These are clearly not cyclists...gross.

[Irulan]

I vote that they may actually be pretty women/models that may actually ride bikes. I would personally give Cannondale props for not going down the bike show babe boobage road.

They are in regular bike clothes, not hot pants and bikini tops.
Flat shoes, not stilettos.
Boobs not popping out: no cleavage showing.

So they don't have "toned" arms or legs. Big Deal. How many of you do? How many of us "look" like cyclists?

I get that the whole podium girl thing is rather distasteful. For me, on the scale of marketing offensiveness, this doesn't even rate a blip.

Sometimes I think TE members are in danger of being elitist and snobbish.... if someone doesn't look just right, or use the right lingo (omg... they said "retailer" instead of LBS" ) someone is quick to jump all over it. This sport is supposed to be for everyone, not just those of us in the know.

[Dogmama]

Actually, I'm the one on the right.

[Owlie]

I vote that they may actually be pretty women/models that may actually ride bikes. I would personally give Cannondale props for not going down the bike show babe boobage road.

They are in regular bike clothes, not hot pants and bikini tops.
Flat shoes, not stilettos.
Boobs not popping out: no cleavage showing.

So they don't have "toned" arms or legs. Big Deal. How many of you do? How many of us "look" like cyclists?

I get that the whole podium girl thing is rather distasteful. For me, on the scale of marketing offensiveness, this doesn't even rate a blip.

Sometimes I think TE members are in danger of being elitist and snobbish.... if someone doesn't look just right, or use the right lingo (omg... they said "retailer" instead of LBS" ) someone is quick to jump all over it. This sport is supposed to be for everyone, not just those of us in the know.

You know, this occurred to me last night.

I put in about a third of the miles that many of you do, and it took me three years of riding to get any sort of muscle definition. And at work, I see all sorts of people with bikes. They're riding. Maybe not as often as some of us. Most of them don't have the quads that some of us have. Who cares? They still ride bikes. Who is to say what a cyclist should or should not look like?

Is it sort of sad that women are still considered marketing accessories? Yes. Is this anywhere near as bad as those damn Assos ads? No.

[velo]

I can see both sides of the argument here. If I could look like those models, I'd feel blessed. They're not gross, but also not representative of what we have pictured in our minds when we think "cyclist". I did an organized ride yesterday and very few women OR Men looked like the stereotypical "Tour" rider. They were all cyclists, though. These ladies may ride the trails with their boyfriends every evening on their hybrids. Cyclists. Or they could be C-dale bling that have never sat a saddle in their lives. No way to know.

[nuliajuk]

I vote that they may actually be pretty women/models that may actually ride bikes. I would personally give Cannondale props for not going down the bike show babe boobage road.
So they don't have "toned" arms or legs. Big Deal. How many of you do? How many of us "look" like cyclists? ...

I don't "look like a cyclist" either. Like a lot of middle age women who aren't pro athletes, my muscles are hidden by a layer of subcutaneous fat. But they are there.
Actually, take many top level cyclists off the bike for a day and their muscle definition fades as well. While muscles are in use and being pumped full of blood, they are more defined than while at rest.

[amnesiac]

Doesn't offend me or gross me out at all. I don't mind that girls who dig bikes, whether they ride much at all or not, might be hawt.

[Irulan]

http://surlybikes.com/blog/post/pedal_pumpers (blog source)

Here is a good example of gross ( without being over the top like the Marzocchi pic)
And no, you don't get legs like that from cycling, you get them from starvation.

[Rebecca19804]

http://surlybikes.com/blog/post/pedal_pumpers (blog source)

Here is a good example of gross ( without being over the top like the Marzocchi pic)
And no, you don't get legs like that from cycling, you get them from starvation.

Even anorexics can cycle. (And I don't think this model is one.)