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Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week I spoke to the world championship-winning cyclist Marlon Lee Moncrieffe about his new book, New Black Cyclones: Racism, Representation and Revolutions of Power in Cycling. In the book, Marlon explains why the sport has been historically inaccessible to many Black people, suggests practical solutions, and draws on exciting new models of cycling emerging all over the world. But first, the weekly roundup.
Weekly roundup
Fiery prison protest in Virginia | At least 12 Black men jailed at Virginia’s high-security Red Onion state prison have burned themselves in a protest against “inhumane” conditions, according to reports. The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus described the alleged self-immolations as “desperate cries for help”.
Grenada’s PM talks climate justice | As the international court of justice hears a historic case arguing that a handful of countries are responsible for the climate crisis, Grenada’s prime minister, Dickon Mitchell, has told our Caribbean correspondent, Natricia Duncan, that “even the dead are now victims of climate change” as rising sea levels have forced the Tibeau cemetery into the ocean.
Quirky presidential run in Ghana | As Ghana goes to the polls on Saturday, the independent candidate Nana Kwame Bediako has been parading on social media draped in a lion skin and dressed in Louis Vuitton. Meanwhile, a court has ordered the removal of two imported tigers from his property in Accra.
Jamaicans fight beach sell-off | Members of the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement were back in court last week to contest the Beach Control Act of 1956, a colonial-era law that regulates public access to beaches. Campaigners say the law is discriminatory and prevents Jamaicans from enjoying their own country.
Combs’ ‘refusal’ over ex-partner’s lawsuit | Sean “Diddy” Combs had the opportunity to settle his ex-partner Cassie Venture’s lawsuit privately but declined, setting his public downfall in motion, according to a three-part Law & Crime podcast that debuts today. The music mogul’s trial on sex-trafficking allegations is scheduled to begin in May.
In depth: ‘How can we create our own culture of cycling?’
I lost count of the number of times I told Marlon that I was a rubbish cyclist. I mean, I am, but there was something about talking to a champion of the sport about my love for cycling that made me want to be clear that in no world were we both “cyclists”. He was very gracious. “Why do you keep saying that?” he asked. “Now I want to help you.”
There is no one better placed to do that. Marlon is a former professional cyclist and a national, European and world championships medal winner in track sprint cycling. In 2022, he founded Ubuntu Cycling to help equip young African women to participate in races. I tell him I’m not sure why I have never managed to fulfil my cycling ambitions – that is, to do better than cycling around London on a fixed-gear bike at a snail’s pace, often not wearing a helmet and dancing with death by listening to music on noise-cancelling earphones (don’t do it). The root is cultural, he tells me. For Black people across the world, there is a perception of cycling as a white sport.
“The way in which the sport is known comes through a European imagination,” he says, creating high psychological barriers to entry – even for Black people in the west. This image is built on real inequalities: European countries have had the resources for cycling to thrive. Today, this inequality of access is most stark when it comes to track cycling, which needs venues for training. “In the UK there are six indoor velodromes, six in Australia and six or seven in France,” Marlon says. “But for the entire African continent, there’s just one indoor velodrome, and only one in the Caribbean.”
I can testify to this: there were no venues for cycling when I was growing up in Sudan, I didn’t see many bikes, and there were few roads on which you could cycle safely anyway. Those who want to compete would have to leave their home country, which means they lose the opportunity to raise the profile of the sport in Black countries and expand local participation and investment. “Europe becomes a magnet,” Marlon says, which means that we “forget our own imaginations” and ability to make the sport something local and adapt it to our environments. He adds: “What can we do ourselves to create our own culture of cycling?”
Ideas but no gear
I tell Marlon that one reason I never graduated to a half-decent bike is because bicycle shops in the UK intimidated me. Store owners were snobby or cold when they realised I was a novice, so I just got lost on the shop floor, bewildered with choice, and then left. I remember one owner looked at the bike I was using and laughed, telling me it was for a child. “Bike shops have changed over the years,” Marlon says. Twenty years ago, you would be able to find a range of bikes from £20 to £1,000. But there has since been an influx of new manufacturers, which has raised the cost and technical sophistication of the equipment, he explains.
The bicycles Marlon raced on in the early 2000s were much cheaper. “I bought a bike that was £3,500 that today would cost £20,000,” he says. Regular shops are now trying to sell elite-level bikes, “rather than ones for the everyday person”. On top of that, there’s all the jargon. “There’s a lot of language around bicycles – the components, the gear you have to wear, the protection you might need to use so you don’t get saddle sores. If you’re doing this alone, without friends or as part of a group, it can be intimidating.” Knowing the etiquette and the cultural norms of cycling can make things smoother, which is why Marlon is a big supporter of cycling clubs where those hurdles are managed with others – and professionals can guide newbies like me, who would otherwise feel out of place.
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Breaking barriers to entry
Since the Covid pandemic, Marlon says more Black cycling clubs have been emerging. Now “Black people have a safe space to come into the sport and learn about things like tyre size and how to put pressure in your tyres so you don’t get punctures in the winter. How you need less pressure if it’s raining in the summer, because the heat swells the tyres. There are small little things you need to know.” In that brief summary, I found out more about the maintenance of tyres than I ever did from any bike shop I entered to fix them.
It’s also important to figure out what you want out of the sport, he says. It sounds simple, but he was the first cycling specialist to ask me questions such as: do you want to just cycle around a city? Do you want to race? Do you want to boost your fitness through cycling? Because the answers determine a lot in terms of frame, handlebars and gears. The more flat and urban a place is, the simpler the equipment can be. Marlon says there is an assumption of knowledge that is, in many cases, confined to certain groups. “The spaces I’ve been in – from velodromes, bicycle shops or exhibitions – there weren’t any Black people promoting their brands or creativities. The entire culture, even in magazines, is all white.”
But that is changing, thanks to big grassroots groups such as Black Girls Do Bike, a US-wide network that aims to demystify the world of cycling and “help usher new riders past barriers to entry and into the larger cycling community”. In the UK, there is the Black Cyclists Network, the Black Riders Association, and the Black Unity Bike Ride, an endeavour of movement and togetherness born out of the isolating Covid lockdowns. Across the African continent, there is Marlon’s Ubuntu Cycling and several similar groups such as Critical Mass Nairobi, whose motto is: “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.” In the spirit of creating diverse cultures of cycling, Marlon points to the importance of gravel biking, which is more suitable to countries where there is no road infrastructure, and needs to be invested in to make it a viable and accessible alternative to the sort of smooth road cycling that many associate with high-profile events such as the Tour de France. He calls these options “creating our own cycling utopias”.
Taking ownership
Looking at the pictures and footage from the websites of these groups – and hearing Marlon talk about the importance of incubating cycling cultures in Africa, the Caribbean, the UK and Europe – made me feel energised yet also saddened. Energised because a whole world is opening up to Black cyclists but saddened for my former self, because none of that was available to me when I was starting out.
I tell Marlon that cycling always had a deeper meaning to me – it was about living on my own for the first time, getting to know a new city through its highways and backstreets, and finding a freedom that I never got to experience growing up in cities where a car was requisite. Though he is a cycling champion, some of these reasons were his as well. Fed up with buses and trains, he says, he just got on a bike. I guess we are both cyclists after all.
New Black Cyclones: Racism, Representation and Revolutions of Power in Cycling by Dr Marlon Lee Moncrieffe (Bloomsbury Sport) is available to buy now
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Guardian and Observer journalists who belong to the National Union of Journalists are taking industrial action on December 4 and December 5. Please note that journalists who have written and edited this newsletter did not produce their work on strike days.
