KYSSEPIGER

Under my influence, my daughter is getting interested in cycling. It helps that my prediction of Contador to win the Giro (now in its third week) looks likely to be correct, whereas her friend's prediction of Nibali started going wrong the moment he mentioned it. But I also think there is the seed of a genuine enthusiasm.

So I asked her the other today if she would like to become a kyssepige (literally a "kissing girl"). Kyssepiger are the good-looking young women, who pop up on the podium at the end of each stage of a bike race and plant a kiss on the cheeks of the various winners (at a minimum the stage winner, overall leader, points leader, king of the mountains, and leading young rider). They wear the well-cut and stylish clothes of the sponsors of the various competitions - Esta Tea, for instance, is this year's sponsor of the overall leader's pink jersey - and smile for the camera. And that, pretty much, is all that they do.

My daughter told me in no uncertain terms that she has no desire to become a kyssepige. I think she quite likes the idea of the free clothes. But she also remembers the times I have come home from my 30km trips, prompting a curt "you smell". If my efforts only last an hour or so, think what it must be like to kiss a man who has just spent 6 hours in the saddle and has barely had time to put a sponsor's cap on. L'Oreal Paris Men Expert is another of the Giro's sponsors; I can see that there would be demand for their product.

In this modern world, it is somewhat surprising that there still exists the job of kyssepige, which is essentially a sexist relic. When the Giro started in Amsterdam last year, a number of gay men applied for the job; they rather liked the idea of kissing a fit, sweaty man. Needless to say, they didn't get it.

Walter Blotscher