you do this and I was like we need a club that is absolutely dedicated to Muslim women you know uh where we you know we look at the barriers that women
Face where we can you know we’re coaching it is basically the whole entire from decision making to actually the r and everything is actually you know uh spearheaded by women so it was actually I had a relapse two years ago and as I was coming and I
Thought you know what is I was going through treatment I was like this dream of mine I haven’t actually go around to it so as soon as as soon as I kind of recovered from it um I was like right let’s go on to start forming this club
But before we actually tried and you know it’s you have this idea of forming a club and then you look at the practicalities of of having a club and suddenly you’re like hang on a minute I don’t have the skills how am I going to coach this
Woman how am I going to take this women on rides so I remember it was about I think it was about eight week weeks after my surgeries and I was like okay right I’m going to get onto the bike and I’m going to go and become a Bree Champion so
Breeze Champion is basically ride leaders for bre cycling and I remember was one of my friends and we rocked up in Oxford to become this ride leaders and you know you talk about having a bad day when you go through illness and trust me
That was a really bad day and I we rock up at this place and everybody’s on the rod bikes and we are on this you know 100 GID bike Sporter we looked at each other we thought uh do we really belong here well yeah we persevered we became
Brace Champions and then from there it was literally just taking women out on smaller rides and taking them out and then it just literally evolved Evol from there um so the club was officially formed in lockdown uh 20 2020 um I remember actually we couldn’t
Even do a Launch face to face because of all lockdown we actually did a virtual lunch and then our first was a sportive which we actually took um about I think about 40 Riders from Harold to Windsor and then it was literally then the journey
Started on you know us I there was three of us who started evolved now is a team of nine women who actually you know do different roles within the club and you know we’ve got 15 coaches now um and yeah we’ve it’s it for us is
Very much taking it taking us out from our comfort zone because we do not come from race from racing background we are almost as you said people who’ve learned to ride and suddenly trying to run a club at at a level where you see you know white organizations running and
Cycling is a very white male dominated sport yeah absolutely yeah and try trying to make that space for us in that as you know yeah has been a very interesting journey and we’ve learned a lot about ourselves no I can imagine and the fact that you know it’s such an app
Name evolved because you know as you were speaking you’re right it’s it’s kind of um developed and involved in such a beautiful space you know and you’re right you know this idea of taking up space in in in places I guess that we for whatever reason you know
That there’s a sense of excl inclusion like you said if it’s a white male dominated sport already there’s a challenge right so you mentioned um just a bit earlier about you know certain barriers you know could you maybe you know just explore a little bit what do what have you found in your
Experience some of those barriers are I know you mentioned maybe the idea that obviously if there’s something like a group that doesn’t exist and you don’t have a community that can maybe be a bit difficult but what what else have you found that that so I mean if you look at
You know if you look at our faith if you look at our values and our principles so I think for women the massive biggest barrier when it comes to cycling is hijab um because if you look at the cycling clothing it’s not very modest you know the and you know the whole ler
Concept and things like that so that was the biggest barrier to say look how can we make this sport inclusive and how do we you know how do we overcome this barrier so I think the first thing actually Evol as soon as evolve was formed the first
Thing we all actually sat around the table and said right we need to come up with a mortis Jersey and we actually then went and designed a modest Jersey so we looked at your standard cycling jerseys you know which has got the pockets for your fuel
And things like that you know so we were like okay how can we take a started Jersey and how can we actually make it modest um and plus have the safety elements as well you know being able to come off the bike safely and things like
That so we actually so that was the first solution we came across and we actually went and designed our own cycling Jersey uh which is again has got all the principle all you know what normal cycling Jersey does and it’s a um it’s you know mod lent as well I don’t know
If you’ve seen that around um the second was coaching because again it’s because it’s such a male dominated sport most of the coaches and especially at the levels that we wanted to there were all men as well so it was like right um you know those who are confident Riders let’s you
