When moments like this happen I can't help but laugh at the sudden scramble for a position on the moral high ground as the finger pointing begins. Did Sagan go over the top? Probably ... in fact, of course he did. He shouldn't have done it and maybe he should be told off even if he did send out a Tweet shortly after to apologise, but he's a young man who was trying to be funny with no evil intentions. Don't kid yourself otherwise.
Yet reading some sensationalist comments on various media outlets by cycling fans and scandal-seekers alike, I find myself having to look at the image once again just to remind myself that this whole hoopla is over a pinch to someones rear and not worse. Had the podium girl pinched him in the rear, would the same pitchfork and torch wielding army of the easily-offended be out in force, shocked and dismayed for the treatment of Sagan and his poor arse? If your answer to that is yes then you're a liar, if your honest answer is no then you're a hypocrite.
It's left people questioning the roll of the podium girl at all in the twenty first century, but the last time I checked no podium girl was ever forced into the job. They apply freely and resign when they choose. From what I've heard in the past there is a great demand for a position on the podium girls tour and some will use it as a chance to get out and see the world while travelling with the professional cycling cavalcade and getting paid for their work. Work that goes beyond podium appearances as they also travel along the route on the 'caravan' that proceeds ahead of a race.
This girl will have dealt with worse in this kind of environment and she'll be strong enough in such a profession to rise above it. Let's not insult her as a woman -- as those who are kicking up the biggest stink in this whole 'scandal' are doing -- by thinking she hasn't the where with all to brush off a little boy like Peter Sagan.
Peter Sagan is a 23 year old man-child. A supreme athlete who has had little else in his young adult life aside from riding bikes, winning races, entertaining us with his celebrations, and it's unlikely he carries the same politically correct savvy of those currently distressed by the sight of such an image on the Internet. And that's the bottom line.
He'll live and learn and we'll all move on, forgetting it by the time he wheelies over the line for another victory. As the saying goes, today's newspaper is tomorrow's chip wrapper.
