i base it on the football theory, if youre wearing team kit you are a fan of that team....
ive never once thought that fat bloke down the boozer was having a week off from the utd left wing.
The difference is that football has long been the premier spectator sport in the country, with every man and his whippet wearing a Man U shirt in the Rovers Return at the weekend (or do they support City in Corrie, I don't watch it) and everyone knows what Rooney looks like. Cycling, OTOH, has long been a minority sport, so the only people wearing bike racing kit have been cycling participants, rather than mere fans. To the uninitiated, anyone riding a bike and wearing lycra is several steps above them on the ladder, so someone wearing team kit may well ride for the team. Seriously, I'm a pretty average twentysomething rider in club kit on a CF bike, and I've been asked numerous times whether I'm in the Tour de France - I'm pretty sure that a good proportion of those have been serious!
To all those insisting on their right to wear pro team kit, acting shocked at opinions like totallyfixed's or Rob3rt's, here's the deal:
- You don't wear any team kit that you haven't earned the right to wear.
- You don't wear any championship kit that you haven't earned the right to wear.
- Retro kit from a long-gone team is okay, in which case the longer since the team raced, the better Peugeot, Mapei etc are all completely fine, HTC Highroad is a bit sketchy.
This is pretty well the default position among them wot wear team kit seriously, and has been so for a long time afaict, so don't shoot the messenger. Whoever saw the Victoria Pendleton documentary, will have seen her dad (no mean racer himself) gazing at the world champion jersey she gave him, framed on his wall. "Have you ever put it on?" asks the presenter, at which point his wistful eyes show their steel, "No, you have to earn it" he insists.
If you're fat, that's none of my business. If you're fat, choose to buy a polka dot jersey and then ride up a hill at 2mph while getting passed by a club run full of people who actually hope to wear a proper polka dot jersey one day, I reserve the right to crack a private joke at your expense.