No beards, innit

rick_chasey

http://m.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20170921_03087005


Emil Planckaert's team Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise won't be wearing beards.

Wie een contract tekent bij wielerploeg Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise weet dat een baard verboden is. Dat vertelt belofte Emiel Planckaert in de krant en het wordt bevestigd door ploegleider Walter Planckaert, overigens geen familie van de renner.
“Ik doe dat voor de elegantie van het wielrennen. Wij zijn coureurs, geen motorcrossers of rugbyspelers. Niets tegen motorcross, maar een renner met een baard past niet. Snot en etensresten in de baard van een coureur, dat is vies.”


En wat als een renner zijn baard niet wil scheren? “Dan moet hij maar een andere ploeg zoeken”, aldus Walter Planckaert.

Beards are bannned for the "elegance of cycling".
"We're riders, not motocrossers or rugby players (I hope you Brits sense how little Belgians think of rugby ) Nothing against motorcrlss but a beard doesn't suit a cyclist. Snot and food gets caught up in it; it's disgusting."

And if a rider doesn't want to shave their beard off? "Then he can go ride in another team".

singleton

Makes sense - marginal gains....

iainf72

I would like to subscribe to their newsletter.

#nobeards

RichN95.

What about moustaches? What's more traditional in cycling than a moustache? It was about twenty years before someone won the Tour de France tachless

above_the_cows

Snot en etensresten in de baard van een coureur, dat is vies.”

rick_chasey

Groot gelijk.

Vuelta95

You use 'Innit' far too frequently for it to be ironic, no?

rick_chasey

Sorry, do I know you?

ocdupalais

What's with the outbreaks of Dutch/Flemish? Is there some sort of exclusive secret inner sanctum going on? I've tried rubbing the screen with Edam and dousing it in Westmalle Tripel... still gibberish.

above_the_cows

OCDuPalais wrote:

What's with the outbreaks of Dutch/Flemish? Is there some sort of exclusive secret inner sanctum going on? I've tried rubbing the screen with Edam and dousing it in Westmalle Tripel... still gibberish.

Sorry hoor! Try drinking the Westmalle Tripel, I find it helps, especially with pronunciation. The Edam you can leave, unless it has an orange rind, we pawn the red stuff off on the foreigners.

salsiccia1

Above The Cows wrote:

OCDuPalais wrote:

What's with the outbreaks of Dutch/Flemish? Is there some sort of exclusive secret inner sanctum going on? I've tried rubbing the screen with Edam and dousing it in Westmalle Tripel... still gibberish.

Sorry hoor! Try drinking the Westmalle Tripel, I find it helps, especially with pronunciation. The Edam you can leave, unless it has an orange rind, we pawn the red stuff off on the foreigners.

Well there's no need for that

mrfpb

Ever since Team GB went public about the 'ladyshave' policy, every team needs a shaving rule.

Richmond Racer 2

Salsiccia1 wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

OCDuPalais wrote:

What's with the outbreaks of Dutch/Flemish? Is there some sort of exclusive secret inner sanctum going on? I've tried rubbing the screen with Edam and dousing it in Westmalle Tripel... still gibberish.

Sorry hoor! Try drinking the Westmalle Tripel, I find it helps, especially with pronunciation. The Edam you can leave, unless it has an orange rind, we pawn the red stuff off on the foreigners.

Well there's no need for that

Rude!

rick_chasey

mrfpb wrote:

Ever since Team GB went public about the 'ladyshave' policy, every team needs a shaving rule.

Er what policy is that?

FocusZing

How do you tell a gold medal winning cyclist she needs to stop getting bikini waxes? “It was a tricky one to broach,” admits Phil Burt, British Cycling’s long-time physiotherapist. “But we knew that we had to try to persuade the girls to stop shaving and waxing if we were going to sort out the saddle pain we knew all of them were suffering with. At one point we were saying: ‘Should we be buying the girls beard-trimmers?’”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/ ... ore-medals

It goes closer than that.

