Amgen Sponsors Bike Race

I heard it too...I like the one analogy that "it's like Budweiser sponsoring an AA conference".

I can't believe that the UCI is even allowing them to sponsor the event.

Why not? Amgen is a great company that produces products that have helped make innumerable cancer patients' treatment easier. Just because people abuse their products, they shouldn't be able to do something good for the sport?

Amgen has nothing to do with doping in sport. Their products are produced for cancer patients and the like. Look at it this way. Ford sponsors Ironman, but should we be pissed that some hit and run drivers that kill cyclists drive Fords? Should Ford therefore not be allowed to sponsor Ironman races?

And no, I don't and have never before worked for Amgen.

No...it's like Ford sponsoring Ironman. Read my post below.

I disagree Jim...I am sure Amgen is a good company with fine people and that they make great products, that being said cycling is fighting what I believe is a losing battle of public perception that it is a dirty sport. Well the reason people think that is because of the abuse of EPO in the professional peleton ( and in tri's as we are finding out) and by allowing a company that manufactures EPO to sponsor a cycling race, in my opinion, is a really bad PR move.

Yeah, I can see that. But maybe Amgen sees it as an opportunity to present to the public that it's not the drug company that's to blame, but rather disreputable doctors and athletes that are to blame. The cycling community by and large probably has the perception that EPO = crack and heroin, so this is an opportunity for Amgen to disprove that and say "look, we make this great product that helps your friends and relative that suffer with cancer to be able to go through chemo without nearly dying as a result of the treatment."

I think it's a good thing. Public perception needs to be changed; this is a way to do it.

I am of a mixed mind on this. My mother was a dialysis patient in the early 90's when EPO hit the market. It revolutionized the quality of life for dialysis patients. And, then last year, my husband received it during chemotherapy. He would not have been able to complete his course of treatment without it. Amgen also produces Embrel, which has had a similar impact for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, including juvenile arthritis. So, minus the whole doping issue the sponsorship seems like a perfect fit.

I think you may be right, Jim, that this may be a way for Amgen to get this issue out on the table and do something positive for the sport of cycling. They did mention in the story that his is a pretty major sponsorship.

- Heidi