“On your left”: The five best cycling cameos on T.V.

Cycling doesn’t make it onto regular T.V. much in North America. At least not compared to Europe, where every prominent pro seems to end up on Dancing With the Stars so frequently we had to cut reality T.V. out of this review. In fact, cycling’s on T.V. in North America so little, we had to include the U.K. to get a proper list.

So, here’s our list of the best time bikes or their riders made cameos on T.V. programming. Aside, as mentioned from Peter Sagan (and Maja Wloszczowska) appearing on their national Dancing With the Stars – and Wout van Aert’s Masked Singer. Ok, cyclists spend a weird amount of time on reality T.V., mostly outside of North America. So let’s just put aside all reality T.V., that way we don’t have to talk about Lance on Stars on Mars. 

Girls 5Eva – Cycling arms 

Cycling might seem like a surprising reoccurring character in a show about ageing pop stars trying to reclaim their youthful success, but it actually fits quite well. What’s a better complement to the ageing pop start than a MAMIL chasing his dreams of athletic prowess on weekends? And Girls 5Eva is both accurate, funny and kind with its MAMIL character, the Dawn’s husband, Scott. From saying he doesn’t trust the Dali Lama because he lives in the Himalayas and doesn’t ride a mountain bike to cheering for “Pescal Pacos” at Tour de Fresno because “he was a forceps baby so he just slices through the wind.” The best moment, though, is the “cycling arms” bit.

That’s all in the first season. In the second season, the husband confesses. “I did something weird. I bought a gravel bike. It cost four grand and I can’t return it because it’s built to your heel-to-crotch ratio.”

The Seinfeld bikes

Ever present, never ridden, Seinfeld’s bikes were a character of their own. Reflective of the mountain bike boom in the 90’s, the bikes hung in the background collecting dust, season after season. The actual bike changed. There was a Cannondale, a Specialized and, most famously, the green Klein. At least Seinfeld had good taste in bikes, even if he never rode them.

Monty Python’s Bicycle Repair Man (S1 Ep.3 )

Turning the clock back, waaaay back to 1969 and the first season of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, (specifically, episode three: How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away) we…