The Ultra Distance Scholarship is “an initiative designed to help make our sport more welcoming for people who have typically felt excluded”. It was set up at the end of 2020 and is the brainchild of Taylor Doyle, a Canadian bike addict who works for Stayer Cycles, who are the host of the scholarship. We recently chatted with Taylor and Alison Wood, a performance coach who owns Veloqi and whose role it is to help coach, inspire and motivate the participants in the scholarship, to find out more about the background, how the project works and what their plans are for the future.

“The wonderful world of cycling is not an inviting and accessible one for everyone”

Taylor started by telling us about the genesis of the UDS. “It started during the ‘Black Square’ summer of 2020 (a term originally coined by actor and writer Kelechi Okafor) at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests across the world. It was in response to the cries for inclusivity and diversity and for people in the cycling industry to take action and to make positive change in cycling communities" She continued “I wanted to contribute and to do something that was actually tangible. I don’t really know exactly where the idea for the scholarship came from, but I took inspiration from the SJBrooks Scholarship in the USA that is run by the Radical Adventure Riders. As someone who works in the bike industry, I knew who to ask to support new riders who wanted to try ultra-distance riding. All areas of cycling in the UK need more diversity, but I was specifically interested in the ultra-distance space as it’s predominantly white at the minute and has plenty of other barriers too”.

“My hope with the scholarship was that it would show people in the bike industry that it’s not actually that hard to make positive changes and to use the resources that you already have. There’s so much good intention out there, but a lot of people don’t actually know what they can do to help.” Alison added “One single person can’t change the whole system, but Taylor has picked one specific area that she was able to take meaningful action in. If we have lots of different people in all kinds of areas in the cycling industry all doing their bit to focus energy on changing one specific thing, then it’s going to have a ripple effect.”

“The scholarship is now bigger than I ever expected it to become.”

For 2022, the scholarship provides three riders from underrepresented backgrounds with a Stayer bike, coaching from Alison, mentorship from a top-level ultra-racer and a variety of kit from Wizard Works, Albion, Outdoor Provisions and Wahoo. The aim for the scholarship is for the riders to take part in the 2022 GBDuro event, so they have also been given a guaranteed place in the event.

We talked about the decision-making process behind selecting which riders should be chosen for the scholarship. Alison told me “We learnt a lot last year [the first year that the scholarship ran] and we took what we learned from that and applied it this year to find the kind of people that we were looking for. We had to consider their economic status, their physiology and their mindset. We had a whole set of questions that we designed to find those people that we thought would benefit the most. We had around 70 applicants for the 2022 scholarship, so selecting just three was difficult”. Taylor continued "The decision making committee this year consisted of Alison and the three mentors, Anisa Aubin, Nathaniel Williams, and Vera Ngosi-Sambrook, a former alumni of the scholarship."

The three chosen scholars came from a mix of backgrounds. Aandy and Zara were already dedicated cyclists whereas Carla comes from an outdoor and ultra-distance running background but wasn’t an experienced cyclist.

"Now I just have to get them physically, mentally and emotionally prepared for a 2000km off-road event!”

Next, we talked about the aims of the project. Alison started with impressive understatement and said “I’ve just got to get the riders onto the start line and then to the finish line. Taylor has arranged GBDuro entries for each of them, so that’s what the riders are going to be training for this year. I started working with them in December and have produced personalised training programmes for them. Now I just have to get them physically, mentally and emotionally prepared for a 2000km off-road event!"

She continued "I successfully coached Vera for the PCR last year please. I also coached another client, Alice from the Adventure Syndicate, for GBDuro 2021, in which she finished third woman, plus another client for a 1500km ride. I've gained a lot of experience coaching people for ultra distance events and will be focusing on this specific discipline now. All my current clients are training for long distance events and 80% of them are women or non binary cyclists, which is hopefully a reflection of the growing number of marginalised demographics inspired to enter the ultra distance world"

“GBDuro was selected in a ‘Go big or go home’ spirit” added in Taylor “but the scholarship is evolving as it moves forward, so maybe we will change our goals in the future. I have total confidence in the scholars’ abilities and in Alison’s abilities as a coach. My original vision was that the race would change every year, but GBDuro was a really good fit ethos-wise”. Alison chipped in here “It was heart breaking that we had so many exceptional applicants, but we could only choose three. So, what we also did is select five other short-listed applicants and I’m also working with them as a coach to help them prepare for some of the smaller ‘Duro’ events”

Taylor expanded on the practicalities of the UDS “The scholars receive different kinds of support in addition to the coaching – there’s a mentorship aspect to it this year. Vera who was one of the alumni of last year’s UDS is now one of the mentors for example. It’s important to have a mentor, because there are so many psychological and mental health needs and having someone who has similar experiences to you to talk to is really helpful and is one of the lessons we learned from the first year of the UDS. The other thing we’ve done this time is to actively compensate the mentors who are supporting the UDS scholars.”

I asked Taylor and Alison what impact the first running of the UDS had on the under-represented communities they were trying to target “Vera helped immensely with getting the word out” replied Alison ”She is an amazing storyteller on social media“ continued Taylor “and after she smashed the Pan Celtic last year, I know specific people that she inspired to venture into long distance and ultradistance riding because of her. That’s pretty magical!”

"We hope that the scholarship can expand and accommodate more people, but also that it can grow as a way of starting more conversations as well.”

We finished off by talking about the future “At the minute we’re just taking it a year at a time “ said Taylor “We’re going to keep it UK-based, but we had so many enquiries from people outside of the UK talking about how they wish there was something like this near them, so it would be amazing if once the scholarship is polished and is able to function on its own as a well-oiled machine, we would love to produce some kind of resource or skeleton of how it functions, so that it can be replicated elsewhere. That would be a great future. We also hope that the scholarship can expand and accommodate more people, but also that it can grow as a way of starting more conversations as well.”

If you would like to contribute to the funds that the Ultra Distance Scholarship can draw from, you can make a donation on the UDS page of the Stayer Cycles website - https://www.stayercycles.com/ultra-distance-scholarship/