We know that riding a bike regularly can make you fitter and less stressed, but did you realise it could also make you intelligent and cool? Well, in the eye of the beholder, at any rate.

To coincide with the opening of registration for the iconic London to Brighton bike ride, event organisers The British Heart Foundation have released the results of a study they commissioned into how people who participate in different sports are perceived.

Cyclists, it seems, make a great impression!

The research was conducted by Mindlab, a psychology and neuroscience research consultancy based at the Sussex Innovation Centre. They conducted ‘Implicit Association Tests’ on a group of 601 individuals, comparing each persons gut feelings towards a range of different sports.

An implicit association test measures the strength of a person’s subconscious and automatic associations between objects, concepts and feelings.

In this case, they compared how people viewed cyclists, runners, footballers and tennis players, and in particular how charitable, intelligent, confident, attractive, cool and wholesome they thought they were.

Lo and behold, cyclists came out 13% more intelligent, 13% cooler, and 10% more charitable than the average.

And there’s more; nearly a quarter (23%) of the participants said they’d rather go on a date with a cyclist than one of the other types of sportspeople, and 80% said they would be impressed if a date or partner had completed a charity challenge.

So in the charitable spirit of cycling, if you fancy raising money for a great cause and joining in what we can say from experience is an amazing, uplifting and incredibly fun event, then get involved in this years London to Brighton ride.

Incredibly, it’s the 39^th London to Brighton ride that the British Heart Foundation have organised, and this year it’s supported by Santander.

You’ll start off in London, and wind your way through beautiful country roads that will be closed off to other traffic. Expect to be cheered on by spectators as you go, and do stop to sample the homemade cake at the various stands en route. Finally, there’s a lovely long descent into Brighton before the final straight along the seafront, through the finish gates, and past all the cheering crowds. It’s brilliant!

We think it’s a must-do event this year, so get registering – and maybe we’ll see you there!

Interested? Check out our experience of the 2013 London to Brighton ride.