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Forget the Hotties
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Awesome awesome article. Worth reading the whole thing to see who she nominates as a Wattie.

http://espn.go.com/...es-espnw-got-watties

Forget the hotties, espnW's got the Watties
Sep 7 | By Kathryn Bertine

There's a right and a wrong way to rank female athletes. When it comes to cycling, Kathryn Bertine finds there's a lot more power in the top Watties than the top Hotties.

Last week, Bicycling Magazine came out with a poll asking, "Who's the hottest female cyclist?" Five racers' photos were included. None of them was pictured in the heat of competition, most of the photos were glamour shots and all of the cyclists are inarguably beautiful, wonderful women. Now, I'm not going to start preaching about sexism and equality and blah blah blah -- I'm actually fine with this kind of hottie list coming from the likes of Maxim, FHM or even People. That's what those publications do. Ranking physical beauty is their thing. But you know what else they do? Those magazines also write about the women.

What I'm not okay with is that Bicycling Magazine, a supposed "friend" in helping to promote women in sport, rarely gives professional (or amateur) female cycling any coverage at all. Three of the women in Bicycling's hottie poll -- Britain's Victoria Pendleton, the USA's Dotsie Bausch and Sweden's Emilia Fahlin -- are so much more than beautiful faces. They are an Olympian, a world-record setter and a national champion, respectively. But who would know that? From race results to training features to personal profiles, very little of Bicycling Magazine's content is about women.

If Bicycling's hottie list were one of many features on females, that would be one thing. But it's not. So the hottie list is just a tad insulting when it's the only time Bicycling pays attention to the fantastic females of the sport. And honestly, it makes the magazine look just plain silly. Bicycling Magazine rating female pro cyclists is like Entertainment Weekly grading opera performances.

Either stick to what you know, Bicycling: mass-market male clothing, high end bikes for triple chain ring weekend warriors -- or start covering women regularly and knowledgeably. Start measuring talent by watts, not hots. If you're going to rank a female athlete, here's the right way to do it:

Announcing, in no particular order, the first-ever 10 Super Female Watties of Road Cycling, where physical power is beauty. Vote for a winner if you must, but espnW thinks these top 10 (plus three) are all equally awesome.

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Jen

"In order to keep a true perspective on one's importance, everyone should have a dog that worships him and a cat that will ignore him." - Dereke Bruce
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Re: Forget the Hotties [JenHS] [ In reply to ]
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Unfortunately many of these women seem to need to do the sexy shots for publicity, so they are doing it to themselves.
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Re: Forget the Hotties [JenHS] [ In reply to ]
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JenHS wrote:
Either stick to what you know, Bicycling: mass-market male clothing, high end bikes for triple chain ring weekend warriors -- or start covering women regularly and knowledgeably.

Frankly, I think this writer has Bicycling pegged... but if you want female pro cycling taken seriously, I think Bicycling is the last place you'd want it. It's by and large a magazine for over indulged, overweight, 50 year old white dbags.

Velonews, on the other hand, I think does a very good job of covering the female pro ranks; I'm not sure what makes it into print since I never buy the magazine, but their website is usually pretty good about getting results, photos, etc. with the same expediency as the male pro ranks. And like any good cycling coverage, they only people they focus on ARE the fast people!

I think the writers article is a crime with the "Watties" though; where the heck is Nicole Cooke??? There was a period for a while where there was no real racing; just Cooke and a bunch of girls that would finish minutes after her!! :)

___________________________________
MS: Exercise Science
Your speed matters a lot, sometimes you need to be very fast, where sometimes you need to breakdown your speed.
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Re: Forget the Hotties [steveandbarb1] [ In reply to ]
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steveandbarb1 wrote:
Unfortunately many of these women seem to need to do the sexy shots for publicity, so they are doing it to themselves.

Nice! They get SO much publicity. *Eye roll.*

Excellent article, thanks for sharing. I like her writing style and positive approach.
Here's another good one: 5 reasons it's great to be a female athlete.
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Re: Forget the Hotties [JenHS] [ In reply to ]
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great article!

seems to me there is a women's cycling team made of former models and they actually aren't bad, but I can't find this...
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