Cycling / Lunar Cycles
The cycling club reclaiming roads for women and gender minorities
The simple but vital conundrum of being able to go for a wee in private during a club ride was the final straw for Rosie Wilson.
“They all lined up literally on the side of the road for two minutes, and I was like, that doesn’t work for me,” she recalls. “There was no thought at all that it might be more complicated as a woman.”
Rosie was out cycling in the countryside as part of a club mostly made up of male riders.
A confident road and commuter cyclist, clubs motivated her to go on rides during harsh winters and saved the hassle of route planning, but her patience was wearing thin.
Cycling UK recently found more than half of women believed their cycle journeys were limited by safety concerns and a lack of suitable infrastructure – photo: Lunar Cycles
“There just wasn’t much representation of people like me,” said Rosie, the founder of a cycling club for women and gender minorities.
“And eventually I got sick of the lack of visibility and the mansplaining, once to the point where I had a man insist on changing the height of my saddle when it was perfectly comfortable.”
Rosie said experiences like these at clubs were common and, despite her love for cycling, over the years, made her feel patronised and “ground down”.
Even when she felt respected as a cyclist and blended with the peloton, Rosie felt pressure to keep as the only woman, “not wanting to be the stereotype of a woman who’s holding them up”.
“It’s almost like you have to represent your whole gender and be fast to prove that women can do this as well,” she added.
In the UK, women typically make up only a fifth of cycling club membership which are often perceived as intimidating due to a male-dominated culture and a focus on speed and competition.
Men vastly outnumber women in the saddle day-to-day too: 75 per cent of cycling trips are made by men and less than ten per cent of women cycle at least once a week, compared with 21 per cent of men.
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“I didn’t want to cycle in a club anymore, or at least a club like that,” said Rosie.
“But I thought there must be other women and folk identifying as part of a gender minority who feel like this too. So I set up my own five years ago.”
At the time, options for women were generally beginner initiatives, and Rosie identified “a real gap”for those wanting to cycle “decent distances, relatively fast sometimes”.
Lunar Cycles offers rides for different fitness levels, from 50-60km hybrid rides to longer 70 to 100km road bike rides traversing Bristol’s surrounding country lanes starting from St George’s Park.
No one gets dropped, hills are taken at your own pace and there’s always a stop for coffee and cake.
The aim: to provide a safe space for women and gender minorities and challenge male dominance in cycling.
What started as a WhatsApp group has spread by word of mouth into a fully-fledged organisation with 250 members and dozens of rides each year.
“I knew there was a need because I craved something like this, but I didn’t realise just how popular it would be and that so many people were keen to join,” Rosie said, speaking about the club’s growth.
“We have had a lot of really positive feedback saying that if we didn’t exist, they wouldn’t cycle as part of a club and that it’s helped them in their lives to meet people and build their confidence after being in an accident or having some time off the bike.”
But, she added, it is also frustrating that so many have had similar negative experiences in typical clubs or while cycling in everyday lives.
“It’s quite powerful to see a group of women on the road because it’s unfortunately still not something we’re used to seeing.
“On our rides, there is always something, from someone either telling us that we shouldn’t cycle double to drivers making sexualised comments. It all just shows us that we don’t have the same right to be on the road as men.”
Rosie said the club has also been the target of complaints from some men who believe the existence of the club is sexist because they cannot join.
“Comments like that make me laugh because men have access to every other cycle club, and they wouldn’t really want to join anyway, but the entitlement is frustrating.
“But it just reminds me of what we are fighting for and proves again and again why we need this space.”
One of Rosie’s proudest moments was recently receiving funding from Sport England. This has helped the club to become more accessible, with the money going to buy spare bikes and equipment, as well as train ride leaders.
She explained: “A huge barrier to getting into cycling is the costs of our new bikes, which means people who wouldn’t normally have the means are able to try the sport out for free.
Lunar Cycles is currently setting itself up as a Community Interest Company which will hopefully bring about more funding in the future.
The vision is that Lunar Cycles continues to grow and attract more members so that more women and gender minorities can enjoy the thrills of cycling.
Main photo: Lunar Cycles
This article appears in Bristol24/7’s January/February 2026 magazine
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