[OldRidgeback]

Interesting article in the Gruaniad…

 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/apr/01/new-word-needed-to-differentiate-cyclists-says-britains-top-paralympian

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[Xenophon2]

Being a native Dutch speaker,

Being a native Dutch speaker, they haven’t quite nailed it down.  ‘Fietser’ and ‘wielrenner’ both mean ‘cyclist’, the difference being that the latter term implies a (professional) competitive element.

When I ride my drop bar bike to work every morning (clad in lycra and not pootling along) nobody would call me a ‘wielrenner’, they see me as a middle-aged fart who rides a bike rather than a mistress.  If I ride the same bike, clad more or less the same way but with my club on a sunday morning then I’m a ‘wielrenner’.  Admittedly, competitive (amateur) cyclists don’t have the best of reputations, partly for some very good reasons.

[Author]

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