CYCLING
Belgian cycling team bans beards "for aesthetic reasons"
Riders for Belgium's Sport Vlaanderen won't be permitted to wear beards anymore, its sporting director has told local media.
Cyclists riding for Belgian outfit Sport Vlaanderen will no longer be able to have beards "for aesthetic reasons", the team's sporting director told has local media.
"I'm taking this measure for the elegance of cycling," Walter Planckaert explained in Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad.
"We're a cycling team...not rugby players"
"We're a cycling team, with riders. Not motocross pilots or rugby players. Snot and food leftovers in the beard of a rider in action, it's nasty."
The outfit's cyclists will still be allowed to sport stubble, but any rider opposed to the full beard ban should find another team, Planckaert added.