The word “bacon” doesn’t crop up in many sports. You hear athletes described as bulls, bears, rams, sharks, wolves, vixens, crocs and any number of other animals but our humble friend, the pig, doesn’t get a lot of mention in athletic circles. Could that be because pigs are (possibly unfairly) branded as dirty, smelly, lazy, fat and gluttonous animals? These are hardly characteristics normally associated with sporting stars. Well there is a sport where our porcine buddies rate a mention and strangely enough, that sport is bicycle racing.
“What? Bicycle racing,” I hear you cry out. “What possible link could bicycles have to the piggy world?” Come on folks. Use your imagination. What does a piece of crispy cooked bacon look like? Ever seen anything like bacon on a super-fit road racer? Unfortunately for serious bicycle athletes, bacon is a very big, unavoidable, part of their world. Bike racers get bacon on their legs, their elbows, their faces, their hips and sometimes even their bums! Yup. Bacon is the crusty, scabby remnant of any racing fall that leaves the rider sliding along the road leaving masses of skin on the rocky surface.
Leave a Reply