British Cycling's New Sponsor

[Dogtrousers]

Not a good look.

But ... what the heck is BC for? I honestly wasn't sure. So I had a little search.

They officiate and provide rules and things cycling sport (but not TTs) in this country, and hand out race licenses, right? And if you're organising a race I guess they provide checklists and compliance forms and stuff.
And they also organise the national teams for things like national track racing and the olympics. Pick teams and so on. At the elite level this is mainly track racing as the pro teams deal with road and CX and so on(?) National team road racing is pretty rare outside the olympics/Worlds. I noticed there was no British team at the European road champs.
But they seem to have a curious overlap with Team Sky/Ineos so can be hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Or at least they did with Sky, they may have stopped that now.
And they provide an insurance scheme for ordinary cyclists to use. A bit like cycling UK do. Many clubs have a box to tick to show you are a member of one or the other for insurance purposes.

What have I missed/got wrong?

Oh, and they tried to issue a ban on all cycling during the Queens funeral. But it was pointed out to them that this was stupid, so they rather reluctantly stopped. So like most sport governing bodies they have a remit to appear clueless and out of touch.

 

[geocycle]

Turn it around, why do Shell want to give large mounts of money to BC? Smells strongly of wanting to be associated with activity perceived as ‘green’ And successful. Oil companies know they need to rebrand or at least change their image over the next decade as they diversify to other sectors. For me, it’s a mistake from BC, but I suppose every organisation has its price.

 

[geocycle]

Thinking about this some more. Sky in 2008 was a slight tainted brand that had led to division of live sport to subscription TV and was also still controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch‘s influence was raising eyebrows, well amongst Guardian readers at least. In my opinion their image has improved and part of the reason could have been the decision to support pro cycling to 2018 whose success paid dividends, literally. Perhaps Shell have similar ambitions.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Digging around a bit, BC aren't just cycling sport governance but also appear to do active transport campaigning

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/campaigning/article/20181128-campaigning-Moving-the-Nation-0

Cycling sport is run through with dodgy sponsors, so that's nothing new. But an organisation that supposedly campaigning for active transport being sponsored by a petrol company is ... well ... a bit iffy.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

British Cycling’s objectives are to maximise the number of car trips via sportives and races and large fields of entrants.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Whether we like it or not we need oil. The long term aim has to be to switch to renewable energy sources but that will take a fair bit of time to achieve so for the medium term future oil is what we will be using and we need the oil companies to get if out of the ground and refine it.

So what would you like to see them do with their advertising budget, spent it on Formula one instead?

 

[mustang1]

I'm sure Shell as a brand is fully aware of the risk of relying on fossil fuels.

From a Google search
Switch your Gas, Electricity or Broadband and enjoy exclusive rewards with Shell Go + 100% renewable electricity, and unlimited high speed broadband.

They must be doing their upmost to diversify away from fossil fuels and linking with cycling perhaps is not a bad move.

Yeah. They rebranded (or are currently in the process of rebranding) to being an "energy company".

 

[Tom...]

I presume everyone here who's anti-oil avoids riding/driving on asphalt?

 

[figbat]

I presume everyone here who's anti-oil avoids riding/driving on asphalt?

Or wearing clothes, or taking medicine, or eating food, or switching on lights...

 

[Tom...]

Or wearing clothes, or taking medicine, or eating food, or switching on lights...

Or riding a bike, of which the majority of components are manufactured from crude oil.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I presume everyone here who's anti-oil avoids riding/driving on asphalt?

You don't have to be anti-meat to notice that the vegetarian society taking sponsorship from Dewhursts would be a bit inconsistent and worthy of mockery. If that happened it might lead you to believe that the vegetarian society were a bunch of clueless idiots.

 

[matticus]

Or wearing clothes, or taking medicine, or eating food, or switching on lights...

It's perfectly possible to get dresssed, use medicines, eat a healthy diet and even light a house at night without oil.
(and have rideable roads).

I suggest you and @Tom... see this as an opportunity to educate yourselves! No need to thank us. x

 

[Tom...]

But vegetarians don't consume meat.

Every cyclist, and everyone on this forum, is reliant on crude oil.

 

[figbat]

You don't have to be anti-meat to notice that the vegetarian society taking sponsorship from Dewhursts would be a bit inconsistent and worthy of mockery. If that happened it might lead you to believe that the vegetarian society were a bunch of clueless idiots.

But that's a different scenario. Of course vegetarianism and butchery are opposites and there's no overlap. But cycling is not a specifically anti-oil pursuit, nor is it specifically an environmental protection pursuit. For many it is convenient, cost-effective transport, or exercise, or a leisure pursuit that happens to have a low carbon footprint. For some it is a choice to reduce hydrocarbon use but it isn't the primary goal of cycling.

 

[Tom...]

It's perfectly possible to get dresssed, use medicines, eat a healthy diet and even light a house at night without oil.
(and have rideable roads).

I suggest you and @Tom... see this as an opportunity to educate yourselves! No need to thank us. x

Matticus, I suggest it's yourself that requires educating.