Pressure for Progress
My journey into professional cycling has come with many ups and downs. Trying to forge a pathway to the Women’s World Tour without any sort of road map was honestly equal parts frustrating and confusing. I stayed the course and went with the flow with the hope that once I reached my goal, things would be less complicated. I could not have been more wrong.
The past two years have been among the hardest I’ve experienced, and the ones before it weren’t easy. That being said, being open and honest about this experience has always been important to me. As the first African American woman to ever do this, I’ve always hoped to leave some sort of followable breadcrumb trail for other women of color that want to do it too.
It’s so easy to talk about things when you’re doing well. It’s so much scarier to talk about your vulnerabilities in moments of insecurity. I usually don’t mind sharing those parts of myself, although the pandemic combined with my health troubles sent me into a hermit-like state. I felt seen in ways I didn’t prefer, I lost my confidence, and in many ways, I also lost myself. Thankfully, through all of it, I never lost my motivation.
Just before I got the call that I earned myself a trainee spot on a world tour team, I’d put together the groundwork for a new program called Thee Abundance Mini Grant. I wanted to send a handful of women of color to the Tour of America’s Dairyland and let them try bike racing with no strings attached. Their only objective was to try it. Three years later, this program has blossomed into, The Abundance Project, a lovely community with multiple grant programs, virtual events, composite teams, support systems, and friends.
A direct product of Thee Abundance Project is Rachel Parker, who started as a Novice racer with that original handful of women who applied just to try bike racing. She’s now a Category 2 elite woman, racing with the pro women around America. Maize Wimbush and Azyra Franklin have been racing for nearly as long as I have. They are two teenage girls from Maryland who have been dedicated to bike racing since they were about 9 years old. While they’ve always had a strong support system locally, it has been my joy to support them in small ways over the years and cheer from the sidelines.
Thee Abundance Project has provided me with motivation through the tough times. Seeing these women and girls find their own way through the ranks of road racing in America, and also Europe, has kept me going in the darkest times.
Last December I brought Rachel, Maize, and Azyra to Girona, Spain to train with me for a few days. I also wanted to make a time capsule of this moment in all of our journeys. I know in a few years we’ll all look back on that week and fully understand how special it was that we were able to share that experience together.
Thank you to Rachel, Maize, Azyra, Will, Devin, Sir Colin, Jen, and Teniel for helping make the week run as smoothly as possible. I hope you enjoy our film.