The Tour de France abolishes the “podium-girls”
The Tour de France director, Christian Prudhomme, announced that the “podium-girls” will no longer hand over the jerseys at the end of each stage.
The tradition was considered sexist by women’s rights advocates. For decades, women have been handing out different jerseys at the end of each stage of the Tour de France.
But in 2019, 38,000 people had signed a petition to oppose this tradition, arguing that women “are not objects, not rewards”.
As the newspaper Ouest France reports, this protocol will no longer be in place from the 2020 edition of the Grande Boucle. The event is due to start in Nice on August 29.
“You were used to seeing the champion surrounded by two podium-girls, with five elected officials on one side and five sponsor representatives on the other. Here it will be different with only one elected official and one sponsor representative of the yellow jersey, as well as a podium-girl and a podium-boy for the first time,” said Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme, who now wants to see a mix on the podiums.
Will the kiss be forbidden on the Tour de France as well?
This system, which is new on the Tour, had already been set up for classic cycle races.
“We’ve been doing it on other races for twenty years, such as Liège-Bastogne-Liège”, Christian Prudhomme said.
In 2018, another world-class race organised by ASO, the Flèche Wallonne, had chosen a mixed podium.
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However, the director did not say whether he would also end the tradition of “kissing” the winner. But the health context does not seem to be suitable for this other criticised practice.
“A flower bouquet, a shower of champagne, a winner’s jersey… And a lightly dressed woman who gives the three best cyclists a kiss on the cheek as if to crown their glory. Is it necessary for this to be part of an award ceremony,” some feminists asked last year.