Featured image: Man Down Media

Grace Inglis is a competitive and professional mountain biker from Scotland. Recognised as a rising star in mountain biking, Grace holds an impressive record of national podiums and victories. After her summer debut in world-level XCO racing, she is aiming for the next big leap in her career. We speak to Grace ahead of Manchester’s Lights Up Night-Time bike ride promoting safer, more inclusive cycling in our city.

Can you tell us about how you got into cycling?

I really got into cycling while I was at university in 2016 or 2017. Initially my motivations were to keep fit and get involved in the social side of uni. I wanted to join a sports club to meet people, and it was great for that. I was doing road cycling at that point – just for fun! After uni, I moved down to Newcastle and met my partner, Joe. He was really into mountain biking and cross-country racing and he got me into that. When we moved in together in 2021 I got my first mountain bike and loved it!

I’ve been mountain biking ever since. I was always into adrenaline sports as a kid and I really like snowboarding so it’s weird I never got into mountain biking when I was younger. But everyone I knew who had a mountain bike then was a boy – so I saw it as a boy’s thing.

Have there been any gender-specific problems that you encountered as a cyclist?

I’ve been racing in World Cups and when you go to those, the field is 70 or 80 riders, but in the UK the participation is much smaller in the women’s fields. You don’t really get the race experience. When you’re racing in the UK you’re racing against 10 or 15 people and that doesn’t really prepare you for taking it to the next level and racing against four times that many people. I’m thinking about doing cycle-cross races in the open category so I can get experience of racing more people.

Is there anything specific that you do to keep yourself safe as a cyclist?

Wearing bright clothing when I’m on the roads and if it’s dark using lights. I guess it’s more of a mountain bike thing, but if I’m going out by myself to ride trails, I’ll put my location on WhatsApp for Joe in case something happens. I might do that too if I was riding at night in the city. When I lived in the city I would never ride home through the park because it wasn’t lit. I would go as fast as I possibly could to get home. Waiting at traffic lights in the dark, you’d be super-aware of who was around you. We need more clubs for women. That was the reason I got into it, for the social aspect.

How do you stay empowered to cycle in a sport that is heavily represented by men? How could we spread this encouragement to the everyday city cyclist in Manchester?

I think a lot of it does come down to seeing people like you do it and if you can’t watch females racing then it’s not very inspiring. The Tour de France is massive and everyone knows about it, but then the Tour de France Femme is much less well known and much shorter and it doesn’t get the same coverage.

Where I live there are cross-country training sessions for high school kids and people just turn up. I’ve been going along to them, partly for myself because I’m quite new to it and just to help out there. Last year there was one girl who came along sometimes and then she stopped – and it was just all boys. It’s such a shame because if you’re the only girl then you’re going to get a bit put off. Then everybody starts thinking that it’s a boys’ sport, and girls stop being interested in doing that.

What makes a good cycling city?

Definitely bike lanes! The ability to get around the city without having to share the road with cars. In the Netherlands the bike lanes are separate and separated by a wide kerb. You can go for miles on them and there’s no chance you’re going to get knocked off. A lot of the bike lanes in this country are rubbish because they’re part of the roads – just painted on. What is the point? Separate bike lanes would encourage people because then they wouldn’t have to be on the road.