The Tour de France Loves Its ‘Podium Girls’

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“On women’s races we have men on the podium, on men’s races we have women on the podium,” he said.

The presenters’ work days generally begin at a V.I.P. area where Tour sponsors receive corporate guests well before the stage starts. As those guests are then ferried along the race route in cars and vans driven by retired cycling stars and, for those with the greatest pull, helicopters, some of the hostesses act as valets, driving the guests’ cars to the finish line. Once the podium is over, they quickly change out of their evening dresses to reunite the guests with their cars.

For many years, the podium presenters were recruited from the towns and cities where each stage finished. Currently, the corporate sponsors of each award select and hire the women using modeling agencies. Brief biographies of the presenters that Crédit Lyonnais, the yellow jersey sponsor, put out as recently as two years ago indicated that most of the women were students, some of them in graduate programs. Most spoke more than one language.

In theory, the women are not allowed to have any contact with the riders beyond the podium, but romances have blossomed. In 2003, Melanie Simonneau was fired after receiving a note from George Hincapie, an American and close ally of Lance Armstrong. It all worked out: They married.

There have been instances of inappropriate behavior involving the hostesses. Five years ago, Peter Sagan pinched the bottom of Maja Leye, a hostess at the Tour of Flanders in Belgium, as she was kissing the winner. Sagan, who has won five stages at this year’s Tour and holds the best sprinter’s jersey, apologized but was not penalized.

Regardless of how the hostesses are treated, Pooley said she could not understand why both men and women could not perform the job and why smart professional dress could not replace the evening gowns that are colored to match the jerseys. She said the podium program personified A.S.O.’s view of women. The organization has refused to restore a full stage race for women. It currently runs only a one-day event ahead of the men at the Tour.

“Can you imagine going to the New York Marathon and the only women you see are presenting trophies to men?” Pooley said. “And the women’s race was somewhere else and only five kilometers?”

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