Author Topic: Victoria Pendleton  (Read 7392 times)

steveB

Victoria Pendleton
« on: 01 April, 2008, 01:00:32 pm »
If this article has been put somewhere else, apologies.

I've never thought of cycling as being a middle-class sport ???

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #1 on: 01 April, 2008, 01:12:55 pm »
Entry costs are greater than running or footy.  And cycling has a funny set of class rules all of its own.

Most coaches used to look at her and wonder how someone who even now is 5ft 5in and less than 9½stone (although capable of squatting twice that in the gym), could possibly take on the big girls of track sprinting.

*has a little Charlotte-esque moment*
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Charlotte

  • Dissolute libertine
  • Here's to ol' D.H. Lawrence...
    • charlottebarnes.co.uk
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #2 on: 01 April, 2008, 01:17:54 pm »
She's a babe and no mistake  :)

This made me sad, though:

Quote
Before then, there is also the danger from White Van Man. “Everyone says the track is so dangerous, but my biggest risk is being knocked off my road bike because someone is too impatient to wait 20 seconds and overtakes me on a bend. I want to go out with a big neon sign saying, ‘Do you know how important my legs are!’ There are a lot of people out there who hate cyclists.”
Commercial, Editorial and PR Photographer - www.charlottebarnes.co.uk

Glosbiker

  • Gentleman Antiquarian
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #3 on: 01 April, 2008, 01:27:46 pm »
I thought cycling was a working class sport?  It certainly has been for the majority of its history.

It's only become a middle class activity in the past few years when those with wallets greater than their commonsense has begun to buy into it.  Rapha is a good point-in-case.....

All the LBS staff I know are solidly working class in origin I'd say (and that's not meant condescendingly)
Question everything, accept nothing.

SimonB

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #4 on: 01 April, 2008, 01:39:36 pm »
I don't find her attractive at all. She's a bit plummy/pasty-looking.

One of the German riders in the 2-up pursuit sprint was very tasty, however.

Nick H.

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #5 on: 01 April, 2008, 01:46:22 pm »
Let's not forget that the first bikes were strictly for toffs. They were the sports cars of their day.

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #6 on: 01 April, 2008, 01:52:19 pm »
I thought cycling was a working class sport?  It certainly has been for the majority of its history.


Racing cyclists were employed to show off the reliability of their steeds. 'Sports' and touring cycling became a working class activity when cars became affordable.

Dave

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #7 on: 01 April, 2008, 06:46:25 pm »
I feel the need to post this:

http://oakley.com/women/uniquely/victoria


gonzo

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #8 on: 01 April, 2008, 06:53:46 pm »
Who was that lizzy girl on the track team?

I am slightly ashamed to say that Vicky is probably better built than me!

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #9 on: 01 April, 2008, 06:54:17 pm »
Since when has "weird" been a noun?

Phwooar, anyway  :thumbsup:
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #10 on: 01 April, 2008, 09:59:22 pm »
Since when has "weird" been a noun?

Since it originally was wyrd and meant "doom" as in fate, the path tracked out for you, and all that deterministic rot.  Which would have been, oh, back when years only had three digits. ;)
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #11 on: 01 April, 2008, 11:21:50 pm »
I don't find her attractive at all. She's a bit plummy/pasty-looking.

Thank god I'm not the only one to think this. I've been trying to work up the courage to post something similar for ages but thought better of it. It's not that she's unattractive, she's just not all that.

David Martin

  • Thats Dr Oi You thankyouverymuch
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #12 on: 01 April, 2008, 11:29:18 pm »
I don't find her attractive at all. She's a bit plummy/pasty-looking.

Thank god I'm not the only one to think this. I've been trying to work up the courage to post something similar for ages but thought better of it. It's not that she's unattractive, she's just not all that.

Lock, load, aim .....












but seriously, to each their own. I think she is somewhat tasty myself..

..d
"By creating we think. By living we learn" - Patrick Geddes

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #13 on: 01 April, 2008, 11:32:56 pm »
Posh birds are right goers. :thumbsup:
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #14 on: 01 April, 2008, 11:35:16 pm »
Rar!
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #15 on: 01 April, 2008, 11:40:59 pm »
Posh birds are right goers. :thumbsup:

You're not joking. I once dated a proper middle/upper class older woman a couple of times a few years back. Prim and proper horsey type. Dirty little minx.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #16 on: 03 April, 2008, 01:54:36 pm »
Following on from Charlotte's comment about this quote...

Quote
Before then, there is also the danger from White Van Man. “Everyone says the track is so dangerous, but my biggest risk is being knocked off my road bike because someone is too impatient to wait 20 seconds and overtakes me on a bend. I want to go out with a big neon sign saying, ‘Do you know how important my legs are!’ There are a lot of people out there who hate cyclists.”

As grim as it sounds it seems to me that until a really high profile cyclist, by which I mean someone known to to the general public and not someone who is only well known in cycling circles (like Zak Carr or Simon Doughty), is seriously hurt in an RTA that not a lot is going to improve for us mortals.  Even then I wouldn't be optimistic.

Please don't run away with the idea that I actually want something like this to happen, I just have a morbid turn of mind.

I wonder what it would/will take to improve things for cyclists?
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #17 on: 03 April, 2008, 02:19:27 pm »
More cyclists.  Everything shows that cyclists are safer when there's lots of 'em around.  Drivers are more used to 'em and more drivers are likely to also *be* 'em. 

Splatting a celeb rider won't have any effect at all.  Five minutes of headlines then back to business as usual.

Lots of people riding bikes is the best way to make it safe for lots of people to ride bikes.
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #18 on: 03 April, 2008, 02:34:33 pm »

Lots of people riding bikes is the best way to make it safe for lots of people to ride bikes.
Andy,
Whilst this is not wrong, I fear that it ignores the barriers that currently prevent the increase in cycling:
one of these is very definitely the PERCEIVED danger.

Look how keen people are to drive vehicles that endanger OTHERS if it gives them (and/or their children) greater perceived safety - there is no way that those same people will put their own lives at risk just to make the roads safer for future cyclists.

I think we need another angle of attack.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #19 on: 03 April, 2008, 02:41:15 pm »
I don't find her attractive at all.

I dread to think what the (obviously few) women you've ever shagged looked like!

Notice the past tense  ;)
Those wonderful norks are never far from my thoughts, oh yeah!

andygates

  • Peroxide Viking
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #20 on: 03 April, 2008, 02:46:34 pm »
Whilst this is not wrong, I fear that it ignores the barriers that currently prevent the increase in cycling:
one of these is very definitely the PERCEIVED danger.

Absolutely correct, sadly.  Worth its own thread though.  :)
It takes blood and guts to be this cool but I'm still just a cliché.
OpenStreetMap UK & IRL Streetmap & Topo: ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps updates weekly.

Jakob

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #21 on: 03 April, 2008, 02:54:49 pm »
I don't find her attractive at all.

Same..I find her the least attractive out of the current ladies team.

LEE

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #22 on: 03 April, 2008, 03:09:38 pm »
She looks like a true, genuine, 100%, National sporting hero.

That's my only opinion of her looks (less it detracts from what she's achieved.)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #23 on: 04 April, 2008, 06:48:27 am »
She doesn't have the thunder thighs of some of the women sprinters.  One of the German girls I saw was so bottom-heavy she could have starred in a Sir Mix-A-Lot video.  I wouldn't want to race her to a "30" sign though!
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Victoria Pendleton
« Reply #24 on: 05 April, 2008, 10:47:51 am »