Belgian cyclist Tara Gins has revealed that she has been banned and refused a job in a men's team after posing for a steamy photoshoot for Playboy magazine. Gins spoke out against her treatment on Instagram, in a statement seen via CyclingNews saying that she was all set to join an unnamed men's team as its director but the offer was taken off the table after the team head made a verbal commitment to her.
The 30-year-old star posed for the nude calendar last year and commands a huge fan following on Instagram where she frequently shares her saucy snaps. However, she says that she doesn't regret her contract getting cancelled anymore.
Losing Her Job
Gins, in an interview to CyclingNews, has claimed that after agreeing to work as a director for an unnamed men's team, she has been unceremoniously shown the door as she had posed for a series of sexy photos for Playboy. "I was really looking forward to that. It's what I like to do. I want to learn and be in the support vehicle. But now apparently someone has made a problem of a photo in a book. Those were photos I wouldn't hurt anyone with," she said.
Gins said that the team's boss started the conversation by telling that someone from the team came across her nude photos in a magazine and sent the photos in a group chat to other staff members. Unfortunately, Gins wasn't part of that chat group. The next day she was refused the job.
"Someone must have threatened the manager to send those pictures to one of the sponsors because that person has I don't know what kind of relationship with the sponsor. The pro cyclist said that she did a photoshoot for Playboy last year in May and then two months later in July she did another nude photoshoot for a calendar for a Belgian company.
But she isn't sure which photographs the team's boss was referring to. "I'm not 100 per cent sure what photos they are talking about. That calendar came out in the first week of January, and so I am guessing that it was the pictures in the calendar," she said.
No Regrets
Gins, for one, finds her excommunication ludicrous. "Apparently these are now too inappropriate to work with riders," she says. "Apparently, a photo is more important than capabilities or experience." After riding professionally between 2016 and 2018, she started her modeling career and appeared in Playboy last year.
She often posts her cheeky snaps for her 28,000 Instagram followers. As a rider, she has competed professionally for Lares–Waowdeals and Health Mate–Cyclelive Team.
Gins also said that her firing is a huge double standard given all the inappropriate behavior she has witnessed from male bikers, including cheating and sharing photos of girls who "are not aware they have been photographed." That said, although initially shocked, she doesn't regret having not got the job. "I don't want to work with people who don't see my capabilities and just walk with the herd. In cycling, too much thinking is still done inside the box. That's a shame," she added.
