FINDING CYCLING

It didn’t take me long to feel like I belonged in the cycling community. I remember when I showed up to my first ever race back in 2019. I was super nervous and had no idea what to expect. My girlfriend at the time took me with her, as she had just got into racing, and she introduced me to lots of friendly, welcoming faces of the London women’s cycling scene.

We met when I showed up as a more-or-less beginner (but eager) cyclist at the university cycling club Regent Park laps. As president of the cycling club, cycling was a huge part of her life and very quickly it became a huge part of mine also.

The enthusiasm to start racing was stronger on her part than on mine, but I remember enjoying myself despite being dropped from the bunch on the second lap. After that race I was inspired to race more, as well as test out different disciplines.

I’d be lying if I said I fell in love instantly with gravel, and I remember even crying a little in the final timed segment of my first gravel race — the Grinduro. Regardless of the trauma of the final stage, I enjoyed the day enough to spend my summer earnings on a gravel bike.

The relationship didn’t last long enough for us to ride gravel more than a handful of times, and I remember being on the verge of selling my gravel bike, thinking I would have nobody to ride it with. For me, bikes were about community and sharing the experience with others, but I also didn’t have local trail knowledge to create routes and explore, nor the confidence to fix my bike in any adversity. 

When the pandemic struck in 2020, I took my bikes with me to my dad’s house, slightly out of London to get some countryside air and be with family through the uncertainty of the lockdowns. Luckily for me, a cycling friend lived not too far away and we began to ride gravel together around Surrey. Without this riding buddy/route master, I am not sure I would have kept my gravel bike and I can put my skill development down to following their lines over the period we both lived at home. Eventually I built the confidence to design my own routes and ride gravel alone and even return to a gravel race after the pandemic (no tears this time!). 

A few years down the line and I am now racing my gravel bike full-time. Cycling is without a doubt a huge part of my life. I feel completely intertwined in the gravel cycling community and have never experienced any lack of acceptance or inclusion of my now non-cyclist fiancée.

Most of the time I travel to races independently, but on an odd occasion she joins to support as an under-qualified soigneur. Her enthusiasm and support, despite her lack of interest in cycling, is appreciated by many in the community, and I have had many riders come up to me after races thankful for her cheers of encouragement mid-race. She is most well known for her ‘remember, you do it cos you love it!’ cheer.

I am aware that these positive experiences of acceptance and inclusion are not universally experienced across all sports and for all people within the LGBTQ+ umbrella, but the cycling community has always been a place I have felt able to be my true authentic self.

For me, sexuality doesn’t change my experience of the sport nor anything about me as an athlete. I continue to feel lucky to have a supportive partner, who supports my cycling career and ambitions (despite having next to no knowledge or understanding of it!). Although next time she supports me at a race we will need to practice getting the hydration vest the right way round…

Maddy Nutt was set for a life in London finance before discovering cycling, but after a few races, that all changed. She chanced her cycling career and has become a force in gravel cycling, winning the 2025 UCI Gravel World Series in Brazil and Safari Gravel Race in 2024, and landing on the podiums of the Migration Gravel Race, the Nordic Gravel Series, and more.

She is still based in London, but is more often found competing around the world.

This year, Unity celebrates pride.

But it's also more focused than that. It specifically celebrates differences. All of our different backgrounds, expressions, and ethnicities blend together to create a community that is greater for it.

All profits are donated to the ACLU.