Cycling Truths #6

The more you joke about leg-shaving, the more you REALLY want to shave your legs

Leg shaving is the classic joke about cyclists. 

Let’s be honest, if you are looking for a way to suggest that your average cyclist is a bit weird there are no shortage of ways to do this; the tight clothing, the obsession with body weight, the strange and archaic language. Perversely, these are exactly the same reasons why your average cyclist thinks they’re pretty cool actually, but that’s a whole other story.

My point is, out of all the ways to make fun of cyclists the leg shaving issue is king; to your average non-cycling British male it is odd behaviour in the extreme. In fact, even among cyclists it provokes lively debate.

In one camp you have the racing snakes who, once they’ve taken the plunge, just see shaving as part of the ritual. Then you have those who are hairy, and who are clearly staying hairy.

In between, you have those who are undecided; the floating voters in the debate. They are forever rattling on about how they really feel they should take the plunge but “it’s all a bit weird isn’t it”, and “what’s next, pre-ride eyebrow pluck”, or, “I’d do it tomorrow but the wife would never forgive me” etc. etc. etc. “she prefers my legs to be hairier than hers” blah blah.

On top of all this, if you’re a racer, you’ll get all the old lags watching the racing and telling you they “can’t believe they even let you race with legs looking such a mess.”

If you want to go for it get yourself in the bath, mood music on the go, light some candles if you like, and be a man and shave your legs.

Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.