WAGs in the peloton

BLOG: Sabine Sunderland is turning her focus from the athletes to their beautiful wifes...

Publisert 20.04.10 10:39 

 

NORWEGIAN WAG: Susanne Haaheim enjoying some quality time with her husbond during the closing days of the season onCuracao. Foto: Tim De Waele ( ©TDWsport.com )

 

  WAG 1: Team Saxo Bank-rider Stuart O'Grady and his wife Anne Marie.

WAGs - an acronym for Wives And Girlfriends.

The term «WAGs» came into common use during the 2006 Soccer World Cup. Victoria «Posh Spice» Beckham and Cheryl Cole, the WAGs of top English players, became almost as famous as their football-playing husbands as journalists turned their attention to the beautiful women as much as the star players.

Where in football we have been witness to tasteless spectacles of brawls between WAGs and players; where the fashionista WAG extraordinaire can almost dominate the scene, in cycling there have been few scandals, and little in the way of intrigue and gossip hitting the news headlines.

That is not taking in account the doping issue, where cycling seems to get much more attention in than other sports. In fact, it might be a good thing for cycling to cultivate the WAG phenomenon because in other sports it seems to effectively distract from the more unpleasant sporting fraud issues.

With exception of a few high-profile riders who receive more exposure due to their activities off-the-bike rather than as a result of their achievements in racing, the life of the normal pro cyclist and therefore the cycling WAG is far from glamorous.

In the fifteen years of marriage to Scott (Sunderland), I have often been asked – mainly by Scott’s mates - why it is that athletes attract such beautiful girlfriends and spouses.

At first - and because I didn’t see myself fitting that stereotype - I didn’t know how to respond. So I did some research and discovered it can actually be explained by science, to a degree.

In everyday life, it’s difficult to measure whether one man is genetically superior to another – there’s plenty of proof that an unattractive chap may be a genius. The display of wealth is not a reliable indicator either; some rich men are penny-pinchers while others splurge way beyond their means. In those first critical observations, the talents or abilities of a male walking past are rarely perceivable or if anything superficial. The only genetic characteristic assessable in everyday life is whether one man is more physically attractive than another.

During sportive activities, judging genetic superiority and determining which male might be most valuable to the gene pool is easier. Scientific research explains that sport may provide a context within which females can gain information about male quality to inform their choice of partner.

Reports claim that women are more attracted to athletes than non-athletes. Also, successful athletes do tend to have more sexual partners than their less-sporting colleagues.

In fact, in all research material I dug up, it is mentioned that higher levels of performance positively correlated with a higher number of sexual partners. Go Tiger!

While that may be the scientific theory, how is that reflected in the world of cycling?

Tough as nails in a men’s world.

A few decades ago, there was a general belief that most athletes, cyclists included, weren’t blessed with a sparkling wit and mind blowing IQ.

A professional cyclist was supposed to be a machine, trained only to ride his bike and focus solemnly on his sport. The tradition had it that he would sleep apart from his wife in preparation for big events; but in many cases that lead to more frequent visits to the mistress during those times of apparent abstinence.

WAGs were persona non grata among pro cycling management. In the late ’90s, one of Scott’s sports directors thought very highly of me, he said, because he saw me as the perfect wife for a cyclist.

The reason was because I always brought Scott and his team mates hot coffee to the start of the chilly spring races. What an easy honour to achieve; my degree in Communications did nothing for me in this world.

Definitely, times have changed in cycling. Even though this sport still demands the same rigorous routine which prevents most cyclists to have an animated social life, the education of athletes has changed and with it the role of the wife or girlfriend. Women are no longer banned from races by (most of the) team management.

There’s still the odd ones who give us the evil eye whenever they spot us - but more about that in a future blog!

(Part one ends)

Sabine.