Oh God! Is he wearing brown in town?

How frightful!

A lady shouted ‘nice bum’ out of her car window at a friend and me as we cycled last night.

Neither of us are 8 stone.

This is a great example of the “Chinese Whispers” effect of the internet. As someone pointed out above, Hoy did not say “anyone over 8st should not wear lycra”, but that’s how the OP and numerous news agencies have interpreted it. He said:

The flipside is that Lycra isn’t the most elegant material you can wear and professional cycling gear generally looks awful on pretty much anyone heavier than eight stone and with more than five per cent body aerodynamic fat.

GQ Source

Not read all the thread, so apologies if this has already been pointed out.

I know BMI is bollocks but on the chart you’d have to be very short (5’4″ or less) for a chap to weigh 8 stone and be ‘healthy’.

yup, shorter than that. I’m 5’4″ and weigh 58-60kg (a nip over 9st) with about 12-14% bf. BMI is prob. 22.

so what Chris H is saying is that only children can wear lycra. 😕

I had a quick flick through the GQ article before my work internets blocked it for “incidental nudity” – it seems that SirChris was just pointing out that you should wear whatever, not really trying to lycra shame.

There are a lot of people who seem to think it’s necessary to put on specialist sports clothing for a saunter to the shops or work – it’s a reflection of the fact that cycling is viewed as a sport not just a normal way of getting about in this country. Of course I don’t care what someone looks like in lycra as long as they’re comfy, but at the same time, people are buggering about putting specialist clothing on when they could just hop on the bike in their normal stuff.

Baggies over lycra is just as bad in this respect (but is my usual non-XC racing MTB outfit all the same, because I’m a fashion slave. Also I wear lycra on the way to work these days, but it is a bit over 10 miles each way and I take the opportunity to ride hard).

From the GQ link (no nudity, incidental or otherwise, I’m sad to report)

Among the ’10 best new menswear items…’ (scroll down a bit, past the mclaren and football things)

I think it’s safe to assume the entire publication is tongue in cheek.

This is a great example of the “Chinese Whispers” effect of the internet

Then in the very next post..

so what Chris H is saying is that only children can wear lycra.

Which is not at all what has been said!

frenchies got it right!!

id knight him again if it was possible

I think the actual news, which everyone seems to have missed, is that GQ is still going! I was sure it had died along with lots of other toss from the 90s…

Surely that fact alone dwarfs any nonsense the retired king of cycling indoors might write to appeal to the magazine’s audience…