Know let’s become coaches so that was a second barrier that we kind of you know we uh overcame as well um bikes was the third barrier because not everybody’s got bikes especially from our community we we give a priority of buying a car than buying a bike yeah
Definitely so it was like okay you know what let’s come up with a bike library and that’s something you know which I think you know I’d even spoken to you and Yasmin when we last Met look you need to have your own bike library and
You need to have a bike library that is suitable for women um so yeah and there was you know so these were kind of the initial barriers that we started working with and started kind of to implement solution as well um we also then went to British cycling and said look this is
Our vision this is what we want to do can we have your report on it so I mean to date we are the only Club Muslim Club that’s the first Muslim women Club to actually get affiliate with Bri recycling yeah that’s amazing and you know congratulations for being able to
Achieve so much within such a short space of time and you know just listening to you I’m like yes I need to get into cycling and you know we have tried I know that I mean we’ll talk maybe a bit later on about the session
That you had um I think it was wore down with you know Revolution with women’s fitness group as well what you did mention in terms of those barriers I think are very interesting and it’s so important to be able to yeah I think speak openly about it and hopefully
Because that’s the first step isn’t it you you talk about the barriers you you start overcoming them and you know hopefully you know inshah you can kind of embed that change within you know our communities and you know get get the encouragement and support that we need
Um but this you mentioned um a bike library but because this is the book club show I want to ask you what does your book library look like do you have any interesting books on cycling um I don’t know is there a particular one that you dip in and out
Of because I don’t have any books about cycling so I’m really interested to know oh you know what my favorite one if you’re talking about a books most likely it’s called Lost Lanes lost Lanes yes and basically it’s absolutely fantastic so it basically gives you a breakdown of roots all all around UK
Which you can you know which are safe to cycle and you can you know um yes I mean it’s fantastic I can drop a link down to you but do check it out um and who’s that written by lost Lanes lost Lanes yeah yeah um and then I’ve got a couple
Of ones which are kind of like um I would say like illustration books but they are by David Walker and he has actually um yeah he’s got quite a humor when it comes to cycling as well and so those were yeah those are kind of my two
Books at the moment my my reading on cycling books is really boring because I’m well I’m I’m sitting for my level three uh R and time trial and that’s a lot about looking at psyche psyche of athletes and it’s all Performance Based and things like that so at the moment
I’m looking you know reading things like psychology of an athlete and B fitting and you know um yeah so they’re um they’re um yeah they’re they’re not they’re not as interesting but to me they are no no but but you say that but like you said I guess because you’re in
The middle of kind of studying it might be a bit like but actually maybe for somebody who um I mean I love the idea of lost Lanes I mean I like just the the book title so um that that sounds you know really interesting um to me um but
Yeah I’ve SE that one’s by Jack C I’ve just quickly checked it so yeah and I love the book cover as well it definitely um idea of Nature and being in nature and and how do you think actually you know when we talk a little bit about um
I mean obviously cycling in terms of a sport but you know there’s a lot of conversations recently about you know health and well-being and yeah you know whereas someone might think actually you know maybe I’m just better off going to the gym or you know doing something else
So why would you or what would you say specifically about a cycling what maybe makes it a bit different I think nothing beats a nothing beats fresh air um you can you know and I mean from one thing I found from my cycling journey is the places I’ve
Discovered um that you know a lot of time that you would not see it in your car um and I’ve and it’s kind of funny discovered these places and then I’ve actually taken my family and my kids and they would turn around and say oh how
Did you discover it and I was like oh guess where guess how guess how but yes it’s just it’s just getting out and you know being able to stop whever you want without having to find barking exactly go you know yeah um again you know um cycling being you know
Uh the impact well depend on depending on the level that you ride it the impact that he has on your body as well um you know um and in fact cycling is also prescribed by doctors now um as well for you know for health and wellbeing as well so it’s yeah it’s
Definitely one of those um activities that you know um that is Kinder on your body unless when you go and try and knock out a 100 miles that’s a different story now I think you’re right I think it’s true and yeah I mean I when I do go
