'Podium Girls' in pro cycling...

At the last road race we organised we had the founder of some of the big races in the south west to give his judgement on the race and congratulate the winners. He's ancient and all those big events are history... so it was a bit of an education for most of the crowd when he was introduced. It seemed pretty classy. He wasn't in a bikini.

Old boys (and girls) in racing are the best.

Malcolm Prince, past organiser of the legendary Tour of the Cotswolds. We spotted him at the 2013 edition and asked him back in 2014 to present.

Yeah, it seems ToB is out the picture really, which is actually great news! Let's hope when it's on that it really has moved on as we have been told and not like it was in 2010 with local "aspiring model or a drama student"s being paid £50 for being "presentation hostess"'s..

British Cycling and British teams it is then.. in relation to Team Sky a friend mentioned that Rapha would probably listen to us if we were to threaten them with boycott as obviously we're a hard core of their customers...also fi'zi:k might listen..

@plexarice no idea what is next but yes, I think it is best if it's aimed at a Race as a deadline..

Rapha don't have any control over what Team Sky does other than the kit they wear. Since they don't run or sponsor any major races they won't have much leverage over this issue, same with Fizik. The people to target are race organisers and sponsors I reckon.

Had something about this pop up on facebook via some one else, a repost from a Bristol based concern, think it was soul cafe (would have to go back into the slow hell of FB to find it again)
But the idea is spreading.

Yes, but they are important stakeholders who can be involved in the dialogue.

I don't think sponsors of teams will be willing to use what limited leverage they have. Can you imagine Rapha telling Sky "We won't dress you unless you only race in events with no podium girls"? It doesn't really work. Sky have an obligation to race where they do. It's not really negotiable.

Some races might have sponsor reps at the ceremony but it's the organisation that runs the event with the power to make changes. Having said that you could petition British Cycling to publish guidelines or something. Or you could go for ASO?

ASO / BC don't have much on the line if were to petition them.

You want the person who is going to feel the reputational heat. Ideally we want a 'family brand' who are the major sponsor for a race, and do not want to be associated with sexism in the sport - and who also stand to gain some good press from them making the change.

It would be good to ask BC to make a policy statement but with the flagship event ToB a current non-issue, anything they do won't go a long way in affecting the practice this season. The TdF isn't likely to be back on our shores for another 4 years and we don't want to wait that long.

Not sure what the status of other events like the Tour de Yorkshire or other bigger events are like on podium girls. However, ultimately, as far as the road is concerned, I think, save the aforementioned ToB, that's it for the bigger events in GB. The Vuelta is in three weeks which is a bit too soon for a campaign to gain traction and you are then veering into the territory of taking money from actual models who have actually made a commitment to turn up to do a job and likely can't find replacement work. That all kind of leaves us scrabbling about angry about something but with nowhere to start. We need to move from reactive to proactive and try and do something visible, meaningful and acheivable.

So here's what I would suggest as a plan:

a) Draw up a list of events (say from September onwards) that are big enough to merit televisation in some form
b) Work out which of them are currently planning on using podium girls
c) Pick one which will be attended by a British team and start from there

I like this plan.

The_Seldom_Killer

Middle class 'social justice warriors' and 'manginas' please go away from our sport and use your over-educated under-occupied minds to go and effect real changes in this world instead trying to undermine everything that straight men are into.

Pro cycling is a traditionally European sport not a puritan Anglo one, we are Johnny-come-latelys to this game so who do you think you are to decide what is acceptable or not?

A lot of the audience including women like podium girls, I like podium girls and podium girls like the work and exposure it gives them also.

Why can't people like you just accept that some women are attractive? if that attractiveness can be employed to decorate events/occassions so what? all parties are willing to the contract so again what is your problem?

I suspect I know the answer to that...

'manginas'? just. wtf.
so with that, and your other 'insults' it's clear there is no point in responding.

Oh, oh I know!

It's satire, right?

It's like when Jeez suddenly flipped that time.

