Roll Models Part 1: The Introductions and Intentions Interview
Interview by Chris Hunt
A conversation with Athlyn Cathcart-Keays and Cordelia Hughes about their new mentorship programme Roll Models, empowering women and marginalised genders to ride adventurously.
As indicators of participation in cycling go, events and races are a pretty good place to start. And lining up at almost any event you’ll see the same faces taking up the vast majority of spots. To borrow a phrase, it’s largely male, pale and stale.
Of course there are pockets of intent to broaden participation; shout-outs for the likes of Lost Dot, All Points North and The Ultra Distance Scholarship, to name a few organisations putting in the work. But there’s far more to it than simply flattening the final barriers to entry. Getting there is often years in the making, reliant on seeds of interest, nurtured to fruition by our communities, creating a sense of capability, autonomy and belonging.
If we can instil those principles in under-represented groups at starting lines, then perhaps we’ll no longer need to specifically allocate those spaces. Perhaps they’ll even be competed for.
Amidst the well-established adventure cycling scene in Bristol, Roll Models is a brand new mentorship programme empowering women and marginalised genders to ride, as they define it, 'adventurously, independently, and on their own terms'. Founded by Athlyn Cathcart-Keays and Cordelia Hughes, Roll Models pairs mentees with mentors who are experienced bikepackers or cycle tourers, offering the resources and support needed for pairs to get connected and get out riding together, building community in the process.
Kicking off a three-part series following their inaugural cohort through the year, I caught up with Athlyn and Cordelia not long after they identified their first mentors and mentees and set out their intentions for the year ahead.
How long has it been in the making and where did you get the inspiration?
Athlyn: While living in BC, Canada a few years ago, I was involved in a programme called Mountain Mentors, geared towards supporting marginalised genders to explore 'backcountry' activities – ski touring, mountaineering, hiking – through mentorship. I started off as a mentee on the ski programme, and then gave back to the programme the following summer as a hiking and climbing mentor.
I got so much out of being part of Mountain Mentors – confidence building, friendship, skills development, delicious camp meal ideas – and spent a lot of time thinking about how something like this would be so useful in the cycling community back in Bristol.
I often find myself filling a sort of mentor role with friends who want to start adventuring by bike, so Roll Models is my attempt to formalise and bring intention to this – I’d been mulling the idea over for a while. After meeting so many inspiring people while riding the Adventure Syndicate's inaugural Tour de Farce and hearing how they’ve started incredible cycling initiatives from scratch, I thought what am I waiting for?, and launched the idea out into the world. Cordelia and I connected, and the rest is history…
So how do you guys come to meet?
Cordelia: We met on a Monday Night local off-road group in Bristol called Trails and Ales. We had some good chats but didn't get to know each other super well, and only properly connected later over Instagram, after being intrigued by each other's adventures.
Athlyn reached out with the Roll Models idea she had been brewing, and we met up to discuss it on an unbelievably sunny October ride. We pretty much got it off the ground from there, and started to get everything in place to launch applications in January 2025 to get things rolling by spring and the promise of sunny adventures.
A: After meeting Cordelia on that ride, I followed her GBDuro training and race journey. Inspired by her ethos and approach, I felt like we'd have a lot in common with the way we do things. I also saw her as a bit of a role model who I could chat to about scratching the ultra-racing itch myself, so I reached out! We had such a great chat on that sunny ride in October that we left a cafe without paying. We did return later to pay, of course!
And what is the issue Roll Models is trying to tackle, and the long-term intention of the programme?
C: On the whole, we know that the cycling community and bikepacking space is mostly male, and it's quite rare to see other genders out bikepacking unaccompanied by a male partner or friend. We've been trying to root out what the barriers are in the bikepacking space for women and marginalised genders, and we've collected many practical barriers and fears from our cohort so far – for example, not being able to keep up with others, a lack of knowledge on bike repairs.
