Ahhhh.
By the time Nella finishes this, I probably will be 33.
Shut up you’re stupid, spell 33.
Never again. I could taste blood in my mouth.
I’m Nella.
I’m Harry.
And we’re out here meeting Black people slaying it in their lane
‘Cause you know we do that.
Harry!
Finally, you’re here.
How are you?
I’m good, I’m good, you know what.
I’m excited to see what you’ve got planned for us today.
Well what is your views… on cycling?
It was fun when I was younger, because it was like, you know your friends would come knock for you,
and then you’ll grab your bike and then you’d go play out. [Mode of transport - bikes]
Exactly fam I had no whip, I had no car - that was my bike
The main reason why I brought you here is I’ve got a challenge for us
No.
Yes.
My answer’s no.
I’m going to take you to a velodrome in Herne Hill, and we are going to learn how to cycle.
Have you ever watched the Olympics and you see them going round fast with the skinny skinny skinny…
yeah yeah yeah, all of that stuff, I thought let’s take it to another level.
You’re probably thinking, who are these people that’s gonna be training us…
they’re called the Black Cyclists’ Network. You put it together it’s B… C...
… N.
There you go.
Cap. Black people don’t cycle.
I spoke to a guy called Mani and that’s who we’re going to go and meet.
His main thing is about you know, highlighting the fact that there is room for Black people
to be there and I think that’s part of the reason why I thought this would be great for us.
Oh my god exciting stuff.
Hi guys!
Ay ay ay ay ay. My people dem!
How are you bro?
I’m good, I’m good.
Nice to meet you.
Welcome. Welcome to Herne Hill.
Thank you. [Look at them man]
This is very professional.
Yes, is very professionelle. He’s very profesionelle.
So we’ve been running for, just over like three years.
When you get into cycling you find out very quickly that
it’s a very sort of white, male-dominated sport.
Yeah, I don’t really see Black people cycling like…
unless we cycling away from some sh*t.
[Laughing]
We gotta go. We gotta go.
You know what it is? We’re just, we’re just trying to increase diversity within the sport.
Black Cyclists Network was a way for us to sort of welcome in riders of colour.
Do you see right here?
Yeah man, black power. In the building.
So in regards to like, you know, the professional stuff like you know, Tour De France...
Tour de France.
Tour de France. Do you see like a lot of representation from Black people?
There’s a massive lack of representation.
In the Tour de France last year there was only one Black rider.
Whoa.
Why do you think that there’s not a lot of Black people like yourself creating teams for us to compete in?
It starts with like, grassroots, you know, making sure that you fund grassroots projects
that's out there promoting cycling within minority communities because
if you’re not doing that then you’re not going to get the talent coming through.
Little birdy told me that one of these bikes is £10k.
Ten thousand quid.
Ten thousand pounds. Sterling.
Not one not two not three...
Ten.
Ten of those.
But even like the attire, like how much would the shoes cost you?
What I’m wearing here is like a £300 shoe.
I would wear them.
Yeh definitely.
I’ve got some garms for you.
Oh Mani… Mani the great.
Oh god get him in leggings. [I'm ready]
No boxer shorts, no underwear.
So man has to be naked underneath there?
Nella, this one’s for you. Harry that one's for you and that’s for Nella.
This thing has a bunda, do you see this?
Are you sure that’s not for me?
No no that’s for Nella.
Oh this is for you?
Yeah.
[Laughter]
Alright. So wait, hold on hold on.
Don’t worry you don’t have to wear it on its own like that, you can put a top over it
Yeah, I don’t know about this you know.
So, now you’ve got the equipment you’re going to go through some drills - bike handling, technique,
all that kind of stuff. And we’re going to jump into a challenge at the end.
Let’s go.
Okay, now that we’ve got the gear, you know we’re
ready to take it to another level. How are you all feeling?
Confidante.
Oh he’s French now.
[Laughter]… you’re both cyclistes.
Well I’m nervous as hell guys, I thought this was going to feel like a normal bike,
but the tyres are different, the height of this seat is different.
Yeah, you know say me scared.
So what you’ve got now is a road bike, it’s got that road bike aggressive geometry,
which means that you’re going to be in an aero position, and you’re going to go fast.
We’re talking about 20 miles per hour. And one of the key things that makes you
go fast is cleats and the clipless pedals. We have this ratchet system...
Ratchet?
He said it’s ratchet.
Damn.
You have these special cleats that you put underneath your shoe. It locks your foot to the pedals.
And the way you remove your feet is, you do that. That kind of action.
Do you know what that reminds me of? Azonto.
Do you wanna point your toes a little bit and you wanna
flick that up, and you wanna get that in the nook, and then press down.
