On cycling Twitter, there’s a certain kind of cringe that goes viral. This week, it was named Erola Jons. By Monday, La Vuelta a España had discreetly taken away the access that allowed her segments to be produced in the first place. There is no mixed zone. There are no team busses. When the mood struck, don’t wander up to riders. It’s the kind of adjustment that organizations typically attempt to make covertly. This one didn’t remain silent for very long.
Jons, a 28-year-old Spanish man, has more than six million Instagram and TikTok followers. Over the years, her content has adhered to a well-known online formula: hidden-camera stunts in which she approaches strangers with flirtatious lines and records their agitated responses. It functions. It is watched by people. It’s unclear how that format relates to covering a three-week Grand Tour, and it seems that La Vuelta’s organizers didn’t give it enough thought before giving her a microphone and behind-the-scenes credentials.
The events that followed took place primarily during Monaco’s opening stage, and it’s worth paying attention to the specifics because they provide a more thorough explanation of the backlash than any synopsis could. Jons went up to the current world champion and eventual stage winner, Tadej Pogačar, and said she wanted to “ask him if he’s that fast in private too.” He was referred to by her as “Pogachitar.” He “hyperventilates” whenever he sees her, she inquired. “What?” Pogačar asked, clearly perplexed, then said dryly, “I breathe 24/7, thanks,” before turning to leave. At a press conference, he later claimed that he hardly remembered the exchange, which is a small but telling detail in and of itself. It was forgettable to him. It wasn’t for everyone who was watching.
For a particular reason, her interview with Josh Tarling went poorly. Finlay Tarling, Tarling’s 19-year-old younger brother, had passed away a week prior after an incident at the Volta a Portugal. Unaware of this, Jons told Tarling that he disliked interviews “especially mine” and joked that she still had 20 stages left to “win him over.” She doesn’t appear to have been aware of his passing. That may be the most uncomfortable aspect of the entire episode; it’s not malicious, just a complete lack of preparation that collides with something truly painful for the person on the other side of the microphone.
The reaction from the cycling media was prompt and, to be honest, quite direct. The hiring was described as “a serious blunder” by Laura Meseguer of Eurosport, who later wrote in El Río that it turned riders into objects. She stated, “It makes me angry because this isn’t journalism,” adding that women have battled for years to be given respect in the sport, only to witness this. Carlos de Andrés of Televisión Española supported her, asking why Jons had access to places that qualified specialist reporters were unable to. It’s difficult to interpret those remarks as anything other than pent-up annoyance that has finally found a target.
In an effort to appeal to younger audiences, Unipublic, the race organizer, has defended the initial choice by characterizing Jons’s role as entertainment rather than journalism. That’s a legitimate and reasonable objective; many sports have pursued it with varying degrees of success. Building youth engagement, however, is not the same as giving someone unrestricted access to athletes who don’t seem to know anything about cycling or editorial guidelines. The updated procedure, which calls for team approval prior to any rider interview and prohibits roaming the mixed zone, seems to be the result of an organization realizing this distinction a few days too late.
As far as anyone can tell, Jons has not issued an apology. Her statement that she will “keep giving it energy” on the race’s channels implies that she views this as noise rather than a serious confrontation. From the perspective of pure engagement, perhaps that’s okay because controversy spreads. However, Jose Been’s remark that another woman “who has dreams of working in cycling” was passed over for this instead does leave an odd taste. More people seem to be remembering that line than anything else from the entire story, and it’s likely the one that will stick in people’s minds once the headlines have subsided.
