Pro cyclists have urged the organisers of the Tour Down Under to end its long-running sponsorship deal with oil and gas producer Santos.
Santos, which is one of Australia’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, has been the naming rights sponsor since 2010. In January last year, it renewed its partnership, extending the deal until 2028.
Australian Olympic cyclist Maeve Plouffe did not directly criticise Santos or the organisers but said that the event would be better served by a different sponsor.
“I think it will just resonate better for a lot of people involved if there was an option to have a different sponsor of the event,” she told The Guardian.
The former national road champion, Brodie Chapman, agrees, “It’s certainly time that the Tour Down Under looks for a new sponsor to more align with the values of the modern world, the Australian people, the natural world and athletes.”
Brodie Chapman and Amanda Spratt, 2025 world championships, Kigali (credit: Chris Auld/SWpix.com)
The criticism of Santos has been growing, particularly after Australia’s devastating 2019–20 bushfires and Santos’ continued investment in new oil and gas developments.
Earlier this year, the company received approval for its Barossa gas project, widely regarded as one of the most emissions-intensive gas developments in the country.
The former national champion, Cyrus Monk, described it as “embarrassing” that Santos continues to sponsor the country’s biggest bike race.
“I’d love to see another sponsor to be able to step in,” he says.
“Obviously, the dream would be similar to the [Belgian] Renewi Tour, where the sponsor is a renewable energy company that is doing something better for the environment,” Monk says.
He added the assumption that replacing the company would be difficult, but it isn’t clear how much Santos pays for naming rights, or how much funding is provided by the South Australian government.
The race has previously been targeted by climate protests. In 2023, three partly naked women in their 60s and 70s were arrested at the opening stage of the women’s Tour in Adelaide, as part of Extinction Rebellion.
Tour Down Under protest (credit: 9 News)
Video broadcast by 9 News showed the group holding signs saying ‘we tried polite’ and wearing white clothes, commenting on energy giant Santos’ involvement with the race, with holes cut out exposing certain areas.
“We are baring our ageing breasts and our wobbly bums in the hope of shocking,” one protester said. “Polite pleas and submissions have not been enough.”
When announcing their protest, Extinction Rebellion tweeted: “One of the world’s worst carbon polluters, Santos continues to pursue massive oil and gas expansion in Australia and around the globe. Their actions will drive global emissions to tipping points from which there is no return. They must be stopped.”
Extinction Rebellion Santos Tour Down Under protest (credit: 9 News)
Santos did not respond to questions, but a spokesperson for the Tour Down Under told The Guardian that “without their support, we would not be able to deliver a world-class international bike race.
“Their support has enabled our event to grow, which has seen the introduction of a women’s WorldTour race with equal prize money to the men, and the TDU being recognised as Australia’s best sporting event in 2024.”
The spokesperson, echoing the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, added that “natural gas produced by Santos plays an important part in South Australia’s world-leading investment in renewable energy, and its carbon capture and storage project at Moomba decarbonising the equivalent of 700,000 cars off our roads each year”
However, analysis suggests that the Moomba project has so far captured just 4.6% of Santos’ total corporate emissions.
Matt Rendell, a former Tour de France commentator now working with Badvertising campaign, said cycling’s economic and environmental image makes it an attractive target for fossil fuel companies seeking reputational benefits.
He said that the Tour Down Under is an obvious flashpoint, given it is held in a place “where cycling comes into contact with extreme weather”.
Zac WiLLIAMS SWpix.com (credit: Zac WiLLIAMS SWpix.com)
“Cycling works on the imagery of the man against mountain. It’s a David and Goliath scenario, but that’s also the struggle against the continued poisoning of the atmosphere,” he says.
The assumption that no other sponsor could be found is “a failure to imagine things otherwise”, he says.
“In the simplest terms possible: whether it’s Santos or someone else, as long as you are locked into a sponsor, you’re not out looking for other sponsors. As soon as there’s doubt, that changes.”