Visma-Lease a Bike settle '100 men v one gorilla' debate, and everything else you missed on social media this week

Who would win in a fight between 100 men and one gorilla? That’s the question that’s been doing the rounds on the internet of late.

It’s hypothetical, of course. In the scenario, the men are unarmed, and the gorilla is an adult male silverback, also unarmed, for the sake of fair conditions. No brave army has been bold enough to take on the challenge as yet, so until they do, we’re free to toy with the idea.

Visma-Lease a Bike put the thought experiment to their riders this week at the Giro d’Italia.

Who does Wout van Aert think would win? “One gorilla? I don’t know,” the Belgian shrugs. The question is silly. Van Aert’s mind is on more important things, and yours should be too. Maybe we ought to call it a day there. Maybe we shouldn’t be asking the riders nonsense as they focus on one of the biggest races of the year?

Suddenly, up steps Simon Yates, and the debate is alive again. “I’ve seen this,” Yates says with a smile after hearing the question. “It depends on which humans it is, right? You could have the biggest guys, the baddest guys on the planet,” he continues. “I say the humans. One hundred humans? You could have everybody. Get the guys from the MMA and all that, boxers.” The gorilla is shaking in his boots.

The question then changes. What if the 100 humans were all Edoardo Affini, the team’s 1.9m-tall TT specialist? “One hundred Edos beat the gorilla!” says Olav Kooij confidently. “One hundred Edos, of course,” Van Aert concurs, now lured into swapping sides. Affini himself is not so confident. “Gorilla,” the Italian says with an assured nod.

We can now all rest easy. The primatologists of Visma-Lease a Bike have had their say: 100 MMA fighters would win, 100 Affinis would not.

What the squad’s social media team maybe didn’t expect was the sharp wit of those in the comments sections. “What about three Visma-Lease a Bike riders v one Neilson Powless?” people wrote on both X and Instagram.

Fortunately, that debate has already been settled, with all parties spared of a bloodshed. If you want to know which way it fell, I suggest you look up the finale of this year’s Dwars door Vlaanderen. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t a good day for Visma-Lease a Bike.

Elsewhere on social media this week, a stray goat terrorised the Giro peloton, Mads Pedersen drank chocolate milk, and Zoe Bäckstedt took on a flying kilometre time trial on Zwift.

1. For what it’s worth, I think the men would beat the gorilla, as long as they don’t have to go one at a time

2. Who would win between Dion Smith and a rampaging goat?

3. The world's next biggest debate surrounds the use of TT helmets in road stages. Are you in the yay or nay camp?

4. The Giro d'Italia social media admin tends to spend more time making memes than writing about the race, and I'm all for it

5. Less time gap posts, more celebrity dating memes

6. After a transfer from Albania to Italy, the team buses were ready to take the riders across to passport control

7. What better way to announce your lifetime contract than necking a carton of chocolate milk?

8. Lidl-Trek, if you're reading this, I'd like to know what laundry whitener Elisa Balsamo uses on her socks

9. "It's only 1km, it surely can't be that bad?" Think again, Zoe Bäckstedt

10. And finally, Paul Double was in the breakaway at the Giro d'Italia today, which is a good enough excuse to resurface his touching 'Purple Rain' serenade