Bo Duke

FocusZing wrote:

How do you tell a gold medal winning cyclist she needs to stop getting bikini waxes? “It was a tricky one to broach,” admits Phil Burt, British Cycling’s long-time physiotherapist. “But we knew that we had to try to persuade the girls to stop shaving and waxing if we were going to sort out the saddle pain we knew all of them were suffering with. At one point we were saying: ‘Should we be buying the girls beard-trimmers?’”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/ ... ore-medals

It goes closer than that.

I thought it was going to say something else... that was a close shave.

above_the_cows

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

OCDuPalais wrote:

What's with the outbreaks of Dutch/Flemish? Is there some sort of exclusive secret inner sanctum going on? I've tried rubbing the screen with Edam and dousing it in Westmalle Tripel... still gibberish.

Sorry hoor! Try drinking the Westmalle Tripel, I find it helps, especially with pronunciation. The Edam you can leave, unless it has an orange rind, we pawn the red stuff off on the foreigners.

Well there's no need for that

Rude!

'Tis a great language as you can see!

burnthesheep

Their employer, their rules. I'm from the US. Lots of "professional" job employers make men be clean shaven at work. I'm lucky, I work in engineering and it's more lax. We have guys with ZZ Top beards here.

knedlicky

burnthesheep wrote:

Their employer, their rules. I'm from the US. Lots of "professional" job employers make men be clean shaven at work. I'm lucky, I work in engineering and it's more lax. We have guys with ZZ Top beards here.

When I last worked in the UK (a while back now, for a few years I've been 'on the continent'), like burnthesheep, I was also in engineering, but in contrast to his experiences, where I worked one had to ask the permission of management to grow a beard.
This although we staff never met members of the press or public, nor were ever expected to wear a tie, shirt, tweed jacket (ugh!), or whatever else (no one even ever said we needed to wear trousers). Just for some reason, beards were out.
When I was taken on, I already had a beard, so was exempt from these rules, but existing employees weren't.

DeVlaeminck

burnthesheep wrote:

Their employer, their rules. I'm from the US. Lots of "professional" job employers make men be clean shaven at work. I'm lucky, I work in engineering and it's more lax. We have guys with ZZ Top beards here.

Bullocks to that unless it can be justified it should be illegal as with requiring women to wear high heels and other such nonsense.

RichN95.

So who are the top ten bearded (racing) cyclists?

Luca Paolini, Bradley Wiggins, Peter Sagan and the Russian in American Flyers are surely automatic selections. Simon Geschke is a decent pick. Sean Eadie on the track. Who else?

No stubble. And I'm undecided about goatees despite having one myself for a couple of years.

evil_breakfast

RichN95 wrote:

So who are the top ten bearded (racing) cyclists?

Luca Paolini, Bradley Wiggins, Peter Sagan and the Russian in American Flyers are surely automatic selections. Simon Geschke is a decent pick. Sean Eadie on the track. Who else?

No stubble. And I'm undecided about goatees despite having one myself for a couple of years.

greasedscotsman

RichN95 wrote:

Who else?

Dan Craven.

graeme_s-2

Sean Conway? Not an elite pro, but he has broken some records, which is kind of like racing (tenuous...)

trek_dan

The 'Hot Sauce Cycling' Canadian pro cross racer has superb whiskers.

mfin

The fashion for hypster beards has lasted quite a while because balding people can have them and join in on a hair related fashion for once, this and that the look detracts the eye from the fact they are losing their hair so they do it. Fact.

Pross

At what point does stubble become a beard? You can't ban stubble as all men will have some to a degree. If it was the UK or the US I would expect a law suit down the line if someone got sacked. That said, I'm not sure why anyone spending so much time racing a bike would want a beard. You'll end up with a ridiculous tan if you shave it off in addition to the potential for overheating and hygiene aspects.

Laurens ten Dam should presumably be on Rich's list and those infamous photos are a prime example of why no-one should race with a beard!

Garry H

This can be seen as religious discrimination.

RichN95.

Garry H wrote:

This can be seen as religious discrimination.

Hipster is not a religion

Garry H

RichN95 wrote:

Garry H wrote:

This can be seen as religious discrimination.

Hipster is not a religion

Some would argue with you.

Matthewfalle

I was tempted to join the Navy just so I could grow a beard.