“I’M A FAT CYCLIST AND I DON’T NEED TO ‘FIX’ MY BODY...”

My weight doesn’t need to change. But the bike world’s attitude towards me does.

MY FRIEND AND I SAT IN THE PARKING LOT, EATING OATMEAL AND PREPARING MENTALLY FOR THE NEXT 10 DAYS.

It was 2018, and we were halfway through our Alaskan bikepacking trip, from Seward to Deadhorse. The upcoming stretch, along the Dalton Highway – 8 500 metres of elevation gain over 800 gravel kilometres – was notoriously gruelling. As we looked over our slightly damp gear, a tour van pulled up nearby. The passengers got off; some took photos of us, as the guide loudly proclaimed that not many people successfully bike the Dalton. “In fact,” he said as he looked at me, “I just saw two very athletic men barely finish the ride.” Very athletic,

I thought to myself. He means thin.

Here’s the thing: I’m fat. I wear sizes ranging from XL to XXL (18–22). When I first started biking, I worried about finding clothes that would fit me. I assumed that, as is true of many athletic clothing brands, the available sizes would be too limited. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that popular bike clothing brands such as Pearl Izumi, De Marchi and Terry all size up to XXL for women’s bibs and shorts. Sizing that stops at XXL is still too limiting for many people; but for fat cyclists, that’s not even the biggest issue.

The true problem is with our culture around sport, and our ideas of athleticism. And really, it’s with who gets to move their body because they want to, and who has to move their body because they need to fix it.

Cyclists with larger bodies are largely erased from the sport’s public image. We don’t see ourselves in promotional materials for bike events, or in ads for bicycle and clothing companies, or on Instagram feeds.

When we are represented in media around sport, it’s with the intent of selling weight loss. But I’m not trying to lose weight. I’ve ridden thousands of kilometres in this fat body. I’ve cycled through remote mountain ranges and dense rain forests. My fat body, and other fat bodies, are biking all over the damn place, joyfully moving in tight Lycra.

The ramifications of this erasure are real and significant. Fat people’s lack of representation in cycling media becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fat people don’t see themselves as cyclists, so they don’t ride, and the cycling community becomes incapable of seeing fat cyclists as fellow athletes. The result is fewer people on bikes.

The cycling community has an opportunity to change. Cycling is an accessible way for people of all sizes to move their bodies – if the space is created. What if we began to see images of fat cyclists riding alongside thin friends, or groups of fat people riding together, enjoying their bodies just as they are now? What would it look like to include fat cyclists in films about biking, or for companies to bring in fat cyclists to create gear that works for their bodies?

Fat people are already doing this work, across sports, at a grassroots level. In the USA, for example, fat hikers have built a community, and continue to influence brands such as REI (the US equivalent of Sportsman’s Warehouse) to provide more clothing sizes. Fat runners are beginning to appear in magazines as experts in their sport. Fat cyclists are writing about their experiences, and sharing stories in spaces like the WTF (Womxn, Trans, Femme) Bikexplorers Summit. But a cultural shift requires that all people – not just fat people – accept that our idea of athleticism is flawed.

My fat body began to surprise me the moment I approached biking as a lifestyle. I am an athlete now, not in some alternative thin body.

After the tour guide packed up his van and headed north, another van pulled into the parking lot. This time a female tour guide popped out of the van, and excitedly explained to her tourists that we would be biking the very route they were driving to the Arctic Circle. She told us how thrilled she was for us, handed us a couple of cinnamon-sugared doughnuts, and drove away. On finishing the doughnuts, we began the ride north.

“I am an athlete now, not in some alternative thin body.”