Deals On Wheels

Is cycling overtaking golf as the C-suite's hobby with benefits?

- Robin Swithinbank

WE'VE BECOME ACCUSTOMED to seeing them on the road. You know, the 'riders'.

Wannabe Miguel Induráins (sorry, Lance, you blew it) wedged into heaving uniforms of fluorescent Grand Tourbranded Lycra, their, ahem, masculinity tokens protruding with all the elegance of a vacuum-packed pallet of bananas.

But even so, there's something about cycling that remains a bit, well, off. And it's in the gear. Not just in those silly shoes, surely the world's most dangerous footwear. Not even ski boots have the power to morph a person into a fleshy-carbonfibre hybrid like cycling shoes. No, it's in the way cycling gear is transcending its original purpose that is, to be used by bicyclists for bicycling.

Since when did it become acceptable to traipse into the office or a cafe still clad in cycling gear, helmet half-cocked, sweat-slick forming behind you, bananas bunching? At this point, where is everyone else supposed to look?

The old maxim was 'never let them see you sweat'. But somehow, the cycling uniform, despite its many foibles, is on the verge of becoming the C-suite casual go-to.