Kelly: Mountain Biking Through Motherhood

You might well have met Kelly at an event or two – she’s often to be found chatting and riding, either in her day job for komoot, or as an ambassador for Cotic. This film looks at her experience of being in the bike industry, and how it changed when she became a mother. Prepare to be happy and sad at the same time – but mostly happy.

Times are changing in the world of bikes, with more and more mothers being visible in the mountain bike industry. Dads too. It’s not all pro racers and adventurers with 100% focus on their riding – we’re now getting to see people juggling snot and school runs alongside shredding the trails. More of this sort of thing, please.

Kelly-Jayne Collinge has been riding off road since 2015, and in that time, has been nothing but a positive force for inclusion, equity, and opportunities. She’s the first person to say yes and, more importantly, the first person to say “no, that isn’t right”. The adventures she undertakes have left everyone breathless and more than a little envious, but those come her way purely by her being one of the most hard-working, genuine, and authentic people you’re likely to meet.

In 2020, when she became pregnant with her son Atlas, the anxiety of impending motherhood weighed heavily. This wasn’t helped by the desertion of brands and relationships that she had worked earnestly to cultivate. Ambassadors exist to promote their brands, but brands also need to champion their people. In this regard, some more-than fumbled. Some of her sponsors showed their true colours by treating pregnancy as an illness instead of leaning into the miraculous and life-changing wonder that it is.

Her embrace of motherhood combined with her pre-existing love of cycling has grown in parallel with Atlas. As he’s become more mobile, the adventures have become even longer-legged, including multiple bike-packing overnighters and shotgun-seat pump track visits. Kelly highlights that the information for new female cyclists is severely lacking; let alone pregnant ones or new mothers. The relatively recent creation of accessible routes and women-only riding groups has been a huge boon and certainly helped Kelly step into her new chapter of life with renewed confidence, or at least a little less trepidation.

A movie by Liam Iggins. Produced by Cotic Bikes. Supported by komoot and Velocio.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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