Meet the riders who prove you don’t have to be skinny to cycle
Nearly two thirds of Brits are now overweight or obese but cycling is the perfect way to get back in shape. We speak to four riders who prove that weight is no barrier to discovering a life-changing love of cycling...
From seeing spoke-thin Tour de France professionals to overhearing talk about power-to-weight ratios, road cycling can seem like an intimidating sport for heavier riders. But as cycling is non-weight-bearing, it’s actually the ideal pursuit for overweight riders, tall riders, heavy ex-rugby players or former cyclists who have piled on the pounds in middle age.
“Cycling is an inclusive sport,” says Bianca Broadbent (@thecyclephysio), specialist sport physio at Spire Healthcare. “There are a multitude of specialisms, from road to gravel, each with options to adopt a position that works best for your confidence, capability and shape. Cycling is also low impact, meaning that you place less strain through your soft tissue.”
Cycling physio Nic Roberts (velophysio.co.uk) concurs that cycling is a smart choice for overweight athletes. “Cycling is a great exercise compared to running as there are less forces going through the joints, particularly if you have had knee, ankle or back problems,” she explains.
Weight and body image are highly sensitive issues. But with 67 per cent of British men and 60 per cent of British women now classed as overweight or obese, putting them at risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain forms of cancer, it’s a serious subject to confront. So let’s start by exploding the myth that all road cyclists are super-lean. “The number of skinny riders is actually a small percentage of the people who go and ride at weekends,” explains Richard Bye, founder of the Fat Lad At The Back cycle clothing range (fatladattheback.com), who lost 31kg though cycling. “Cycling is just a normal sport for normal people.”
We asked four riders to explain how they turned weight-gain into weight-loss with the help of two wheels, as well as a healthy dollop of determination.
As cycling is non-weight-bearing, it’s actually the ideal pursuit for overweight riders, tall riders, heavy ex-rugby players, or former cyclists who have piled on the pounds in middle age