Cycling Weekly has apologised for an “idiotic” caption describing a picture of a female rider as a “token attractive woman” that made it into print.
A man who claims to be a member of the photographed woman’s cycling club was first to post an image of the caption on Twitter.
He said: “So my cycling club made it in to Cycling Weekly and this happened. I hope Cycling Weekly apologise. Still a lot of equality work to do it [sic].”
The picture caption as it appeared on the page in Cycling Weekly
A women’s only cycle group based in south West London added: “Again Cycling Weekly fail to realise that it’s 2017. Not to mention the huge growth in women’s cycling.”
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Others Twitter users described it as a “disgrace” and “really poor”.
In a statement issued on the social media platform, Cycling Weekly editor Simon Richardson apologised “unreservedly” to the rider in the picture, describing the caption as an “appalling lack of judgment by an individual” that was not a reflection of the office culture at Cycling Weekly.
He said: “In this week’s issue of Cycling Weekly we published a regular Ride With feature with the Hinckley Cycling Race Club in Leicester.
“Unfortunately during the magazine’s production process a member of the sub-editing team decided to write an idiotic caption on a photo of one of the female members of the club.
“The caption is neither funny nor representative of the way we feel or approach our work. Sadly in the rush to get the magazine finished it was missed by other members of the team and eventually sent to print.
“We would like to apologise unreservedly to the rider in the photograph, the Hinckley CRC and all our readers.
“This apalling lack of judgement by an individual is just that, and not a reflection of the culture in the CW office.”
Cycling Weekly is owned by Time and has an average total circulation of 24,631, according to ABC figures to the end of December.
Pictures: Press Gazette
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