2021-22 Ultra Distance Scholarship Recipients

Hosted by Stayer Cycles, the Ultra Distance Scholarship aims to elevate representation in ultra-cycling events and amplify conversations around the lack of diversity in the cycling industry. Stayer has partnered up with Wizard Works, Pretty Decent Beer Company, Albion, Outdoor Provisions, The Racing Collective, Hope Tech, and Veloqi.cc to support three scholarship recipients who plan to attend next year’s GBDURO event. This round of scholarship recipients have been selected and Stayer has put together some more details on the scholarship and the recipients. Check it out below.

Words by Stayer Cycles (@stayercycles)

This is the second year of the Ultra Distance Scholarship after it first started up in Summer 2020 when it supported Vera Ngosi-Sambrook in her journey towards the 2021 Pan Celtic Race as well as two runners up, Nathan Patel and Tamzin Dewar who also received partial support opportunities in the months before the race. This scholarship was created to elevate representation in the discipline of Ultra Distance racing and to amplify conversations around the lack of diversity in the cycling world at large and hopefully inspire others in the industry to take initiative. To kick things off in 2021, Stayer held a fundraising event in August called Ultra Party Time in partnership with Pretty Decent Beer Co who is also helping with overall fundraising efforts for other associated scholarship costs, coaching and mentorship fees, and kit and components not currently made by current partners. These costs are also being supplemented with help from Albion, Komoot, and Wahoo.

This year’s selection committee was tasked with selecting three recipients for three fully supported opportunities for a 10-month period ahead of this year’s official Ultra Distance Scholarship race; The Racing Collective’s GBDURO. GBDURO, arguably the UK’s toughest cycling-based ultra, is a 2000km self-supported bikepacking enduro from Land’s End to John O’Groats on road, gravel, singletrack, and everything in between. The selection committee was led by the scholarship’s official coach, Alison Wood of Veloqi.cc alongside this year’s three mentors, Anisa Aubin, Nathaniel Williams, and Vera Ngosi-Sambrook. The mentorship program is a new addition to the scholarship this year, and will see each recipient matched up with an experienced mentor serving as a one-to-one connection over the training period, creating a community and network of support.

The recipients for the 2021/22 Ultra Distance Scholarship are:

Aandy Natarajan

Aandy (aka Natty) is a self-proclaimed bike nerd and tinkerer from Brighton, UK. Earlier this year Natty completed a 3500km bike tour around the UK and can’t wait to saddle up again for his first ultra endurance adventure!

Carla Benton

Carla lives in Sheffield, UK. She loves all things outdoors, including hiking, trail running and climbing, and is completely new to ultra distance events, and pretty new to cycling (she started road cycling during lockdown). She loves adventures and challenging herself.

Zara Bellos

Zara is a recently qualified bike mechanic based in South London. She feels most at home in her tent while cooking all-the-veg on her camping stove somewhere wild mid-cycle tour. By borrowing a bivvy bag and other kit, she has recently begun to push herself to ride longer distances by riding through the night, as well as exploring gravel riding and bikepacking. Zara is behind the inclusive Instagram account: @npcycles.

Aandy, Carla, and Zara will each receive:

• A GBDURO-ready, custom Stayer Cycles frameset and wheelset, fully built and specific to ultra-distance racing, complete with components from Hope Tech, tyres from Teravail, and accessories from Arundel Bicycle Company.
• A spot in the Racing Collective’s legendary GBDURO 2022 set to take place in August 2022
• Personalised coaching support from performance coach Alison Wood of Veloqi.cc over the 10 month training period from November 2021 – August 2022 funded by Komoot.
• Custom bikepacking bags from the lovely Wizard Works
• Performance training and racing kit from Albion
• Sustenance from Outdoor Provisions over the training period and up to the race
• One-on-one mentorship from a legendary ultra racer over the training period funded by Albion
• A Wahoo KICKR Smart Training bundle to aid their year-round training schedule, complete with a TICKR Heart Rate -0 – Monitor and Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM GPS Bike Computer.
• Komoot Premium Membership

We’re eager to follow along to see what they get up to next year. Congrats to the recipients! You can learn more about the scholarship at StayerCycles.com.

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