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This is a question related to competitive cycling. I would like to narrow it down to the historical aspect. I am interested in the political and social aspects, but I would gently ask to leave them out from the specific question asked here.

Does anybody know when and where the first podium girls appeared at a cycling race? (I do not exclude answering myself the question in the near future, I am asking in case someone already did this research)

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    No information on the picture, so I'm not sure if it counts, but here's a possible "podium girl" from the 1906 Tour De France – Kibbee Oct 30 '19 at 13:04
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's not about bicycles. It's a historical question about a race awards custom. – Deleted User Oct 30 '19 at 13:36
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    @kibbee we cannot be sure whether she is her partner/sister/daughter or a podium girl (i.e. a woman paid by the organizer to stand close to the cyclist at the beginning or at the end of the race) so I am not sure it is a proof, but thanks a lot anyway, every bit helps! – EarlGrey Oct 31 '19 at 9:22
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    If closed, bring it to History.SE. – Aaron Brick Nov 1 '19 at 17:57
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    @AaronBrick let's start the experiment! history.stackexchange.com/questions/55267/… – EarlGrey Nov 6 '19 at 17:33
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+100

"As soon as cycling races started" is probably one way of answering your question "when and where the first podium girls appeared at a cycling race?"

I had a look at Greek art related to sports. A lot of it shows women which seem to meet the Greek ethos of female beauty. On that basis I would argue the idea of attractive women accompanying male sports winners is as old as sport. It is unlikely the first presence of a podium girl at a cycling race is documented, but I think it is safe to assume they were pretty much always there.

I know it was goddess Nike and not just a civilian, and I'm sorry if you were after a specific event name, date and location but hopefully you can see this as one way of answering your question.

If you were after the oldest specific, traceable record/mention of a podium girl at a cycling race, then you may want to reword your question.

Examples below - possibly NSFW.

From this

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From this

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From this

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From this

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  • thanks for your answer. Unfortunately I cannot award any bounty/accepted answer, since in the Greek time there was no bicycle :) . Nonetheless, thanks (do you know if the figures from these sources can be freely re-shared?) – EarlGrey Jun 29 '20 at 7:05
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    @EarlGrey I'm not saying Greeks had bikes. I'm saying my answer suggests that podium girls have been around longer than bikes. And therefore they were probably there as soon as bike racing started. I did get a bounty of 100 automatically. It's up to you and your conscience what you do with the acceptance or the rest of the bounty. I can't tell you what to do but you may want to look at this – pateksan Jun 29 '20 at 14:24
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    And I'm afraid I have no idea about sharing the images - I inserted them as links to original location, hoping that is safe enough for my use, although it appears the stack exchange enginge made copied of them on imgur. – pateksan Jun 29 '20 at 15:20

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