GCN Show: Does attractiveness equal cycling skill?

This week, the cycling world is still buzzing from the weekend's UCI World Championship road race in Glasgow. At GCN, we are no different, and thus delved into the ins and outs of how Matheiu van der Poel stormed to win in Glasgow for this week's GCN Show. After the race we learned more about the win, including, evidently, a well timed bathroom break. The new world champion was able to knock on a nearby house's door and use their toilet when the road race was stopped to remove protesters from the course.

Dan Lloyd and Si Richardson not only reflected on cycling’s most newsworthy bathroom break as one of a number of curious news items in the world of cycling. Primary of which is a study that says cyclists who are better looking are better cyclists. Or, at the very least, male cyclists at the 2012 Tour de France were more “objectively” attractive according to the aggregated sample of those sampled.

While the methodology was detailed, in short it accounted for things like likability, masculinity and attractiveness by giving riders scores and compared that score to time in time trials and their overall time on the general classification. With this information, the study was able to conclude that there was a correlation between cycling and objective good looks. The study was done by the Royal Society with help from a professor at the University of Zurich. With the study coming from 2012 it only accounted for male cyclists.

Nevertheless, putting popping and beauty contests aside, Si and Dan covered all of their bases this week. Here are some of the headlines:

Canyon

• Canyon The new track bike from the German company has already delivered Chloé Dygart’s track victory and the Danish men’s pursuit team wins. The same bike could be yours for the price of £18,999.
• Authorities in Japan are changing laws to allow for police to fine japanese cyclists for traffic violations. This comes after a study concluded that cyclists are the party breaking laws in 70% of traffic incidents involving cycling and the police criticising the minister of education for causing a crash while riding.
• The LA city council announced $60M in bike paths along the LA river. This marks a large step up in the bike infrastructure system in the southern California city.
• Specialized to much fanfare this weekend at the world championship. While the bike did not win the road race, it did win the internet discourse with its novel “speed sniffer” on its headtube.

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