Beverley Turner Article - Tour de France: The alarming cost of being a cycling widow

[Deleted member 35268]

Hi
Spotted this article yesterday, was a funny read and I can definitely relate to a lot of the article.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/wo...e-alarming-cost-of-being-a-cycling-widow.html

However, it kind of put me on a bit of a downer about cycling for just a brief moment. I've quickly recovered though and I feel compelled to offer a completely different perspective on why I took up cycling.

Cycling has enabled me to raise thousands of pounds (OK, about £2000 and counting to be precise) for worthy causes close to my heart. And I don't actually have the money to buy expensive bikes and kit. Furthermore, I cycle more in the week (when my wife is working and kids are at school) than I do at the weekends. So for me, the article is not entirely aligned to my situation.

Have a read anyway.

 

[Saluki]

Speaking as a woman, I'd rather be a cycling widow than a football widow. At least hubby would have tighter buns than he would be sat on his duff, stuffing beer and crisps watching a load of blokes kicking a ball about.

Speaking as a cyclist, maybe the writer of the article should get a bike and give it a go. Cycling is all about freedom, not all about posing.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

speaking as another female cyclist @Saluki has hit the nail on the head very squarely.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

According to London physiotherapist of 28 years, Alan Watson, who has recently seen “a huge increase” in the number of male patients who now cycle, “average cyclists are not actually that fit. Many of them carry a bit too much weight. You get the same cardio-vascular benefit from running one mile as you do cycling five. They come to see me head-to-toe in branded sportswear and I often wonder if they choose Lycra because it has to stretch over their big bellies”.

What's our Alan's definition of an 'average cyclist' and 'fit' then?

And why would I want to run one miles, with the attendant wear'n'tear on leg joints, when I can cycle five? In the time it takes me to run 10km at my race pace, leaving me 'fit for not much afterwards' I can cycle 25+km at a tempo, come home, shower and get on with my life....

 

[ianrauk]

Speaking as a woman, I'd rather be a cycling widow than a football widow. At least hubby would have tighter buns than he would be sat on his duff, stuffing beer and crisps watching a load of blokes kicking a ball about.

This is Mrs Ian's thoughts exactly. For many years she was a footballing widow. Every weekend was the same, me off to football on a Saturday morning, coming back home in the evening usually all pissed up which meant grumpy hangover the next day. She really didn't look forward to weekends.

Over the years cycling took over. Her hubby is now 3 stones lighter and as fit as a butchers dog. Drink very little alcohol, so no weekend hangover and she knows I'm not getting into any pissed up footy trouble or rucks.

But I do wonder when she asks why I'm not going out on a particular weekend....

 

[Saluki]

But I do wonder when she asks why I'm not going on on a particular weekend....

Boy-toy.

 

[Spinney]

What a pathetic article. It implies that women can only be happy when their men are around. And many, many women own numerous pair of shoes and numerous 'fashionable' expensive handbags - I bet she has a few! How many handbags can she use at a time?

Get your own hobbies/life, woman, and stop making women as a whole seem pathetic, man-dependent ninnies!

 

[John the Monkey]

Efficiency is a poor criterion for choosing an exercise. As long as there is some benefit to it, it's more important that you enjoy it, so that you keep doing it.

 

[Ansome]

Having a separate section of walk-in wardrobe for your collection of shoes is obviously normal behaviour then, awaiting the two feet that can wear one pair at a time. I think the author and her example 'widow' are what we call down here 'high maintenance'. I'd be out for a cycle myself.

 

[Arjimlad]

I thought it was funny & well-written.

I probably own more pairs of shoes than my wife !

 

[Ansome]

I thought it was funny & well-written.

I probably own more pairs of shoes than my wife !

I paid for all my wife's shoes. does that count as well?

 

[snorri]

I stopped reading after the second line when I came to the bit about her relationship with Cracknell and remembered the nonsense she had written about h****** without mentioning her partners commercial involvement in the industry.

 

[Spinney]

h****** ????

 

[Beebo]

what a load of bullocks!
I dont get involved in the "my ones bigger than your one", willy waving contests that some people seem to enjoy.
And cycling is no more expensive or time consuming that many other hobbies.

 

[AndyRM]

h****** ????

Helmets I reckon. She wrote an article last year about how cyclists should wear them, conveniently glossing over the fact that her husband is a 'brand ambassador' for Alpina.