Cycling and and my husband you know he Cycles a lot and yet he’s done the same thing that you have I think with your family where he’s sudden like oh I found this such a lovely spot or I found this you know and then and then we’ll go
Together it’s nice because you do discover and that that I feeling a discovery in nature is so beautiful so I think um that’s definitely definitely a good a good reason to to get into it um and then so we were talking obviously I know that you mentioned um that you
Didn’t learn to to ride a bike when when you were younger um but how about how about the reading side were you like an average reader when when you were younger did you have access to libraries you know what what was that kind of like I was I was actually brought up in
Tanzania East Africa um and yes I was a bookworm absolutely yeah I was I would I would uh spend hours and hours reading um I was well I I am I have a sibling but he’s 21 years older than me so I was kind of brought up as an only child so
Yes books were my um my Century uh you know uh and yeah up to now the days when I kind of want to you know disconnect from the world um yeah I’d be you know when I reading psychology of an athlete yes exactly exactly yeah things like you know um yeah
Kite you know I think the only book that comes up is Kite Runner which everybody has read oh yeah of course yeah so yes how about when you were younger can you remember maybe a favorite book that you oh I’m going to give my age of a now I
Was a hug and blighton fan right uh Nancy Drew um fishing tree secret seven remember those yes I do I do yeah I do I do what was about those books that you you think that that that you enjoyed I mean I know there’s so many of us who
Who did read those books what was it yeah it was just um I think for us is kind of growing up it was just a fantasy world wasn’t it exactly yeah we all wanted to become Nancy Drews yeah yes exactly go go Adventure yeah or you know or secret seven or you know
Famous yeah exactly we wanted we wanted to open our little detective clubs didn’t we wait what isn’t it so but isn’t it so wonderful that now after you know now the work that you doing now I you could say it is a bit like that you you’re going on adventures you’ve got a
Club you’ve got this little you know I call it little it’s SN I mean it’s is you know um it’s so amazing so I I don’t know I think there’s something there maybe you you’re you’re the Nancy Drew of of of um British cycling you know now
You saying now you put it like that good yeah I just need to find some you know yeah I need to find some more um Adventures where okay a treasure hunt maybe yes exactly no no that that would definitely be a good idea no that’s really yeah I mean that’s really lovely
To hear and so and and um tell us we’ve got maybe a couple of minutes before we go to the break what’s the most recent kind of bik cry that you’ve done and and um you know and again how how was that so yeah recently completed right London
60 um just at the weekend uh and yes it was you know close roads um oh it was an Absolut amazing just to have London to yourself um we started off at Buckingham Palace early hours of six o’clock in the morning and I tell you I I absolutely
Love that time in the morning yeah it’s so fresh you know um and yeah just literally riding through London you know through Stratford up to up to Essex and back um the Finish is at Tower Bridge yes so you as you come back you know the Majestic of Tower Bridge
Actually opens up so yes um yeah we just completed that one so that’s been my recent my recent Adventure no that’s that’s wonderful and that must be amazing because obviously we you would you you always picture London really busy lots of traffic lots of cars and um you know IDE yeah having
It to yourself and being able to yeah just just cycle around sounds really um because they do free cycle as well where actually they close up London and actually you can go through The Monuments um you know you can go to tro Square you know you start Bing Bas High
Park kind of thing but the sportive doesn’t actually cover this part the sportive actually takes you out toward AIC um to to eping um eping Forest which is absolutely beautiful apart from the Hills because you know when you go to the countryside you’re just going kind of go up and down
Right oh God I don’t know I how I’d cope so do you outside of doing the rides like how do you tend to keep fit like is it just through cycling or do you do other types of exercises so the thing is I have quite a strict um kind of training
Diary um so I kind of when I’m doing sporty when it’s season time I almost have like a six-h hour training diary uh with um bike bike trainings I’ve got a what bike which is um which I’m sure you’ve seen them in the gym or a turbo which
Basically um you hook out hook your um outdoor bike onto onto a turbo machine which basically brings your cycling indoors so you do you do a lot of Base building in in the winter and yeah and then I have got um yeah I do strength training twice a week
Week as well um was literally to kind of in order for your body to be able to take on this endurance distances um yeah you do a lot of Base building over winter then come February time is when you start heading out um and yeah in order I mean what you