Gold!

Mangina?

Really, is that the best you can come up with? Some try-hard barely functional portmanteau word from the playbook of Dapper Laughs and Return of Kings. I mean seriously, is that it? Insult a man by implying some trait womanliness because women are pitiful, useless creatures who's only place in this world is to be objectified as they stand in the kitchen making you a sandwich.

You're the reason I do this. A sad, archaic embaressment to men everywhere living in your deluded sphere where everything was better in the 1890's railing against change where women get to have an equal footing in all things. Your pathetic little misogynistic world is already loosing relevance by the day. If by my aspiring to be better than that is going hasten its death then all the better.

Wait until he realises that some LFGSS members don't just show solidarity with women...

...they actually are women.

dramaticprariedog.gif

And your claim it as "our sport", how the fuck it is your sport? Do you hold some kind of deed or title to cycle racing? I doubt it, I doubt such a thing really exists. Certainly it's never surfaced anywhere anyone I know might have seen it. My view is that the sport belongs to whoever dares to set themselves on the start line, whoever steps up to make sure the start line is there in the first place whoever stands on the course and supports the riders in their trials and battles. You're going to have to up with some pretty serious claim of ownship to prove that you own the sport any more than I do.

If some of us are of the mind that things should be done better, or differently then that's up to us to do what we think is right. We'll succeed on merit, not on some misguided idea by someone else that they own the sport and we don't.

use your over-educated under-occupied minds to go and effect real changes in this world instead trying to undermine everything that straight men are into.

Ah fuck it, I'm going to keep on going because my mind is soooo under occupied.

I'm not over educated, not in the slightest. Academically I'm pretty shit and, unless you actually dropped out of secondary school, I'm probably worse educated than you. And if you set the bar for over-educated rests at completing secondary school, then seriously, that is a bar way too fucking low. But all of that isn't relevant, not in the slightest. Some riders in the pro-peleton actually have degrees and I'm guessing you aren't dismissing their opinion on cycling matters. If you are then that now might be the most ridiculous idea you've ever had.

And cycling is in the real world. It's not on another planet, it's not in another plane of existence or another universe. It's in this world and all of the blood, sweat, tears, joys and drama are real. Really properly real and really in this world. So if we're going to effect change in the real world, cycling gets to be included in that, whether you like it or not.

And again, it's quite irrelevant, but I am straight. Straight and happily married to a real actual woman. Not a kitchen dwelling sandwich machine though, a woman who races bicycles. A woman who has been ignored and sidelined time and time again by men like you. A woman who's been reduced simply to her looks because her ability to make a bike go fast and her massively over-educated engineering degree aren't worth anything in your warped notion of the "real world". And it may just surprise you that I'm not the only straight man to hold my views on podium girls, not by a fucking long chalk.

Johnny come latelys?

They dispelled the theory of phlogiston.
They proved the earth was round not flat.
They secured the vote for women.
They brought about an end to slavery.
They've put women in charge of nations (nations bigger than kitchens with more responsibility than making your sandwiches).

Johnny come lately's have brought about just about every change that has ever happened. They didn't do it based on whether they were first, second or last to the game. They did it based on whether they were more right than the Johnny come firstlys.

So who am I? I'm me and I'll win because I'm right or lose because you are. Your argument about whether or not you got there first are as irrelevant as everything else you've said.

so much #rep to this.

@Fignon

Would you be willing to lose the podium girls if it meant that a number of people feel more comfortable in our sport? It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game, and leaving the podium girls out of it is not meant to take away your identity as a male. It is meant to make the people who object to it feel more at home and respected.

A classic 'can't we all get along', I know, but I strongly believe the struggle is to include more people, not exclude one group as another is included.

Hear hear!

As a Johnny-come-lately to this little corner of the cycling microcosm, where its generally pretty clear that the community has decided what is acceptable can we ask you to put up or >>>>>>>>>>>>>.
I'm sorry this doesn't align with your own personal views but hey hopefully you can just accept that