Glossy photos of girls on bikes!

Hi Nat, you said it yourself 'in mainstream media'. I personally believe the general public have little idea how hard it is to ride a bike fast or well. Much of the interest in cyclesport on the continent is generated by the fact that the public DO ride bikes and can therefore understand. On that basis the mainstream media would have an impossible task explaining heroic cycling stories. What they are doing is riding the wave that is a cycling rennaisance by the only means they can find, the use of glamour. This isn't isolated to cycling or women...

........why isn't there a massive groundswell of negative opinion to Paul Sackey promoting rugby?

Or any other naked sportsman photos for that matter?

Maybe its cos men are still the dominant sex after all these years and women are still subjected to sexism, objectification and inequality, even if not as bad as 50 or 100 years ago.