Do is you have you know you’ll have quite an intense training period before you do a sport before you do an endurance right because I do time trials as well um and then you know you have a little bit of a dip reper you’ll kind of recover to basically try and go again
Kind of thing so yeah you do have to I mean there are some amazing people who actually Rock up and you know would write a 100 without well yeah without that much training but unfortunately I’m one of those and especially what I’ve been through I do need to train yeah no
That’s I hadn’t even thought about you know that yeah you’re right of course because you know you use the word endurance that actually makes sense because that is what’s needed and you know training for that um but yeah and the idea thatly because me if if it was
Me it’s like oh the weather’s too cold I’m just going to sit at home because I’m a little bit lazy um but you’re right obviously if you want to really kind of I guess um get the ultimate benefit once the weather’s good and all the rides are happening yeah no no that
That’s really interesting to to know actually um so we’re just heading to um the break now so we are talking today to if de she is the co-founder of um evolve which is the cycling Network for Muslim women um and she’s also British cycling Road and time
Trial coach um in the second half of the show we will talk a little bit more to effort about some of her favorite books what maybe she’s current currently reading and a little bit more information about what evolve and Revolution and fitness group are going
To be doing in Luton soon inshah so we will be back in a few moments asalam Alum asalam alaikum this is noas listen to inspire FM shows in your time by heading over to inspire.org or listen on Apple podcast or Spotify asalam alaykum and welcome back to the book club show on Inspire 105.1 FM my name is imrana Mahmud and today on the show we are talking to if it she is the co-founder of evolve the cycling Network for Muslim women um and she is also the British cycling Road and time
Trial coach in the first half of the show we were having a wonderful conversation about some of um if’s favorite books that come to site that to do with cycling and also her inspiration um in terms of founding evolves her own journey into cycling that she didn’t
Learn when she was younger but in slightly more older and um the amazing amazing um I guess initiative that evolve has um started and the number of women and Muslim women they’ve got into cycling and really developed a really beautiful Community I think in terms of
Taking up space in a sport which is known to be probably quite dominated um by um kind of maybe yeah white male dominated I think would be fair to say um now in the second half we’ll talk a little bit more to if about um a couple
Of books and also um an initiative that we’re hoping to start within luten for women who want to get into cycling too um so I’m going to welcome back um to iFit so asalam alikum if alaykum Salam so let’s go straight back into the conversation you mentioned a couple of
Books in the first half of the show um one was lost lanes and um I think there was another one that you saying you’re currently studying to do with like psychology in in terms of kind of performance-based um is there anything that you can maybe suggest is there a book that maybe
Somebody if they want to get into cycling might be good or maybe people who already read into cycling and something new for them to kind of enjoy reading actually if somebody were into cycling there there’s something called I think Lonely Planet have have uh have produces I think it’s called epic bike
Rides of Europe um which is really because you know what Europe has got kind of the best like cycling infrastructure compared to us here and um we I personally I’m looking to do a trip um in July from cycling from chipara to tangir wow um you know and yes so if you
Are definitely check it out because it kind of gives you you know um yeah um to bike touring is really huge um I have a friend who actually did whole London to um she went by uh you know istan to Istanbul um so yes if you’re into
Cycling do check this one out because it’s got some really like epic Roots um uh you know that kind of goes you know there’s some really nice roots in France um goes into Holland as well um so yeah do check it out it’s called uh
Epic bike rides of Europe yeah and if I do get time to if I do get a little bit more time soon with everything that’s going on there’s a book that’s on my list to read and I’ve never go around to it is um and and the mountains
Echoed so he’s the same author who did The Kite Runner and thousand sped Sons yes uh yeah but it’s been on my list I just have not been able to to car out some time to read these books if it your you’re cycling too much that’s what
It is you need to you need to or or you need to somehow invent something where you can no it wouldn’t be very safe to to cycle and read that wouldn’t make sense but maybe you cycle and you stop and then you read a little bit podcast podcast podcast audio books that’s
