- News
- Reviews
- Bikes
- Accessories
- Accessories - misc
- Computer mounts
- Bags
- Bar ends
- Bike bags & cases
- Bottle cages
- Bottles
- Cameras
- Car racks
- Child seats
- Computers
- Glasses
- GPS units
- Helmets
- Lights - front
- Lights - rear
- Lights - sets
- Locks
- Mirrors
- Mudguards
- Racks
- Pumps & CO2 inflators
- Puncture kits
- Reflectives
- Smart watches
- Stands and racks
- Trailers
- Clothing
- Components
- Bar tape & grips
- Bottom brackets
- Brake & gear cables
- Brake & STI levers
- Brake pads & spares
- Brakes
- Cassettes & freewheels
- Chains
- Chainsets & chainrings
- Derailleurs - front
- Derailleurs - rear
- Forks
- Gear levers & shifters
- Groupsets
- Handlebars & extensions
- Headsets
- Hubs
- Inner tubes
- Pedals
- Quick releases & skewers
- Saddles
- Seatposts
- Stems
- Wheels
- Tyres
- Health, fitness and nutrition
- Tools and workshop
- Miscellaneous
- Buyers Guides
- Features
- Forum
- Recommends
- Podcast
news
Sagan bum pinchingPeter Sagan under fire for pinching podium girl's bottom
Peter Sagan has been criticised for a photograph that shows him pinching the bottom of a podium girl after he was placed second in the Tour of Flanders yesterday.
As the winner Fabian Cancellara was given the customary kiss on the cheek by a blonde hostess, Sagan turned and 'goosed' her on the backside.
Social media immediately exploded, with thousands registering their unease at Sagan's act - and he was eventually forced to apologise.
Michael Hutchinson, 2012 Irish Time Trial National Champion, tweeted: “Shame that Peter Sagan has so much class on a bike and so very little off it.”
Irish Paracycling Team member Colin Lynch wrote: “Despite the symbolism of being kissed by scantily-clad women & then spraying champagne all over the place, groping them before is [off] limits.
“The podium move by Sagan was like school on Sunday. No class.”
Cycling writer and broadcaster Ned Boulting told The Independent: “To say it’s OK for winners to celebrate in these ridiculous clinches with these poorly paid, barely dressed and no doubt freezing cold women – I think it looks bad and pretty repressive.
“It’s seen as completely normal to have podium girls but it doesn’t need to be. If they ceased to exist [in the sport] overnight, no one would miss them.”
Jane Aubrey, editor of Australian cyclingnews.com, tweeted: “Anyone excusing Sagan's behaviour due to his age, needs to think again. In the workplace, it's called harassment.”
Adam Tranter, editor of website Cyclosport, retweeted the picture and wrote: “The moment you realise Sagan is actually just a bit of an idiot.”
Sagan's apology - via Twitter - was short and sullen. “Was not my intention to disrespect women today on the podium. Just a joke, sorry if someone was disturbed about it,” he wrote.
Latest Comments
- mattw 2 min 38 sec ago
On the London horses, and how they are startled by noise, I'm interested that the conversation has been about banning horses from London, rather...
- chrisonabike 1 sec ago
Well I agree we're constantly paving paradise essentially because we all want to live longer and don't want to share our space. Same in my city of...
- Hirsute 38 min 45 sec ago
Ex black cab https://twitter.com/KingArtAT/status/1783296299787309088
- EK Spinner 55 min 20 sec ago
It isn't about policing the roads, it is about reducing the likely hood of a dangerous overtake, in this case the taxi driver choose not to expose...
- bensynnock 1 hour 34 min ago
Quite. I was wondering where the cycling infrastructure is located that causes drivers to go 90 on the M3?
- I love my bike 2 hours 3 min ago
If one is prepared to pay £28 for a TPU tube, the butyl comparison should be Continental's Supersonic ~50g or Schwalbe at 70g. Both costing £8 - ...
- I love my bike 2 hours 15 min ago
Media needs to do their part, but the readr/consumer also needs to do theirs as well:...
- ubercurmudgeon 2 hours 51 min ago
Kona makes practical, affordable commuter bikes and goes bust. Colnago makes toys for the affluent and it is booming. Just goes to show that the...
- Mathemagician 4 hours 13 min ago
To answer your question, yes you can sometimes feel the difference. Built a set of wheels for a friend and he installed them with new lightweight...
Add new comment
70 comments
Professional sports men (and women) are, on the whole, a bit stupid. Thats why they earn their living playing sports and not performing heart surgery.
Stupid people invariably do stupid things when presented with the opportunity.
Sagan rides bikes for a living. The podium girl, rightly or wrongly, stands on a stage and kisses strange sweaty men who ride bikes for a living.
Life is all about choices.
In other news - the presentations at the the Tours of Oman and Qatar didnt feel the need for such archaic practises i notice and some presentations were even done by women who had some sort of qualification beyond being skinny and well groomed.
Whew! I was beginning to think that people on this site were sensible, and that misogyny had no place here.
Glad to see that I was wrong.
/sarcasm
Why don't all of you ask the women in your lives how they would feel if some guy very publicly pinched their ass? And why don't you ask yourselves how you would react if you saw some guy pinch the bum of a woman you love?
It's unbelievable that anyone would think this was ok. Be better people.
Completely unacceptable. As is the stone-age sophistry being used by some people in attempted mitigation.
...
Podium/padock girls - this firm schoolboy sexism seems to pervasive in powered and human powered two wheeled sports; T'is a bit captain caveman in this day and age. Great race however the organisers need to grow up and some riders need bromide!
I have to admit when i saw the picture it brought a slight smile to my face.
Not condoning what he did, cos it is wrong, but c'mon it was a spur of the moment thing, he's sort of apologised so lets move on.
