David McCarthy's selfie (right) with an exhausted Marcel Kittel on the ground in Dublin and (left) the photo of him shot the moment he was taking the selfie.
By Brian Canty
The Cork racing cyclist at the centre of an international media storm has apologised to anyone he offended following his infamous ‘selfie’ with Sunday’s stage winner of the Giro d’Italia in Dublin, Marcel Kittel.
David McCarthy, a first year U23 rider from Fermoy, Co Cork, shot to fame when he Tweeted a picture of himself with Kittel after the German collapsed from exhaustion at the finish line on Sunday.
McCarthy’s Twitter and Facebook accounts have been inundated with messages, some praising the photograph and others critical of him for taking a shot as Kittel was on the ground.
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Some of the criticism seems to have been caused by people thinking the photo is of Kittel after he crashed, which it was not.
“It’s mental, last night I had to switch off my phone because it was constantly flashing, one message after another after another,” McCarthy told stickybottle.
“It was all so harmless in my eyes, really. I was about 400 metres behind the line on Sunday, standing on a post-box, and next thing Kittel came over the line and collapsed down in front of me.
“All the media crews ran over, Sky Sports, SBS, Eurosport; there was about 10 photographers there with cameras flashing. So I just said for a bit of history and a great memory I’d take a quick photo.
“I went on about my business then and showed my friends and they thought it was hilarious. So I put it up on Instagram and it was up there since Sunday. But last night a photo emerged of me (taken by a Belgian photography company - Ed) as I was taking the selfie and it went viral.
“I started to get abuse rained down on top of me,” he said of the messages to his social media accounts.
“Some people were trying to make me feel really bad and saying what I did was totally wrong. Then more people were tweeting me calling it a great photo and how it was one to show the grandkids, it was 50/50 abuse and praise.
McCarthy was adamant the photo was only a bit of fun.
“I didn’t mean to cause any harm,” he added.
“But the abuse I got, it came from all over; Irish, Italians, French, Danish, Australians, Americans.”
However, some of the riders in the race, including one of Kittel’s team mates, sent messages on Twitter in praise of the photo and the moment it caught. But the negative comments from other quarters continued and so McCarthy decided to address it.
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“I wrote a message of apology on my phone and asked Nicolas Roche to tweet it,” he said.
“Being a cyclist myself it doesn’t look good for me. So I asked him to retweet it because there was no way I’d be able to get my message across.
“Irish people were abusing me and I just tweeted them back and said,‘I meant no harm, I ran in took a quick picture and ran away, it wasn’t as if he was after crashing, or I had hurt him’.
“I was even considering deleting my social media last night until it died down but hopefully they’ll just get over it.
“People see the funny side but there’s those who don’t. What about all the other photographers who were there?”
Kittel, in the red of Giro points leader, collapsed with exhaustion after the finish of stage 3 in Dublin on Sunday, when he came from very far back to pip Team Sky's Ben Swift for victory.
McCarthy’s message, which Roche tweeted, read: “To Marcel Kittel and all the people I offended by taking the selfie, I apologise.
“I did not think the photo would cause such hate towards me and cause offence. I got excited after the finish to see Marcel and wanted a photo and in hindsight, I understand the time and place was completely wrong. My sincere apologies. David McCarthy.”
Cadel Evans, one of the big favourites for the race called McCarthy “more than a little inconsiderate” on twitter.
But another pro Greg Henderson, who McCarthy was lucky enough to train with in Australia last winter, said: “I know David v well, v polite, respectful kid.”
Roche echoed those words, saying he knew McCarthy and that he was a nice kid. Kittel tweeted: “Oh and remember; social media can be mean”.
- It has emerged this afternoon that the German, who won Saturday’s stage in Belfast as well as Sunday’s leg into Dublin, has withdrawn from the race due to illness.
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