Actually very good idea that’s yeah I think that’s what because normally I would have my some I’d have my headphones but we normally wear these Aftershock headphones they born headphones oh I have aftershocks yes I have obviously people can oh I’m just say of course there’s other brands that people
Can buy we’re not you know just focus yeah we’re not we not we’re not than anybody brand yes but yes um because it’s basically I’m all born so you can effectively have here traffic as well yes um so yeah I normally because yeah when you’re on you know when I did the
Ride London I needed something I needed a or something to keep me you know to keep me occupied for 60 miles yes exactly so yeah maybe you know uh download audio books um so I I think yeah I’m thinking of the road and I’m reading the road and stuff like that I
Think you know maybe my rest days my rest days has to be book days yes I think that’s always a good because that’s what you know we try to do on the book club show just kind of advocate for for trying to make time yeah for for reading and and for books because
Obviously it is difficult like you said I think really early on in in the first half that it’s about sometimes carving out bad time so with whatever it is you know and and just being quite I guess consistent and and having that perseverance that once you start
Something to to keep going and obviously that that can obviously apply to both reading and and cycling um but yeah no I’m glad that you mentioned kind of the the audio book so we have a luten based um um luten based um she works with different charities but also has a a really
Wonderful um podcast called the diverse bookshelf um so you know that’s one to to definitely look out oh I must check that one out yeah it’s it’s it’s really interesting and and I think again it’s you know we were talking about in terms of British cycling and having those underrepresented communities being able
To go into it I think you know publishing a book the book world is probably a a little bit similar as well um but you know what I was going to ask off so you just mentioned so that was Lonely Planet um epic ride um sorry epic
Bike rides of the world um so you and you said that you might be planning something so what what kind of where will that be and what would you need to do to plan something like that oh so yeah so we have kind of um because the
One thing when we’re looking at the chial to T right that we’re doing in July is um obviously you know we need to plan the route that we’re going to be taking um and then get away we’re going to State and bikes is obviously we’re not taking our bikes so we now then
Looking at higher wearing bikes as well so there was quite a bit of logistics that you know so there’s six of us doing that um and then between obviously between jalta and Tanger there’s a 2,000 fet elevation so we need to do some Hill training for that as well okay um so yes
And it was like literally you know and then planning out how we going to pick up the bikes uh you know um and then plant the local roots there we were looking at cycling around uh Lake Geneva because one of the brothers was actually um uh from Desi Riders is one of the
Groups here um in in London and they were cycling around Geneva so we were looking at their route as well so we thought okay let’s do J tangir this year um as a first R and see what happens and then maybe PL something next where we can actually take women from our
Community with us yeah wow that’ be so exciting exting and and you know what a beautiful yeah I think just um an opportunity as well you know to to Really develop you know things even further um and and you know you were talking a bit about because I guess what
I’m thinking is if there’s anybody listening in who wants to get into cycling what is a starting point is it to do with um right you know I need to get a bike but is it just a bike I mean are there other things that people kind
Of need to and and you know um in order to be prepped I I guess so I think the most of things you obviously kind of you know what yes you just need yeah you need a bike there a lot of places who can hire bikes at the moment there lots
Of cycle hubs around us who do bike higher as well um so it depends on what level if you’re already kind of semicon or if you’re riding as a child then you could effectively you know there is a platform called let’s ride do let’s ride. Cod you okay which is again you
Know does lead rides right um and their women only rides their family rides they these ride leaders who are trained by recycling who can effectively you know um yeah and you just put in your postcard and these rights come up um or the other thing there are lots of you
Know there a lot of clubs around there’s Brothers on bikes there’s our cels that evolv there’s cycle sisters um who do you know who do for you know for the Muslim Community um who actually you know do do Club rids so if you’re yeah semic confident that could be one
Options the other thing is if you’re looking to get into cycling you know getting to learch your rights and building up confidence as well and that’s something similar to what we you know what we held for you know what we worked on together last week for
Revolution where we had you know uh we had women coming to learn to ride yes and can you talk a little bit about that so what could um someone expect so if they want to get involved in to learn to fide obviously in terms of the luten
