{"id":405672,"date":"2026-01-13T01:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T01:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405672\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T01:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T01:55:16","slug":"pro-cyclists-urge-tour-down-under-to-drop-embarrassing-oil-and-gas-sponsor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405672\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro cyclists urge Tour Down Under to drop \u201cembarrassing\u201d oil and gas sponsor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro cyclists have urged the organisers of the Tour Down Under to end its long-running sponsorship deal with oil and gas producer Santos.<\/p>\n

Santos, which is one of Australia\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she told The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former national road champion, Brodie Chapman, agrees, \u201cIt\u2019s certainly time that the\u00a0Tour 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BrodieBrodie Chapman and Amanda Spratt, 2025 world championships, Kigali (credit: Chris Auld\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

The criticism of Santos has been growing, particularly after Australia\u2019s devastating 2019\u201320 bushfires and Santos\u2019 continued investment in new oil and gas developments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The former national champion, Cyrus Monk, described it as \u201cembarrassing\u201d that Santos continues to sponsor the country\u2019s biggest bike race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to see another sponsor to be able to step in,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the dream would be similar to the [Belgian]\u00a0Renewi Tour, where the sponsor is a renewable energy company that is doing something better for the environment,\u201d Monk says.<\/p>\n

He added the\u00a0assumption that replacing the company would be difficult, but it isn\u2019t clear how much Santos pays for naming rights, or how much funding is provided by the South Australian government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Tour in Adelaide, as part of Extinction Rebellion.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TourTour Down Under protest (credit: 9 News)<\/p>\n

Video broadcast by 9 News\u00a0showed 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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

When announcing their protest,\u00a0Extinction Rebellion tweeted: \u201cOne 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ExtinctionExtinction Rebellion Santos Tour Down Under protest (credit: 9 News)<\/p>\n

Santos did not respond to questions, but a spokesperson for the Tour Down Under told The Guardian that \u201cwithout their support, we would not be able to deliver a world-class international bike race.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir support has enabled our event to grow, which has seen the introduction of a women\u2019s WorldTour race with equal prize money to the men, and the TDU being recognised as Australia\u2019s best sporting event in 2024.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The spokesperson, echoing the South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, added that\u00a0\u201cnatural gas produced by Santos plays an important part in South Australia\u2019s 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\u201d<\/p>\n

However, analysis suggests that the Moomba project has so far captured just 4.6% of Santos\u2019 total corporate emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matt Rendell, a former Tour de France commentator now working with Badvertising campaign, said cycling\u2019s economic and environmental image makes it an attractive target for fossil fuel companies seeking reputational benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said that the Tour Down Under is an obvious flashpoint, given it is held in a place \u201cwhere cycling comes into contact with extreme weather\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"2023Zac WiLLIAMS SWpix.com (credit: Zac WiLLIAMS SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

\u201cCycling works on the imagery of the man against mountain. It\u2019s a David and Goliath scenario, but that\u2019s also the struggle against the continued poisoning of the atmosphere,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The assumption that no other sponsor could be found is \u201ca failure to imagine things otherwise\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the simplest terms possible: whether it\u2019s Santos or someone else, as long as you are locked into a sponsor, you\u2019re not out looking for other sponsors. As soon as there\u2019s doubt, that changes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pro cyclists have urged the organisers of the Tour Down Under to end its long-running sponsorship deal with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-405672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}