Cyclist Peter Sagan apologized after being criticized for pinching the rear of a girl on the podium following his second-place finish in the Tour of Flanders in Belgium on Sunday.
Sagan finished second to winner Fabian Cancellara, who received a peck on the cheek from the trophy ladies after the race. That’s when Sagan reached over to pinch blond “podium girl” Maya.
After the photograph was publicized, Sagan began receiving criticism. The Independent has a roundup of the criticism, which came from journalists and cyclists.
“Shame that Peter Sagan has so much class on a bike and so very little off it,” cyclist Michael Hutchinson wrote while linking to a photo of the pinch.
Sagan, a 23-year-old from Slovakia, sent the following tweet Sunday to apologize:
