Miles Baker-Clarke talks Cycling Culture Club

Readers of the print edition of BikeBiz will know that April sees the magazine focused on diversity and inclusivity – giving over our platform to those doing the work to expand our cycling world.

Following a conversation at the 2024 BikeBiz Awards, we asked Miles Baker-Clarke if he would be interested in creating a feature for the diversity edition. By now, you’ve likely read this.

In ‘The Diversity Status Quo’ – the opening feature of the April magazine – Miles asked Lindsey Walker, Duke Agyapong, and Jess Morgan, “What is your personal experience of diversity in the cycling industry?”

As the month comes to an end, Miles – Head of Strategy and Creative at Fusion Media – has shared insight into what work outside of work looks like. Here, he introduces the Cycling Culture Club.

I haven’t spoken much about my other hat on LinkedIn, I’m not sure why that is. Some strange leaning towards keeping passion and profession separate. Something that makes increasingly less sense as cycling is my work, it is my passion and diversity – or lack thereof – is a thread that weaves through both facets of my life.

I’m Miles , I’m a person of colour and I am an advocate for increasing diversity in cycling.

It will be no shock for me to say that the lack of diversity in cycling is a problem. For the last year, I’ve been commentating on the topic more and more, writing a little – where I feel I can add something insightful and have made a concerted effort to begin connecting the underrepresented groups in our industry.

Cycling Culture Club is the embodiment of all those efforts, a project close to my heart and a project that is oh so important in this space. If you haven’t heard of it, CCC is a space designed to bring people from underrepresented groups together, to connect, share their stories and ultimately help to diversify cycling.

The website, the socials, the podcast are all part of the growing ecosystem of platforms designed to show faces that are seldom seen in vertical cycling media.

It’s fairly early days, I’m learning as I go, doing everything in my spare time with my own money, but that’s such a common story for any community interest group. It’s super important to me, my own diversity is an intrinsic part of my identity and I love talking about it. If you would like to hear more, let’s chat, otherwise jump on the site, give us a follow on Instagram and have a listen to the podcast. All feedback, welcome.

Thanks to all who have expressed interest so far, it means a lot.

This Friday, I’ll host the very first organised meet up at Traka in Girona, encouraging the riders who have descended upon the Catalan cycling haven to share a coffee and a chat in the name of making more people feel represented in our sport. If you’re in town, pop to Rocacorba Cycling ‘s Atelier at 9 for a ride, or 11.30 for coffee ☕

Thanks Raoul de Jongh for the space, and Alexa Cunningham for the intro.

If you’ve got this far, thank you!

Image credit Jake Armstrong