Will the person (you know who you are) who told Marie it was, "utterly safe" to cycle there now be making the apology to her family and friends that has been called for ?

A study in Austria shows that strenuous biking is hard on the scrotum.


Men who return from an arduous day of biking and discover that their balls are bruised and sore should no longer wonder if such activity is dangerous. According to a recent study from Austria, it is.

In a necessarily delicate study of 45 male bikers published in the Lancet, a research team from University Hospital in Innsbruck concluded that 96 percent experienced "scrotal abnormalities," including calcium deposits, cysts and twisted veins -- the latter of which are known to impair fertility. (Oh, and we shouldn't neglect to mention the pain from being continually smashed against a bike seat.) A comparative study of 31 nonbiking males showed that only 16 percent had such abnormalities, with the rest of the group demonstrating healthy, robust scrota.

Dr. Ferdinand Frauscher, author of the study, told reporters that the results indicate that mountain bikers can definitely develop fertility problems. Aside from twisted veins, another potential cause of impotence is the pressure from a bike seat, which can damage blood vessels and nerves.