I wanna get in you now.
There we go, let’s work on the right foot first
Do you wanna have a go Nella before we hit the track?
Hit what track? I’m not hitting this track, oh my god.
Just bring yourself back a little bit for me.
So, in, click.
Boom, did you hear that click?
I heard the click.
She’s got it.
And then…
Your left foot.
Left foot up. [Yeah!]
How do we unclip?
Like that.
Got it. Alright, so I think we’re ready to roll.
We are.
We’ve got a nice little slalem here, and I want you go round the cones,
and then exit through those two white cones, and come back here
And how do you expect me to do that?
How come you’re using trainers?
Because, guys I couldn’t clip and unclip properly…
so for my health and my safety, I decided to wear my trainers
Right, so who’s going to go first now?
I think I’ll go first.
Yeah yeah yeah.
Ahhh. Eh he. Oh goddamnit.
Just focus on clipping in first before you go round the first bend.
Good job. Go wide and then come in. [Don’t hurt yourself old man]
Go wide and come in yeah?
Start wide, then cut in.
Excellent.
Azonto.
Ok so Nella I think it’s time for you to go.
Ahh. Yeh!
Go wide.
God. [Screams]
So by the time Nella finishes this, I probably will be 33.
Shut up you’re stupid, spell 33.
She’s making good progress
Yeah she is.
Ahhhh. It’s not turning. I feel like I’m gonna fall. I feel like I’m gonna fall.
Start wide, and then dip.
Wide again, and then come in.
Hey.
Amazing… now that’s what we’re talking about.
We’re going to be doing a sprint - so do a three quarters of a lap to warm up,
and when you get to that white line, which is the 200m mark,
sprint as fast as you can and cross the line. Let’s go.
Keep an eye on the 200m mark [oops]
When you hear me call, you start the sprint, okay?
I feel like you’re going to fall into me!
This looks like a western standoff right now… I think you can go a little bit faster guys
They’re laughing at us you know.
We’re getting closer to the sprint line.
I can’t see it though. [It's there]
3… 2… 1… Sprint!
[Cheering]
Yesssss. Yessss!
There you go.
Yessss!
Guys, I’m never cycling again. That was so hard. I let him win.
Thank you all to the fans who are watching me… all 16 people.
This is going to be a hot pursuit, so very similar to what
we just did, except this time you’re going to have the
front marker, we’re going to give Nella a head start...
Oh?
Nella’s at a disadvantage, look at those nails. It’s not conducive to bike riding.
So Nella’s gonna start from here, you’re going to be starting from that 200m mark -
whoever comes round first, crosses that white line first, wins this challenge.
OK. Cool.
How do you feel about it.
You’re putting him 200m behind me?
It’s a sabotage but Nella listen, I’m here to make you look better.
That’s fine. So I think I’m gonna… I’m pretty confident about this one.
Okay athletes. Nella, Harry. 3… 2… 1…[inaudible]
Come on Harry, go go. Pick up the speed. Head down.
Push push push. Not long to go, oh my goodness.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Nella’s taken it by a second.
That was an amazing race.
Champion.
Quite frankly I feel like I just want to go to sleep and stay in my bed for the rest of my life.
I lost to someone who’s great so no shame at all. I’m lying - absolutely fuming.
3… 2… 1… BCN!
We’ve now come to the end, so, can I get a round of applause to our silver medalist please?
Harry, please you can now step to the stage. [Cheering]
And finally… to our winner! [Cheering]
I was given a head start. It did give me a bit of an ego boost. But I do still feel horrible.
I think the Black Cyclists’ Network is very important because it’s going to give
a lot of people inspiration to actually try and take this sport seriously.
A lot of people have probably been blackballed and there’s not a lot of entries from,
you know, the black community and I think this is, a massive organisation that needs a lot of support, so yeah.
Hopefully a lot of people look at this and say you know what, I want to follow them.
This is not something that’s obviously…
it’s not easy to do. And we learnt the hard way obviously…
when you didn’t use the cleat dem, for your trainers yeah...
The cleat dem?
The cleat dem, I thought yeah okay cool, that’s gonna be easy for me, but you proved me wrong man.
Today’s been fun man.
This has been good. The highlight was when I absolutely dismantled you on the sprint.
Do you know why?
Why?
‘Cause you’re a bad B and you got thunder thighs, that’s why you beat me.
No, that's not true.
And everyone knows you got a BBL. Secret’s out.
It’s been good Nella, speaking to you, I’m going to probably go that way. Until next time.
Until next time.
So who’s buying dinner bruv?
Do you think I’m stepping anywhere on a pavement with you dressed like that?
You got another thing coming.