Jools Walker

Last Friday saw the return of the London Walking and Cycling Conference, with presentations happening IRL at the spectacular Guildhall. I had the honour of Chairing the LWCC after being a webinar speaker in 2020!🚶🏾‍♀️🚲🎤

The theme of this year's conference was: 'walking and cycling towards a fair and inclusive city', which explored the need to make walking, cycling and our urban spaces more safe, accessible, and attractive.

LWCC brought together inspirational and incredible speakers from the active travel world, including Deputy Mayor of London for Transport, Seb Dance MEP, Shravan Joshi MBE, Dame Jane Roberts and Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville.

It was an absolute pleasure to listen to all the speakers and chair the day's events. Thank you, Hackney Council for inviting me to join you in this capacity, City of London Corporation: City View, and Steer for making the conference possible… and thank you to everyone who took part and attended!

I'm thrilled to be taking part in Outspoken; a weekend-long event celebrating women’s voices in cycling!

There will be a full day of talks and panel sessions with some stellar speakers on Saturday 10 September, exploring why community matters in cycling, discussing what really makes a cyclist and getting inspired by folks pushing boundaries in cycling. Plus there’ll be workshops, films and women-led rides on Sunday 11 September.

The event is for all women (cis and trans), non-binary folk and male allies of these groups. Outspoken is focussing on creating a safe, inclusive space where all attendees feel comfortable sharing ideas and engaging in open discussion.

🗓 10th-11th September 2022
📍 Oxford, UK
🎟: https://outspoken.mailchimpsites.com (there are also a number of subsidised tickets available as part of their scholarship program to make the event more open and accessible)

"Exercise can be a huge help for a lot of people when it comes to mental health, but I've never been a believer in it being a fix-all. Perhaps that sounds strange coming from me – someone who evangelises the benefits of being on a bike – but I'm very wary of touting exercise as a 'one size fits all' cure for depression. There have been so many times when I wanted to use cycling – one of my biggest passions – to make me feel better, but when I found myself crying my eyes out at the thought of getting out of bed and straight onto a saddle, it made me feel even sadder." - 📚 excerpt from Back in the Frame (2019)

📸 context: A selfie of me having a 🙃 moment on my “(Not Quite) The Rapha Women’s 100” ride last year. Which was also the last time I was on a road bike… 💀

I've always been frank about how cycling 'works' with my mental health (and how it's not always that simple). On 1st June, I'll be in conversation with , , , and (find and follow them on Instagram!), discussing our relationships with cycling through the lens of mental health and wellbeing at Rapha UK (London, Soho Clubhouse)/

Introduced by from , it'll be an open and honest panel talk about the ups and the downs that come with bikes and the mind.

🗓: Wednesday 1st June
📍: Rapha London, Soho
🕖 : 7.30-9pm
🔗: FREE TICKETS - tap this link https://bit.ly/3MHir8Y or register on the RCC app if you're an RCC member

📚 It has been a hot minute since I’ve done a book talk! On Wednesday, 25th May, I’ll be in conversation with Mark Shayler for this month's edition of The Do Book Company's !

🗣 We'll be discussing how to Present with confidence and being honest about the highs AND the lows and fears that come with using your voice...

🎟 Join us via Zoom at 7pm BST on 25th May! More details and ticket info can be found here: https://bit.ly/39Jn7fY

I LOVE being part of the Brompton Bicycle community, and my very first Brompton (Paisley, as seen in this pic) was an absolute game-changer for me when I got her in 2018! 😊

This bicycle introduced me to new cycling friends, fellow Brommie Lovers and new adventures with an added sense of FREEDOM! 🙌🏾

I can't wait to share more of these adventures and plans I have for this spring/summer on both Paisley AND the new blue number I revealed the other day. Keep en eye out on here and the Brompton page for more to come...🌞 💙 🚲 💜

is a constant source of positivity for those around her and our Brompton community, so we're pleased that we will be seeing a lot more of her in the coming months.

From sharing her favourite places to weekend adventures, we can't wait to share the joy of two wheels with you.

Cheers to that, and cheers to Spring 🌼

New bike day + getting to pick it up from the Brompton Bicycle Factory = A very happy Jools 💙

Spring is here, and I'm planning on spending a lot of it on this little beauty. Sunny cycling days are on the cards with this C Line Urban. It has a slightly different set-up to my beloved Paisley (who is still here and loved, btw! 💜). It's a 2-speed (I'm not planning on climbing any hardcore hills 😅), and I'll be riding in a more upright position with Mid bars.

Other than the excitement of having a new Brompton to go out and P L A Y on (I just wanna have FUN on a bike, you know?!) the added bonus of visiting the factory and seeing how it was made was AMAZING! Swipe through for some shots of builds and brazing in action 🔥

🎬 I've got some exciting news to share! Breaking The Cycle - the mini-documentary Remco Merbis made about my relationship with cycling and mental health, has been selected for screening at the Virtual Bicycle Film Festival 2021 in NYC this December! 🎉 🚴🏾‍♀️

I've always hoped that being honest about the downs as well as the ups in my life story could be of help to others, so I'm blown away to know the BFF (which is very close to my heart) will be giving this film such a huge platform to share with other bikeminded folks out there! ❤️

Breaking The Cycle will be shown as part of the Cycle for Change shorts programme, which "celebrates the change-makers, advocates, and activists who are pushing the bike movement forward in their communities." 👊🏾

🎟 The Virtual Bicycle Film Festival New York runs from Dec 17th 2021 to Jan 9th 2022. You can view the complete programme and ticketing details here: https://bit.ly/3I6cdNW

🎤🚴🏾‍♀️ It was such a pleasure returning to Kendal Mountain Festival last week to co-host the Rapha UK & Ribble Cycles Cycling Session, supported by komoot!

Reunited with Kendal Cycle Club's Ben Dowman, it was a joy to host this year's Session and interview some stellar guests, including Emma Wormold of Lakes Gravel Gang, Christine Fisher from Wheels for All Kendal, Ribble Weldtite Pro Rider Cameron Jeffers, roller-trick and racing wizkid Ruby Isaac, and Black Champions in Cycling author, Marlon Lee Moncrieffe.

🎬 If you couldn't make it to KMF, the whole session is available on the Kendal Mountain Player: full details on how you can watch it are here: https://bit.ly/3HCFRtQ

Big thanks to KMF for inviting me back this year, and a big thank you to all the guest speakers on stage who were excellent! 🎉

I'm very excited to share this news finally: I'm in New Internationalist's 'Women of the World' Calendar! 🎉🚴🏾‍♀️🙌🏾🥺💗📆

When the incredible kelsi Farrington contacted me earlier this year to say she was editing the 2022 edition and wanted to feature me alongside the 11 inspiring women who would be in it, I can't lie: Impostor Syndrome started knocking on my brain!

I am beyond honoured to be featured and to have been so beautifully illustrated by the fantastic Nadia Akingbule 💕🎨

Kelsi has written an excellent piece on why she came up with the idea for a Women of the World Calendar; https://bit.ly/3CXlPYf

The 2022 calendar presents:
Imara Jones • Lakwena Maciver • Artemisa Barbosa Ribeiro • Ellen Ochoa • Mya-Rose Craig • Jools Walker • Elizabeth Wanjiru Wathuti • Yagazie Emezi • Mikaela Loach • Maria Tallchief • Harnaam Kaur • Junko Tabei

You can buy the Women of the World Calendar 2022 (and the complementary Women of the World Diary and Notebook) directly from The Ethical Shop.

Kelsi: I can not thank you enough for creating this calendar, your reasons why and what this means to me to be featured. Forever love to you ❤️