According to a recent study from the University of Zurich in Switzerland, good athletes are often more attractive than their competitors. Researchers surveyed 816 men and women about which of the selected 80 2012 Tour de France cyclists they thought were more attractive.


According to a recent study from the University of Zurich in Switzerland, athletes judged to be more attractive are often better at their sport than their competitors.

Researchers surveyed 816 men and women about which of the 80 randomly selected 2012 Tour de France cyclists they thought were more attractive.

If participants in the survey recognized the cyclist, their answers were not used in the results, so that the pictures were judged based solely on their appearance.

Results of the un-scientific survey show that the best performing ten percent of cyclists in the Tour de France were rated as 25 percent more attractive than the lowest ten percent.

Erik Postma, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Zurich who worked on the study said: “First, performance may be positively correlated with general health, vigor or strength, or certain personality characteristics, which in their turn may be associated with attractiveness. Alternatively, facial attractiveness may signal endurance performance in particular.”

But the cyclist who was rated as the most attractive actually finished somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Pictures were cropped to show only the cyclists’ faces, and only those without distinguishing features like beards, hats, unflattering lighting, or even sunglasses were used, which included the winner of the Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins from England.