The organiser of a community cycling group has said this week’s Tour of Britain women’s race can inspire more Muslim women to get onto wheels.
Shabana Seedat set up Spokes Sisters in 2023, after she noticed Muslim women who wanted to cycle did not feel confident enough to start, but she says high profile women’s races are “empowering”.
Lancashire welcomed the Tour of Britain women’s cycling race to the county for the first time on Wednesday, with stage two passing through more than 70 miles (about 113km) from Clitheroe to Blackpool.
Seedat, 42, said: “Seeing these events does encourage myself and my fellow Muslim women to go out there and do some more cycling.”
She added: “We’ve started to do a lot of inclines in the hills, so that has pushed us to do that.”
Muslim women are underrepresented in cycling, but Seedat believes her group shows the sport is not “limited to others” and believes “the bike lane is for everyone, and we’re here to prove it”.
Seedat, who started cycling during the Covid-19 pandemic, realised a barrier for some women was actually owning and storing a bike, so she applied for funding from Cycling UK last year to procure some bikes and store them.