Team Sky’s Peter Kennaugh has posted and subsequently deleted tweets asking why Team Sky would support a team in the Women’s Giro d’Italia as it is a race that “absolutely no one in the UK has absolutely no idea about”.

The tweets followed on from an article in The Guardian where former Olympic Silver medallist, Emma Pooley, questioned why there was a lack of support from British Cycling and Team Sky to help support a team in the Women’s Giro d’Italia.

“Why didn’t anyone ask how it could be that a publicly funded body like British Cycling joined together with a privately funded team – Sky – on a mission to get a British winner of the Tour de France within five years?” Pooley asked.

“Why wasn’t there a similar plan for the women? The women’s Giro d’Italia was the most important race for women but where was the funding for that? I came second twice and no one from British Cycling offered to put together a team to help me win it.”

Following on from the publication of the article featuring Pooley, Kennaugh then tweeted his opinion regarding funding for a women’s team, saying “Emma pooley why would sky put money into the women’s giro that absolutely no one in the UK has absolutely no idea about.”

Peter Kennaugh Tweet

He then followed with another tweet stating: “stop being so self centred and get over it”

Kennaugh has since deleted both tweets.

14 COMMENTS

  1. Why would any astute sponsor support women in sport can simply be answered by stating that over half the population are women. Aldi the very successful chain of supermarkets has recognised this and has come in to sponsor women’s Gaelic football in Ireland and the response has been fantastic.
    Just because it hasn’t been so as of yet does not mean that it won’t be so in the future and what these female athletes and their events need is the financial support and the media exposure so as the wider public can see just how fantastic they are.

  2. Pro Cycling is a Business people , not a charity event don’t forget that . The big sponsors put the money where they think it’s better for them to get more advertising for their products and Brands . How many of viewers watch women racing ? Not many , if women cyclists wants to get more attention they should target more women viewers and fans , because the majority of men cyclists fans are men not women that’s where the difference is made off . It have nothing to be with British cycling or Team Sky , if an sponsor give 10 millions euro or dollars to a team they spect to get 20 millions in return from sales and brand recognition of their product . Pro cycling is a business and all the Pro teams in any sports are run as Business not non profit organization.

  3. that is a stupid post half of the worlds population are women and if would greatly enhance viewing and exposure to their merchandices ,a win win situation ,and also they look better in lycra

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