Cycling festival is caught trying to appear more diverse by photoshopping a black woman rider into a promotional picture – but a stray knee gives the game away
- Ride London posted edited photo to promote a cycle ride to Surrey next month
- Cyclists criticised afterthought, asking why lack of diversity wasn’t addressed
- Two women from ethnic-minorities were added to the photo which has since been removed
A London to Surrey cycling festival has faced backlash after photoshoping a black female rider into a promotional image to make the ride appear more diverse.
Ride London posted the edited photo to their website to promote the cycle ride from London to Surrey next month.
However eagle-eyed cyclists spotted the image manipulation and criticised the afterthought, asking why the organisation hadn’t directly addressed the lack of diversity, reports The Times.
The organisation which is backed by Sadiq Khan and sponsored by Prudential instead decided to add diversity through Photoshop.
A black female rider was photoshoped into this promotional picture for RideLondon. An unidentified knee can be seen under her left arm – exposing the use of photoshop
Photo editors added two women from ethnic-minorities, only one of whom participated that year, to an image of the 2017 ride featuring nearly all male attendees.
An unidentified knee wearing yellow shorts appears to be under the woman’s arm – while the cyclist behind her wears black shorts, leading viewers to question the image’s authenticity.
Jools Walker, a black cyclist and blogger who runs Velo City Girl told The Times: ‘All I can imagine is a group of white marketing executives looking at this image and thinking: there’s a problem.
‘But instead of trying to address why people from these groups don’t see cycling as inclusive, they decide to photoshop in ethnic minority women — badly. They should be embarrassed.’
London Marathon Events, which organised the event, have since removed the picture from its website after admitting they had combined three images.
Hugh Brasher, Event Director for Prudential RideLondon, said: ‘This is a composite image, created to illustrate the range of participants in the Prudential RideLondon sportives.
Pictured: Men cycle along CS5, the first completed section of London’s Cycle Super Highway
‘Three images have been combined to create this composite image: the female cyclists on the bottom left and bottom right were added to the central image of the two male riders bumping fists as they come down The Mall.
‘All images are from riders who have participated in sportives at Prudential RideLondon and there was absolutely no intention to mislead.’
‘It is not our usual practice to use composite images and this image has been removed from our website.
‘We know that cycling needs to do more to encourage people from all backgrounds to get involved and that is one of the key aims of Prudential RideLondon.
‘We believe that we have led the way for mass participation cycling events.
‘More than 100,000 cyclists take part over the weekend in a range of different events that cater for everyone.
‘Prudential RideLondon FreeCycle had 43% women participants in 2018, the 46-mile sportive had 38% women, the 19-mile sportive had 39% women and the 100 mile sportive had 22% women.
‘We believe the average percentage of women in mass participation sportives in the UK is approximately 15%.’
‘We continue to work to inspire people from all backgrounds to get on two wheels.’
At present, black, Asian and minority ethnic groups account for about 15 per cent of cycled journeys in London – around two-thirds less than Transport for London (TfL) estimates it could be.