If the young girl involved wanted to make a complaint all well and good.
I always loved being called a do-gooder. It's a shocking and brilliant insult.
YOU THERE! YOU! YOU DO GOOD! HA!
Ummmm. Thanks. Try our best.
I would.
I'd happily be a podium boy for Marianne Vos!
And I wouldn't be mad at all (!) if she pinched my butt. In fact why wuld I be there if I didn't enjoy the attention?
All in fun, no offense taken... Sagan was just a silly immature boy... He should just be taken to the side by his manager or his parents and told to behave...
His agent should say, look, you've got an image to protect, a marketability you could ruin with these stunts... Just think about it, apologize to the girl, pay for dinner for her and a companion at a fine restaurant, buy Cancellara a bouquet of flowers and get on with it!
I wonder how po faced people can get. People of adult mien can make sexual jokes without offence. I'm not sure that any of us are qualified to say how the girl felt about it all.
As someone else posted on the other thread, some podium girls have given cyclists a pinch on the bottom. It's a bit of fun for what is otherwise a weird and uncomfortable process for all around.
I think the matter would be massively different if he groped off stage, and/or graped a tit. But it's clear it was just a cheeky, if inadvisable nip. Her non-reaction is probably the key to all of this....if she was insulted/cheapened then she should and could, and still can make her feelings known.
So people, get a reality check.
Remember you said that when someone does it to your partner or mum.
Sexual assault is not a joke.
Sexual assault is not a joke.
What a complete and utter bunch of hypocrites, I don't see all this outrage about having women parading on the stage and being forced to kiss men whilst giving flowers or toys, that's sexist as well, these girls shouldn't of been there full stop.
I had this argument with a mate, what do you mean forced to kiss men, well ask this question, if they refused to kiss the winner do you think they would of been up there ?
2 wrongs don't make a right, but don't put temptation in somebody's way and they won't stray.
Yep, she was asking for it. Apparently lots of women who are sexually assaulted are.
.
Stewie - I don't think anyone is suggesting sexual assault is funny, however can you explain how his action was 'sexual assault'? was there any form of sexual action or intention undertaken?
Why or how can sexism or sexist actions be justified by the time frame that it or they takes place? it either is sexist/sexism or not and unfortunately in many cases this is set by the perception of the majority who follow suit and don't think for themselves with any quantitative/qualitative or rational concepts!
It seems from all these posts that the British press/public believe they are the moral compass by which the whole of the modern world should align itself!
true and Fair.. but then I wouldn't expecting my wife to be stood on a podium, handing out flowers and kissing other guys!!!
If that's "sexual assault" then the podium girls are serial rapists.
Under English law what he did is at least assault and battery, and potentially sexual assault if it was decided that it was sexual in nature. As its more likely that he was just proving that he's a knob, then it would be assault and battery.
This slagging off of podium girls is pathetic. They'll just be with a modelling agency and this is the gig they've been offered.
In other news... amnesty international are still campaigning hard against the political and social discrimination shown to women and girls in Oman, meanwhile in qatar (the second most strict muslim nation) where many women are forced to wear Abaya, are not allowed to be accompanied at all times and generally repressed..there were no scantily clad
Some Fella - your argument holds very little water!!!
Oh and isn't that a slightly antiquated, naive view - all sports persons are thick or else they would be heart surgeons - Emma Pooley will have to quit her phd before someone figures out what a thicko she is, oh and I bet David Beckham wishes he had worked at becoming a heart surgeon, cause he's on the bones of his ar$e doing the job he does right now!!!
Its not a case of slagging off the girls, they are doing a job, bottom line is putting "pretty girls" on stage is sexist as well and they shouldn't be there, what Sagan did was wrong full stop, but so is having podium girls.
If only road.cc could have somehow shoehorned something about Rapha and helmets into this article, then they could all retire.
I agree, but some of comments are aimed directly at the girls, practically saying they deserve whatever they get.
Hmm - either keep the pointless podium girls AND the pinching, or do away with both. Anything else is flawed logic, internally inconsistent.
(I'm with the second option, btw).
Just wondering if now is the time to replace the podium girls with young club riders from local areas to present the awards to the winners. Would mean far more to them to meet their heroes than a model just doing a gig, and would give young male and female riders the opportunity to get closer to the pros than they currently do. Surely not impossible to link the presentation prizes to an event held the day/week before for local clubs? Read Millars book - a photo of Cav meeting him post event when he was a kid - same principles. Sure the riders would be happy to pass up a posed photo for a chance to make some kids day/year, and pretty sure their partner wouldn't mind. Who knows, the next Lizzie Armistead/Marianne Vos might get a bit of a boost from presenting to the current versions too (addresses that issue of podium boys that just sounds odd)
Oh come out of the dark ages, puleeeassse! Those girls are paid to do a specific job whether you agree with podium girls or not (I see no need for them personally). They are not paid to have parts of their anatomy groped (even jokingly) by idiots like Sagan.
Imagine your wife/girlfriend, or even your daughter was that girl, standing in the cold, getting paid to peck a sweaty, smelly cyclist on his stubbly cheek and look good at event. Thats one thing and comes under the contract of what they are paid to do. Seeing another man then grope her ass would no doubt lead you into wanting to punch him and put him on his backside. Or would you say hey, thats what she's there for! Good man! I certainly hope you have former notion or you're a neanderthal just like Sagan.
regarding the offence - this is a cut an paste from a recent law article.
The offence of sexual assault (by touching) is a serious and criminal offence. If you are accused of sexual assault, the Prosecution must prove that:
■You have intentionally touched another person,
■That the touching is sexual,
■That the other person did not consent to you touching them, and
■You did not reasonably believe that the other person was consenting.
Hope that clears it up a bit for those who are interested.
Pages