Context it’s kind of early days and and it’s starting to um hopefully develop so yeah what might that look like I me how much commitment is needed or um yeah do do people need a a bike to bring with them and you know so and and what can
They expect in terms of what would they be being taught so a lot of time when it is a learn to ride program um you will you’ll always find whether with the cycle Hub or whether it’s initiated with the councils or whether it’s you know run by clubs um they will always have
Bikes for hire because they you know for lunch ride there is an expectation people are not going to have that bike so people do not know what to buy um so normally for a lunch ride yes you you know they normally would provide you with a bike or helmet um yeah helmet
Is a must so with evolve is no helmet no ride uh policy though legally um helmets are not compulsory but we normally say look it it saves lives especially when you know I’m so surprised I’m so surprised to hear that I yes legally helmet you cannot enforce
It but most clubs have got that policy no helmet no right yeah absolutely um yeah so it is um yeah and yeah the only thing is don’t wear baggy trousers just have you know just we you if you are wearing in if you do if you are wearing
In a bio you’re wearing a jilbob then you will be like you know Tucky to in uh so that way it doesn’t get caught on the Chain um for us if there are any baggy trousers we tend to put Clips on our trousers or put our trousers in our
Socks um gloves I always say Ms is really good to have because you can end up I think when you’re a beginner you really tend to hold the handlebar really really hard yes so it’s nice to actually have some Ms as well you know an extra extra layer um yes apart from
That you don’t need anything else yeah no that’s that’s good to know and um because I think that’s sometimes it you know we were talking earlier on about about barriers because I think with anything when you start something new I mean I know I’m a bit like that if I’m
Going into a new space or you I’ve decided to learn something I mean for example you mentioned swimming so swimming had been on my bucket list because I I had learned when I was young and then there was like a whole period of like 20 something years I I never you
Know swam again so I’ve just took up um swimming a few a few months ago and I remember feeling really a bit anxious oh God you know like who’s going to be there what does the swiming pool look like what’s the coach going to be like you know so there’s all these things
Going through your through your mind so like what could you say to somebody who might be feeling a bit that and that’s kind of stopping them starting to just to kind of reassure them that you know because obviously like we said you know we’re hoping to start the they kind of
Learn to ride in in Luton what advice or what yeah would you kind of give them sool we always say it starts with the first Str of fedal so your first turning up is a massive huge huge achievement a lot of people think that when you start
You’re going to be put start battling straight away and you’ll be put on the bike and say right here you go balance and go uh you see balance is something that’s discovered it cannot be taught so a lot of times you know when when when we have any beginners be kids or be
Adults who come in and the first thing we do is we remove the pedals they put the seat really down right completely so the feet are actually flat on the floor uh on the ground and they look as like oh don’t we need pedals I’m like no
Because you need to learn to sco you need to get that balance so it’s very much the coaching process is really broken down so even like for K when when you know for the go because we run a go ride which is actually for tailor for
Kids um so we run the sessions every Friday and the first thing if we tell the parents take the stabilizers off take the pedals off and they look at us like really I’m like yes we need to get it into balance we need to teach you balance you need to discover you know
What the balancing point for your body is so yep the first session is all about scooting and gliding and then as you can say you know and in a way we take the nervousness off because introduce like you know games as well and it’s also the
First s is all about using your brakes you know building that confidence that actually you’ve got two s two things that you’re breaking with you’ve got your feet and you’ve got the brakes yes so it’s building that confidence from there look you’re not paddling you’re just literally you know you’re just
Going to be scooting you’re just going to be balancing you know walking with your bike so it’s very much normally I think it you have some people who are really quickly learn with some it takes I think learn to write sessions always three to four weeks okay yes because you kind of you
Know you if you throw a person in straight away it doesn’t help that it doesn’t help with anxiety so you need to build confidence you need to make sure and as coaches we can already see that look this person is almost on the verge of getting a b their balance then we’ll
