Razeen Gutta
The French Cycling Federation have defended their decision to send their male competitors to Australia’s Cycling World Championships in business class while the women cyclists flew in economy.
Reigning world champion Julian Alaphilippe was among nine members of the men’s team to fly in business class with the rest of the team, including seven women riders, junior teams and support staff.
The decision was heavily criticised in France and the federation have now spoken out in defence of it.
“We don’t have the means to put everyone in business,” Christophe Manin, French cycling’s national technical director, told AFP.
Manin, who himself did not make the trip to Wollongong, further justified that the decision was a financial one and would have applied regardless of which athletes had a better chance of winning.
“If we had the mountain bike world championships in Australia with the same economic choice to make, we would put the two girls in business and the boys in economy,” he said in reference to cross country champions Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Loana Lecomte.
“Some countries, like Ireland, have decided not to participate in the World Championships. We asked ourselves if we should take all the categories, especially the juniors. We did it. But we don’t have the means to put everyone in business.”
“For the men, we’ve been world champions for the last two years. We are really going there to win, while we are more of an outsider in the girls’ competition.”
Image source: @EuroSport
