‘DO you have to be slim and sporty to be a cyclist?” A question asked of me by Maisie, age nine. It was asked over email (by her teacher who had sent through questions from the whole class) so luckily I had time to ponder it.

Being human (read: naturally self-centred) I first considered whether I myself am slim and sporty. You’d think making a living as a professional sportsperson would give me a quick tick in the “sporty” box but what actually confirmed it, in my own mind at least, was that as a child I saw myself as Sporty Spice.

I reckon a lot of women my age (there I go with my flawless data collection and statistical analysis again) will have chosen which Spice Girl they thought they were, because labelling each band member with a stereotype that kids can attach themselves to, and in turn define themselves by, was an amazingly successful gimmick. I’m not dissing it; I loved playing Spice Girls because here was a pop group that had the sense to give you guidelines for how to play them (Ginger Spice being the only tricky one; how do you act ginger?).

But do you have to be sporty to be a cyclist? Well I asked the GB cycling women’s endurance WhatsApp group and the results are in, Maisie.

Assuming you hold the same definition that I did age nine, no, you don’t have to be sporty. The current squad have a history of all five different Spice Girls – and also have a history of brilliant success in cycling. Does this mean we can rule out any kind of pos-itive relationship between Sporty Spice childhood and professional sportsperson adulthood? I don’t actually know, I was too busy telling people what I want, what I really really want, to pay attention at school.

So do you have to be slim?

Being human (read: naturally self-centred) I searched my own name in Google images to answer this one. Terrible idea. Worse idea than opening a tube of Pringles thinking you’ll just have a couple. Worse idea than thinking you can even out cycling tan lines by sun bathing in arm and leg warmers. Worse than thinking you’ll just take a wee break from writing your column with your eyes closed on top of the bed but not actually fall asleep.

I managed to scroll to the bottom of Google images. I didn’t know that was even a thing, I just assumed the page went on indefinitely. But no, if you’re really desperate to find a flattering picture of yourself Google will keep leading you on to the very bottom, and never deliver. I wouldn’t recommend trying it at home. In fact, I specifically request you don’t try it with my name.

The whole thing got me upset that such a subjective word could be associated with potential performance. I think I’d be pissed off if a journalist had asked me, but coming from a nine-year-old, I just felt a bit sad that “slim” had made the cut over the plethora of adjectives I’d apply to my favourite cyclists: fast, powerful, smart, dedicated…

And then, the universe falling into that familiar habit of making me think there’s a greater force at play by co-ordinating my existence into handy themes, my PE teacher friend asked me to come into her school and speak about body positivity. It’s a senior school so the discussion will be slightly more nuanced but I basically have my chance to change the conversation from one of “Do you have to look like X and act like Y to be a cyclist?” to “What can I get out of cycling?”. For a few girls, anyway. I gather we’ll also be bitching about false representations of celebrities in the media which is always fun.

Speaking to people about sport or inspiring them through sport is part of my job as a UK Lottery-funded athlete. The getting on a bike and racing at the Olympics part of it seems a lot easier at times than the standing in front of a room of confident 14-year-olds fielding questions about my lifestyle bit. I get pretty nervous for both.

My next getting on a bike and racing shift for GB isn’t for another couple of months, when I’ll return to track racing because until then I’ve got a fairly packed schedule on the road.

Racing for my road team (Team WNT Pro Cycling), I have our biggest race of the calendar coming up in just over a week: the OVO Energy Women’s Tour. It starts on June 7 and is a part of the UCI Women’s World-Tour which means it’s one of the 20 most prestigious races in the world. Highlights are on TV after every stage on ITV4 and Eurosport (I think you can also get them on demand). We’ll be the underdogs with some more subtle goals than winning the general classification, but tune in to enjoy the whole race anyway, even if that does involve me getting my head kicked in at times.