There's been widespread talk about this Bogota-based women's cycling team kit. It's not actually this photo that has been doing the rounds on the social network sites, but that photo. I imagine there are lots of photos that have been taken of the women in this kit, especially as they have been racing in it since January. But this is the one that has sparked the controversy. I'm not sure if this kit is to my taste. The design looks a bit busy to me! But hey, what does my opinion matter! Anyway, they're a sponsored team so I guess they can't pick and choose.
The thing is a spokesman for Team Bogota Humana said that members of the team which is made up of, Angie Rojas, Laura Lozano, Luz Adriana Tovar, Ana Cristina Sanabria, Argenis Orozco and Lina Dueñas liked the kit when it was first presented to them and they were happy to race in it.
Unfortunately, the photo taken of the women at the team presentation during the Tour of Tuscany (Giro di Toscana) did not come out as they would have wanted, and the girls have become the subject of ridicule, outrage and frantic social network gossip. Even the UCI are "on the case" with the president Brian Cookson describing the kit as "unacceptable by any standard of decency".
Meanwhile the president of the Bogota Cycling League, Carlos Fernando Ferreira has defended the kit claiming that the colour in the groin area of the kit is ochre, and that unfortunately changes in the lighting and flash photography led to the the colour taking on a flesh-coloured tint which is nowhere like the colour when seen "in the flesh" (pardon the pun!).
I feel sorry that the team is going through all this. I believe them when they say that the design was created without any malice or anything provocative in mind. They are not the first sports team to make a fashion design faux pas, and they're unlikely to be the last! Columbians take their cycling very seriously, and this team's performance can't be too bad given that they are contesting a big international women's cycle race far from their native Columbia, all the way in Italy. It would be great to see as much media comment about their cycle racing achievements as there has been about their kit!
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