Just introduce one pedals yes and then with the one pedal we again start against coach with the other one then so it’s literally the whole coaching process is broken down into chunks and that’s so and it’s you know that’s such a good idea isn’t it because you’re right I think that
Stepbystep um kind of approach is is helpful rather than you know just being kind of thrown in the in the deep end and yeah and I think it’s so interesting because I think when I learned to ride a bike when I was younger yeah it was probably with stabilizers and it’s
Always been and I know that it that’s kind of a natural um assumption isn’t it that oh yeah if you got stabilizers it will help and you know potentially it does work but of course you know what you said is really really it’s all quite profound actually the idea that you know
Balance is is discovered it’s not something that can be taught because I guess in some ways it’s individual like you said for each person isn’t it yeah and we have a lot of parents like the parents would come me and say oh my child can ride and I’m like oh great oh
But they’re riding on stabilizers I’m like no they don’t know how to write because take the stabilizers off exactly they and in fact um teaching on stabilizers actually takes them longer to get the balance because you have this false sense of balance yes that’s true
So in a way we always tell parents that you the best thing you can do for your kids at a very young age three four years put them on a balance bike let them use their feet yeah yeah yeah and you’ll find that as they walking in it’s
Quite so for you and see the little kids and you have those little feet really moving fast it’s quite and yeah they get it so quickly and the same with yeah same with ads you want to learn get a gentle slope and take the pedals off yeah that makes sense and you’re right
Because that’s true there’s like no fear isn’t there it’s just like yes they they’re going to you know and because I I’ve got you know nephews who’ve had band and they’re just whizzing around whizzing whing around yeah absolutely and it is and I think that’s one of the
Challenges when you when you look at skills of you know when you if you compare skills of you know um women and you know adults who have come later on into cycling to you know kids who had actually were you know were allowed to play with their bikes even if they come
Back later on even if they drop off and they come back later on skill stays but it’s very very hard with adults then to actually you know simple things like cornering skills Tak hand of you know taking your hand hand off the handlebars yes as a child you they’re very
Confident to do it but try and do that with an adult it it actually petrifies them yes you know I’m so glad you said that because even though I I cycle I don’t cycle Often by can but I still um yeah I wouldn’t say I’m confident in
Terms of letting a handle bar go I mean you so I’m going to be joining um probably trying to join whatever session in that you’ve got planned so can you talk a little bit about what is planned with Revolution um in in luttin how maybe might might be the best way people
Can get um involved or or find out more information so I think the credit for revolution goes to you and Yasmin because I remember actually receiving this email from Yasmin a while ago saying oh look you know we’re a club based in you know um revolution in Luton
And we’re really really you know Keen to get women cycling and you know after we met and we kind of went through the through the old idea and then you know she’s been really really determined and you know she finally managed to you know get us all
Together and get our dates sorted and we obviously ran the tasteless session unfortunately I couldn’t make it on that one but um from you know from the coaches who kind of came to help and Katherine who is uh you know the Bri cycling clubs and groups developer who
Was there as well to help you out um yeah it was a really really success session so I think you know the best person perhaps to get in touch with you and Yasmin because I know I know I’m coming down on the 24th of this month to
Um to run another session yes um and I think there is another plan than to run um I believe but you may need to correct me on this but I think we’ve got another four or five sessions that Yasmin has planned yes I think so and I think those
Dates yeah they still just need to be booked in but you’re right 24th of June I I think it’s 10 to 12 at w down Park so yeah the best way would be to maybe get in touch with um um Yasmin or you can there’s a Facebook group as well
That you know people can can find and get in touch or of course you can kind of contact uh me through Inspire FM as well and we can share details um and then what in terms of those sessions so we’ve obviously got you know people signed up you had the tasa session that
You mentioned on the 31st you’ve got this one coming up on the 24th is there anything because obviously you were mentioning this idea of a bike library because I think one thing that maybe we and all in terms of where Revolution are is the need to have potentially people can lend their bikes
You know and um you know where we can maybe borrow them for a couple of sessions um so you know I think that is one thing that you know if if if there are any listeners who are who are tuned in at the moment um if you do have a
