Oct 31, 20212 min read

Chase the Last Long Days

The one where an Instagram story from Chris Hall ended up being a thing (that wasn't a "thing") where over fifty cyclists of all shapes, sizes, genders, ages, colours and kinds completed an epic 275km two day ride across the country on the Way of the Roses, together.

When Chris idly asked if anyone fancied taking on the Way of the Roses, we jumped at the chance to join him and raise some money for Women's Aid and Movember - (we're well over £5,000 raised now, but that's another story) - and a late October attempt on the last two days before the clocks went back was born. We called it "Chase the Last Long Days".

But between our Tobes and Chris, that's a lot of white, middle aged, straight, male cycling experience so we got in touch with our friends at The Steezy Collective and they agreed to bring a whole different vibe to the gig. Party Pace, plenty snacks and third way for those cis and trans women (as well as non-binary people comfortable in a space centring the experiences of women) that wouldn't normally be enthused by the sadly all too familiar choice of "fast or not quite so fast probably-mostly men's group" options.

What we ended up with was a rainbow. A glorious rainbow of people achieving amazing things together in a unified, positive and supportive space. There were so many firsts in each of the groups led by Chris, Tobes and Kitty, Tay, Alice and Charlotte from Steezy - from first group rides, first centuries (metric and imperial!), first night rides, to first consecutive big days and more. It was an awesome two days that photos don't do justice to. But here's a bunch of photos to try and tell the story!