It’s amazing how the bicycle is such a democratising invention.

Exactly, it’s brilliant how the simple vehicle of a bike can literally transform lives. It’s incredible to me.

Do you have any shared, cross-cultural experiences with these girls? I assume learning to ride a bike is the same process across all borders.

Yeah! Every time I ride my bike in Afghanistan – whether it’s me going out and mountain biking in a new area or whether I’m training and riding with the team – initially there’s a lot of apprehension before every ride. I have to consider safety, security, logistics, and even ‘what am i going to wear?’, because it’s so difficult to even navigate what to wear on a bike in that country and not offend anyone.

Your fears dissipate the minute you start cycling.

But once you’re on the bike, it is like anywhere else. Especially when I ride with the girls, the camaraderie is there. You’re riding with a bunch of girls on a road and you’re focused on that, and on them not crashing, learning to ride in a peloton, learning how to draft off each other. Your fears dissipate the minute you start cycling.

Do you think the girls have any awareness of the culture surrounding cycling in Europe or the States?

I don’t know how aware they are of the culture of it. The only real experience they have with other cyclists are in the region – they’ve raced in Pakistan and they’ve raced in the Asian cycling championships in India and Kazakhstan. They are at an amateur level: they often are not able to finish the races because they’re too long. But they’re able to line up and race against these women and see what their regional counterparts are capable of and have those interactions.

They perhaps don’t have the understanding yet of European and American racing in terms of the distance. But in the spring we’re bringing them to Italy for the first time and they are going to get their first taste of European road cycling.