Daylight robbery or total snobbery?

Following on from the theme of my last blog (but not wanting to pigeonhole myself as the road.cc fashionista) I wanted to talk about how pleased I am thus far with the content our this esteemed website's forum.

Most other message boards I have had the time to frequent seem to have an obsession with 'cycling as the new golf'. Which is fine. Rich business types on Cervelo's are still fair game and worth catching to someone of my limited ability.

There is nothing better than being on aluminium and zipping past a carbon...Especially if it has a pair of Zipps! That is double points in my eyes.

But forum discussions aren't usually about the rider, most often not about the bikes... They are usually about clothing, and the question is usually worded to give you the impression that the following is fact.

"You need to spend lots of money on Assos and Rapha"

Now I have never been a snob readers, in fact I am happily riding round in a combination of Decathlon and Aldi kit this winter and I have been toasty warm.

What gets my goat is this feeling that you are somewhat better if you spend more on cycling. And that isn't true.

On any level.

Cycling makes the merest of difference to performance at the level most of us operate at.

I have clothing from both Assos and Rapha and very lovely it is too. But I also have clothing from Impsport (team issue) and a host of other brands. If the clothing works and it is what I want to pay, I buy it!

And cyclists should not feel inhibited or see division based on their clothing budget!

So let's try and keep the road.cc forum unblighted by this sort of nonsense and keep to discussing relevant issues to do with the sport and passtime we all love.