The organisers of a Belgian cycling race have been widely condemned for a poster.
The organisers of the Belgian cycling race E3 Harelbeke have received a severe backlash after promoting their event with what has been seen as a sexist poster.
The posters have had to be withdrawn entirely as a result of widespread criticism of the promotional billboards which are believed to be overtly sexist.
In what was a dubious concept, the event attempted to poke fun at the incident last year when Slovakian rider Peter Sagan infamously pretended to pat the bottom of a ‘podium girl’.
Sagan, who won last year’s event, was forced to issue a Facebook apology for the incident and present the woman with a bunch of flowers.
As such, the poster saw a cyclist’s hand moving to squeeze or pinch a woman’s backside with the lady in question clutching a bouquet of flowers.
The backlash has been swift and fierce, with the sport’s governing body, the country’s leading equality organisation and social media all blasting the promotional material.
“The Union Cycliste Internationale was extremely unhappy with the promotional poster of the 2015 E3 Harelbeke,” the UCI’s statement read.
“We have reminded the organiser of its responsibility and the UCI Regulations and they have agreed to take off the poster from all communication platforms.”
Belgium’s Institute for the Equality between Men and Women was also far from amused and said it would lobby sponsors of the E3 Harelbeke for them to take action against the race’s organisers.
“The slogan confirms the cyclist’s intention to squeeze the girl’s bum and thus encourages cyclists in general to do the same”, said the IEMW co-director Liesbet Stevens.
“This campaign pictures women as a sex object and triggers sexual intimidation,” she added. “We need a change of mentality. We will contact the leading sponsors of the event.”
The E3 Harelbeke organisers have a history of controversial promotion of its event, including using in 2011 a poster of the Belgian Playboy model Gaëlle Garcia Diaz lying in grass with silhouettes of cyclists riding up and down the contours of her naked body.