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Brian Cookson says UCI "on the case" over Colombian women's team kit

But could it all be a trick of the light? The BBC is taking no chances
by John Stevenson
Mon, Sep 15, 2014 16:03
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More background has emerged over the origin of the Colombian women's team kit that has been the centre of probably the biggest cycling-gear-related social media furore ever, and UCI president Brian Cookson announced yesterday that the organisation was "on the case."

A report from Spanish website ABC.es says that the IDRD-Bogota Humana-San Mateo-Solgar kit was designed by team rider Angie Rojas, according to Bogota Cycling League president Carlos Orlando Ferreira Pinzón.

Ferreira said that the team had been competing in this clothing without comment until this image from the team presentation at the women's Tour of Tuscany went whizzing round the world.

Yesterday evening, cycling's world governing body weighed in with this tweet from president Brian Cookson:

 

 

A few people responded that there were bigger problems in women's cycling than this kit. Marcos Marín said: "I think there are lots of more important issues in #womenscycling to fix than a brown kit. That race i.e."

Last year the Giro Toscana saw over half the field abandon on the final day because of safety issues, which Marín clearly thinks is rather more important than how a few skinsuits look on a presentation podium.

It also turns out that the problem could be, quite literally, a trick of the light. Cycling journalist Ben Atkins, who follows women's racing closely, tweeted:

 

 

Meanwhile, the fuss has even made the BBC news, though to spare Middle England's blushes, Aunty has carefully modified the image, as you can see here:

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Women's Clothing
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IDRD-Bogota Humana-San Mateo-Solgar
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John Stevenson

Acknowledged by the Telegraph as a leading cycling journalist, John Stevenson has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc editor Tony Farelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013 and these days he lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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