[Brown_Teeth]

Must be among the strangest things ever in the world of cycling? Anyone beat this?

http://bicyclemarketingwatch.blogspot.com/2005/11/bad-blood.html

 

[Bikinfoolferlife]

I could care less who sponsors any given sport; I don't buy their products because they sponsor something nor do I expect the athletes involved in that sport use their product either.

The cynic in me says the Tour of California won't mind the extra free press this generates.

 

[FoShizzle]

why is this strange? Amgen has one of the largest, if not the largest bike club in America I think (about 800 people or so I believe) so needless to say, it is a company enthusiastic about cycling and the means to support the sport accordingly.

Amgen is based in California and currently already sponsors the California Coast Classic every year to raise money for the Arthritis foundation.

Should they not get involved because their product is abused by athletes, none of which are using the product based on the intended use of the product?

 

[Brown_Teeth]

Agree their intension might be pure but its ironic to say the least... I'm stoked the tour stops in SLO so even my kids might see some world class riders, have fun, and when I fade in ten years I'll be buying EPO too

 

[FoShizzle]

yeah....i am stoked too. though i am not an avid road biker it will be cool to check it out for sure.

cheers

 

[DtEW]

It's not strange as Amgen is a juggernaut in biotech. Making EPO is only one of the things they do. The situation would be comparable to General Electric becoming a sponsor for a some peace festival, knowing that GE makes jet engines that are employed in warplanes. or Kraft sponsoring anything health or sports-related, knowing their their parent corporation is Philip Morris.

I mean, inventing dynamite didn't keep Alfred Nobel from establishing a peace award, right?

 

[FoShizzle]

good points....exactly what I would have liked to say.

 

[Brown_Teeth]

But you can not mount a jet on your bike and be legal, just like running with EPO there is a line and performance enhancement has no place in bike racing. Granted Amgen makes great stuff but to open up the company to the whole EPO issue that they profit from seems to me bad marketing/promotion that might backfire and cost them more than its worth. Oh well maybe its my 1970's 'noias' flashing back

 

[FoShizzle]

no offense but the "whole EPO issue" has absolutely nothing to do with cyclists. The EPO thing has to do with treating people with kidney failure or anemia in cancer patients due to their chemotherapy.

 

[Warthog]

why is this strange? Amgen has one of the largest, if not the largest bike club in America I think (about 800 people or so I believe) so needless to say, it is a company enthusiastic about cycling and the means to support the sport accordingly.

Yep. I live a few miles from their Thousand Oaks head quarters, and I see Amgen-jersied cyclists nearly every day (do these guys ever actually go to work?). See them on the trails too.

The tour's second to last stage is from Santa Barbara to Thousand Oaks, so I'm pretty excited to check it out.

 

[Mike T.]

Must be among the strangest things ever in the world of cycling? Anyone beat this?

Yeah didn't Dodge sponsor the Tour of Georgia? And those things get used in bank heists and drive-by shootings and DUI and.................aww you get the idea.