British Cycling has faced ridicule after censoring the name of the Welsh village Three Cocks in a junior road race schedule, replacing it with five asterisks. The move, intended to avoid offence, has been widely condemned as an example of 'wokeness gone too far'.
Social media users criticised the decision, with one stating: 'I'd be offended if my village name had been altered like that. Who on earth is going to be offended by Three Cocks?' Another added: 'It is a perfectly acceptable old English word which has been around for centuries.'
The Abergavenny Chronicle also condemned the censorship, writing: 'The historic heritage of places such as Three Cocks deserves better than to be castrated by a censoring hand.'
British Cycling apologised, attributing the blunder to 'overly sensitive' website filters. A spokesperson said: 'Clearly the system decided, inappropriately, to spare our blushes and auto-censored the historic Three Cocks village... We'll be having a serious look at the new systems we're implementing to ensure that technology doesn't override common sense in the future.'
The village's name originates from the coat of arms of the Williams family of Old Gwernyfed, featuring three cockerels, and is also the name of the historic Three Cocks Inn.
