Introducing: Marjorie Richards

Welcome to CCC introduces, our series spotlighting the incredible contributors who give their time and energy to Cycling Culture Club.

Today, we have the pleasure of welcoming Marjorie to our roster. A fellow advocate, visionary and founder, pushing for great diversity in cycling where she lives, Amsterdam.

Words: Marjorie Richards

Photos: Various

Socials: @marjjrie / @chromacycling

Tell us about yourself

I’m Marjorie Richards, a British-Sierra Leonean creative strategist based in Amsterdam. I have a background in fashion and would probably describe myself as a true jack of all trades. I grew up in a small village in the Netherlands, close to the German border, and moved to Amsterdam eight years ago for my bachelor’s degree. I’ve been here ever since.

I started cycling about three and a half years ago, in 2022, in a very defining way. I was coming home from a weekend bender when I saw people racking their bikes for a triathlon. I remember looking at them and making a promise to myself that in a year’s time, I wanted to be one of those people instead of the person coming home from a night out that had gone on for too long.That same summer, I bought myself a bike, watched a concerning amount of GCN videos, and the rest is history.

What do you love about cycling?

That it makes me feel so incredibly alive, because it is something completely powered by my own body. I struggle heavily with neurodivergence and mental health, but cycling helps me feel more stable. My favourite kind of ride is going from A to B, like riding from Amsterdam to my parents’ house, which is around 90 kilometres. I love that cycling can turn long distances into something tangible and conquerable.

Cycling has also taught me to trust myself and my body more. I’m hitting a bingo card at this point, but I have struggled with an eating disorder for more than half of my life. Cycling has played a big role in helping me reconnect with my body in a healthier way. It reminds me that my body allows me to do incredible things. It has helped me understand food as fuel and reminds me of what I get to experience when I take care of myself.

And honestly, I just love doing things that people in my direct environment do not really do. There is something adventurous and empowering about figuring it out for yourself. Cycling gave me a world to enter, but also a challenge to make my own.

What barriers have you faced in cycling?

In a way, the same thing that made cycling exciting also made it intimidating: no one around me was really doing it. When I first started, I felt awkward and uncomfortable stepping onto the bike because I had most of the gear, but definitely no idea. That feeling of being an outsider was not new to me. I grew up as a person of colour in a small, white, Christian farming village near the German border, and from some of my earliest memories, I was already made aware of being “other.” So when I entered road cycling and felt like an alien all over again, it hit something familiar.

The second barrier was the lack of diversity. When I looked around on the road, most of what I saw were the classic MAMILs. I did not see many people who looked like me or identified with the things I identified with, as a person of colour and as queer. For the first time since moving away from my hometown, I was made painfully aware of the colour of my skin again.

That lack of visibility became one of the biggest barriers for me. I saw beautiful initiatives in the Netherlands like No Ordinary Women and Queer Wheels, and I admired the spaces they were creating. But I still felt the absence of a community that specifically centred riders of colour.

I decided to soft-launch the topic online as a way to open up the conversation and see whether other people recognised the same things. Unfortunately, many people did. Hearing from others helped me realise that the discomfort I felt was not isolated. And that gave me the final nudge. I realised I could keep waiting for that space to appear, or I could just create it myself. So I bit the bullet and started Chroma. Be the change you want to see in the world, right? No one is going to do it for you, so you might as well do it yourself.

Why were you interested in contributing?

Because CCC creates space for the kinds of stories that often sit outside the “mainstream” cycling narrative.

If you’re comfortable, tell us about your personal experience of diversity in cycling:

The Netherlands is known as a cycling country, and in many ways, that is true. Bikes are everywhere. But everyday cycling and road cycling are two very different worlds.

I didn’t see a lot of people who reflected the communities I come from or the intersections I move through. And seeing that matters, because representation shapes what people can imagine for themselves.

When you do not see yourself in a sport, it is easy to start questioning whether you belong, whether you are good enough, and whether people will take you seriously. Those are feelings many people of colour are already not unfamiliar with. That is why Chroma exists. I wanted to create a space where riders of colour in the Netherlands could come together, be visible, and feel less alone on the road.

Your fondest memory on the bike:

The first Chroma ride. For a long time, it was just an idea in my head, coming from this feeling I had carried with me on so many rides. So seeing riders of colour and allies actually show up, clip in, and roll out together was incredibly special. The thing I had searched for, and as I have come to learn, other people had been searching for too, was finally real.

Where are you from:
The Netherlands

Where do you live:
Amsterdam

Are you part of a club/team:
Chroma Cycling Club <3