because I know that I’m protected by the infrastructure. But it’s really good like, if I had to recommend someone a route, I definitely start them off here and you can get as far as Shipley, Saltaire, Leeds, it gives you a really long route.

Yeah, like getting thrown into a road makes me quite nervous... or you don’t have the additional pressure of having to think as hard of the dangers when there’s a separation. You still have to be aware, but you know that there’s that barrier? Which yeah, for a beginner, this is just perfect. It’s really comfortable. It doesn’t feel like you’re on the road, does it?

Yeah, when I was younger, I used to only cycle very rarely, when I’m young, I mean about eight or nine. I’m only, I’m 20 right now. But when I was younger, I used to cycle very occasionally, just on my street, you know, as kids do up or down the street, but I never really branched out. And it was only this last October in lockdown, where I decided to update my bike. And then it was in November, where I found out about this opportunity in Bradford, which is called The Jump. And it’s basically it’s like a project that’s created by the Bradford Youth Service. And it’s a project to train 16 to 25 year olds to become sports and leadership coaches, sports and activity leaders. And so I started doing that in November, I’m still doing that, that should like, at the moment, we’re just in the final stages of our training. And with that, I told them that my area of interest was running and cycling. They provided me loads of opportunities to be able to practice. And this summer, we’re going to do our British Cycling class. So, that should be really good.

…So, doing that with them has given me the opportunity to be able to pick up cycling, I don’t think I would have known where to start if I did it myself [laughs]. Because it’s quite a big area, isn’t it? And I was just always so nervous. I, when I saw cycling, people cycling on the road, it seems to me like something that people who are experienced or are more of a higher class did, because it’s expensive, like buying all the equipment, and where do you get the lessons from? And I could cycle but I wasn’t just going to go out on the road by myself. So, it always seemed to be something that people of a different class did. So, I’ll be able to work with Jump, it’s made me realise that, you know, anyone can do it. And it’s just yeah, it’s just a lot of fun.

… So, yeah, so it’s something that I knew it was available to me, but I didn’t know how to access it in a safe way. I was probably a bit too nervous going into it [laughs] but like the project that I do with the youth service that’s allowed me to have the opportunity to practice it. Which is really good.

Dulce: Do would you call yourself a cyclist? Sahar: Yeah, I would because I do it for I do it for pleasure, but also, I’m trying to work to do it for more than pleasure. For fitness and for transport. And yeah, I consider myself a cyclist. Whenever I label myself as something like cyclist or runner, I feel like it comes with expectations to be extremely good at it, and I shouldn’t but whenever I tell people that I runner a cyclist that doesn’t mean I’m good at it, but I do it. But I should just, I shouldn’t say that. I should just say “yeah, I do it” like I may not be the fastest [laughs] or the most experienced, but yeah, I’m trying to work on that at the moment. But yeah, I would say I cycle but I’m not like, I don’t cycle like a lot or well or anything, but I try to just say, yeah, I cycle. I find it hard to label myself as like sporty or active because I didn’t do it as much.

Yeah, I think like I don’t have a lot of gear [laughs]. I have my bike I have my helmet; I have my lock and that’s about it. I don’t, I don’t have like loads of like, cool clothes or, you know, this is the main