Ep208: The Cyclists’ Alliance Fundraiser, Deena Blacking & Christine O’Connell
April 16, 2026
Deena Blacking is a cycling coach and consultant in sport. She has worked with national and international sports organizations for the last ten years, building relationships with everyone in the system – from senior leaders to sponsors, from athletes to administrative staff – Deena understands the system at the micro, the macro, and everything in between. Prior to this, she worked as a lawyer in human rights law in the UK.
Deena has been involved with The Cyclists' Alliance since 2020. She initially supported the work of The Cyclists' Alliance using her legal skills to support riders, and later took on responsibility for the annual survey, then the mentor program, and now the overall day to day of the organization in her role as Interim Managing Director.
DEI and performance are the golden threads in all of Deena's work. She is a values-led, optimist who dreams big while also GSD.
Christine O’Connell spent over 20 years working in strategy and corporate development, including senior roles at Thomson Reuters and in strategy consulting. She now focuses on her cycling based charity campaign, One More City, alongside a portfolio of non-executive roles.
One More City is a global charity initiative built around long distance cycling challenges, raising funds for research into secondary, or metastatic, breast cancer. The campaign has funded four PhD students to date and works in partnership with Rapha, with rides taking place in multiple cities around the world. Christine has been living with secondary breast cancer since 2018, and cycling is an important part of how she manages the disease and continues to live a full life. She is a strong advocate for the role that exercise can play in improving quality of life for people living with cancer.
She is Vice President of The Cyclists’ Alliance, the organization representing female professional cyclists, and Vice Chairman of the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing. Christine joined The Cyclists’ Alliance in 2025 to bring her strategy and non-executive experience to the organization and to support the long term development of women’s professional cycling.
The Cyclists’ Alliance
Go Fund Me for The Cyclists’ Alliance
📫 Contact The Cyclists’ Alliance to discuss becoming a new partner to help increase their impact on the future of the sport
🎤 Iris Slappendel on Hear Her Sports about Le Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift
🎤 Iris Slappendel, Founder of The Cyclists’ Alliance on Hear Her Sports
🎤 Grace Brown on Hear Her Sports
🎤 Rhian Ravenscroft in Episode 88 about The Cyclists’ Alliance
🎤 Hayley Simmonds on Hear Her Sports, Episode 137
🎤 Wheel Talk podcast by Escape Collective with Natascha Knaven-den Ouden on the development of women’s cycling
Wheel Talk podcast on Instagram
Christine O’Connell on Instagram
Deena Blacking on Instagram
Elisa Longo Borghini on Instagram
Demi Vollering on Instagram
Interview by Cycling News with Elisa Longo Borghini who worries about the unstable foundation in women’s cycling
Kate Veronneau, Director of Women’s Strategy at Zwift
Ad for Orange brand featuring women soccer players altered by AI to look like men.
🎤 Helen Wyman on Hear Her Sports about a free rule change that improved media coverage of women’s cyclocross. She also talks about how important development races are for developing riders.
The Cyclists’ Alliance safety video mentioned by Deena in the episode.
SafeR (Safe Road Cycling)
Professional Cyclists Association (CPA)