I feel the underlying reason we let these barriers get in the way of our adventures is that we are structurally led to believe that we're not strong enough, not brave enough, and not able to figure things out on our own. I certainly didn’t grow up believing I could fix a broken bike, or anything broken for that matter; and I also didn’t grow up believing that it was safe for me to roam the streets alone. My mother is a strong, responsible, fiercely and financially independent woman; but I think she has been very unsettled by the thought of any of my lone adventures, rather than pushing me to be hardy and independent.
I think we’re much more likely to break down barriers with a supportive community around us than alone. This is where Roll Models fits – to intentionally support one another and create a community directly focused on those traditionally missing in these spaces.
A: Though Roll Models is just one small project in Bristol, the community we hope to create is representative of what we want the wider outdoor community to look and feel like – a diverse, supportive and encouraging space where everyone is welcomed.
We hope that some mentees who go through this programme come out the other side feeling that they have the confidence and knowledge to share with someone else and perhaps even become mentors in the future! We hope that mentors realise that there is so much value in what they know and build their own confidence through sharing; we hope that the whole cohort feel connected and supported to explore adventurously, independently, and on their own terms; and that the wider cycling community hear our stories and reflect on what needs to shift.
Who might benefit from the programme and who is it open to?
A: We launched applications for the first ever Roll Models cohort in January, and received 70 applications from women and marginalised genders to be either a mentor, or a mentee on the programme. We’ll run this first cohort until September 2025, and if all goes well, we’ll go again in 2026.
A mentee is someone who wants to get into bikepacking or touring, and a mentor is someone who perhaps already has a few trips under their belt and are looking to share that knowledge and psyche with others. While there were a huge range of goals, in general, folks were most keen to build confidence in the space, either by learning new skills, or sharing with others – this was true across both mentees and mentors.
The thing that really struck me was how many mentors questioned whether they knew enough or had the right kind of experience to be part of the programme. For example, I spoke to someone who told me that because their navigation skills weren’t dialled in, they didn't think they knew enough to mentor someone else. This person has spent years bike touring across Mongolia, Cuba and most of Europe! This obviously loops back to Cordelia’s point about the beliefs that underpin and keep these barriers in place – that we’re not strong, brave or knowledgeable enough.
Roll Models has an ethos that everyone has something to learn, and everyone has something to share, and this conversation was a real reminder of how much a mentor can get out of this programme too – we hope that everyone can find confidence and grow together as a pair.
C: When we opened applications, we said you don’t need to be a super-fast cyclist or technical off-road rider to be a mentor, you just need to feel excited about the idea of sharing whatever experience you have.
The mentors I've been lucky to meet are adventurers – they're cycle tourers, they're both off-road and road riders. They're funny people with very funny stories to share about cycling, and some of them needed a little encouragement to acknowledge the amount of experience they truly have.
The whole programme really rests on the fact that mentors are willing to give their wisdom, skills and time to others, and benefit from that experience in return.
So what stage are you at with it so far?
C: We whittled those 70 applicants down to a wonderful cohort of 38 people. These 19 pairs have been connected, and are setting goals and intentions to get out adventuring together for the summer ahead.
To kick the whole thing off, we recently hosted a launch event bringing together as many as we could. We got to know each other a bit more, introduced the programme properly in-person, and ran some workshop activities to tease out ideas, expectations and needs from the group. Tailfin also being Bristol-based hosted us in their space for this event. As Roll Models is currently a non-funded project, we’re really grateful for this sort of support, which allowed us to come together and get to know each other properly. We were lucky enough to have caring facilitation support from Amy and Poppy from the Tailfin team, as well as Jess from Loop Bikepacking, and Cass who was also involved in Mountain Mentors.
A: We are just a small project in Bristol, but we hope that the community we are creating and the ethos we are embodying is representative of what we want wider outdoor spaces and communities to look and feel like: welcoming, diverse, supportive and encouraging spaces where everyone is welcome. We acknowledge that gender is only part of a wide range of the diversity picture, and this is something we hope to address before embarking on another cohort.
As the weather gets warmer and the cohort gets out adventuring together, it's so exciting to see people connecting and sharing/learning in new ways together – we hope to share more stories with the world as we go.