Bike maybe that’s just kind of sitting there and the shed or in the garage and you’re not yet using it or if you’re happy to dend it to us please please do get in touch because that would be super super helpful um but obviously on on top
Of that we are hoping as Revolution to you know there’s lots of funding available isn’t there so you know hopefully to get some that kind of support so we can get those resources that are that are needed as well um yeah because um I think because of the Mosin
I was involved in a project in bambury um I think mon MOS in bbery where actually they got a container on site in the mosque and they actually have got bikes there so it would be kind of nice because uh if that is a possibility I mean something that I’m
Really Keen to do is actually have cycle to Juma oh wow yeah because there will be I think you know in a way uh or you know a right out to Juma kind of thing so if this um bikes are available it will be actually and I know I think
There is another Moss that’s actually organize and have a container on site with bikes on it so you know like the seniors and stuff could actually hire it out and just take it for a spin yeah that’s such a yeah such a fantastic idea and I guess it’s another way that you
Know when we say about communities coming together to support each other I guess that’s also we we’re very very we are quite car um you know car in car dependent communities yes um so I know something like cycling would we would take a while but I think if we all kind
Of make little changes and just have this you know and he says doesn’t EOB be I’m not actually travel but just be able to get out and you know and and just exercise um I mean yes ideally it would be fantastic to have you know bike shelters and you know um and containers
In every mosque with bikes uh for adults and kids so we could have like these sessions because with us I think because of you know because of the some barriers we have and you know we like kind of you know especially with women when it comes
For hijab and we need to kind of you know want to pay attention on the areas we’re training in if we are able to facilitate that I think would really be it would be really helpful for our community yeah absolutely and I guess what’s really transformative is the idea
You know like you said that now there is for example um yourself evolve and you know in in newon there’s Revolution and because it’s our own communities you know really leading on that we have that lived experience we understand what the barriers are and we can really work with
Um yeah within with the Muslim Community and say actually you know we understand and we could definitely work around you know whether it’s you know the the in terms of modesty because of our faith and or or whatever you else it might be so you know definitely that’s part that
I I would like to think people can feel that it’s a safe space for them um because that’s one of the things because I work on the diversity and inclusion board you know with uh be with BC and with efl and I’ve always said the diversity has always been top you have
You know you have like the governing bodies like sport England and L Sport and they’re all talking about diversity but it’s been it’s always been a top down kind of uh effort other said that diversity has to come within the communities because we know the community really well we know what works
For us so it has to be in a way that you know we upskill the community we you know we we provide the facility within the community because it’s it’s a comfort blanket the community provides and you know as Muslim communities we are quite nit we’re quite close knit with each
Other yes exactly yes it just makes it a lot you know and I think it gives the project or whatever we’re doing a lot of CH you know a lot of um we can succeed on it yes yeah yeah yeah absolutely insh and I think you know know your your um
You know M your beautiful intention that you had for yourself in terms of your buck list has grown into something so much more and it’s brought so much people on board so you know obviously may Allah you know reward you and may Allah accept all your you know um work
That you’re doing as well and um you know it’s been absolutely wonderful um if it speaking to you today about obviously evolve um about everything to do with with cycling and and some of your favorite books it’s been an absolute pleasure and hopefully we will see you obviously in luten on on the
24th of June and again you can get in touch um with either evolve or revolution to get more information um and yes so I just wanted to say thank you so much thank you very much yeah thanks for having me on and yeah look forward to seeing you all inshah inshah
So that was um if it’s a Johnny she’s the co-founder of evolve and British cycling Road and time trial coach myself I will be back in a couple of weeks in Shah with um a new book and a new guest in the meantime please do keep us in your duas assalam
Alikum thank you for listening to our podcast why not tune in to our live stream at inspire.org and follow And subscribe to our social media platforms at Inspire FM luten