Mixed messages from the Sun yesterday in their Woman section article 'How cycling keeps the flab away'.
The peg is presumably this Sunday's Skyride in Ealing, with the massive central London one coming on Sunday 5 September.
Nice to see such positive images, but not the 'peddling' tips (why is that nobody can spell 'pedalling'?) from Victoria Pendleton, or someone purporting to be her.
Her advice is all about training, speed and fitness. It's about hills and pain and 'upping the pace'. It's about 'making a long ride less boring'. Oh, and it's dangerous of course: a helmet is a 'must-have'.
No, Victoria, that's not real cycling. That's racing. Real cycling is about Tesco, not Tourmalet.
Fortunately the picture at the top of the article is more encouraging: a young woman on a town bike, in a summer dress and high heels. (Someone called Kelly Brook. Sorry, no idea who she is. Was more interested in the bike, which pleasingly has mudguards, chainguard and basket.)
To be fair, the article is about cycling for fitness (toned thighs etc) so VP's comments aren't out of place.
ReplyDeleteAlso, racing is real cycling. Real cycling may be much broader than racing but saying that people aren't 'real cyclists' because they've got good and ride thousands of training kilometers a year is silly, as is squabbling over who is and isn't 'really real'. United we stand etc.
Greg (Real Cycling score 80)