So what's all the fuss about this bike race sponsor? Well, AMGEN is not a typical bike sponsor like the financial giant Credit Lyonnais of the Tour de France, the tea maker ESTATHE in the Giro d'Italia or TELEFONICA in the Vuelta a Espana. AMGEN makes EPO and ARANESP, the two most effective and most abused performance enhancing drug for cheaters in cycling and other endurance sports today. And this is what the brouhaha is all about.
EPO, and the improved version, ARANESP, both owned and copyrighted by AMGEN, are drugs that can stimulate the human body to make more oxygen-carrying red blood cells (RBC) to the muscles resulting in an improved athletic performance. But the side effect of EPO is that it thickens the blood in relation to the liquid component, serum, making it viscous. This viscosity slows down blood flow which could result in a stroke or even death.
Cycling and EPO are not exactly best of friends. The 1998 Tour de France was rocked by a scandal when a team FESTINA soigneur was stopped and arrested by a French customs police for having in his person these banned products for the use of team FESTINA. From that point on, the cycling's innocence was permanently tarnished.
That's why some quarters are vehemently against AMGEN sponsoring a bike race because of the obvious implications. In fact, the WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY (WADA), in statement asked, "What kind of message does this send to athletes?" If there is a scenario that is stranger than fiction, then this one is.
On the other hand, Kevin Sharer, Amgen's chairman and chief executive officer said that, "For 25 years, Amgen has tapped the power of pioneering science and innovation to fight serious illness and improve people's lives. We're associating our name with this premier cycling event to underscore the value of a healthy lifestyle, promote medical breakthroughs made possible through biotechnology and to emphasize the proper use of our medicines."
I have a feeling that AMGEN's sponsorship of the Tour of California will receive so much flak for "unethical reasons". But I don't care. A lot of "undesirable" sponsors have around sports for since I can remember. Beer for basketball and cigarettes for F1, for instance. Do you really think that a lot of guys smoke and drink because of the NBA and F1? With all due respect to those who are suffering from the effects of cigarette smoke, I have to hear someone say that Michael Shumacher got him hooked to cigarettes. Does Tim Cone get you to drink low fat Alaska milk?
Looking closer to home, Marlboro had been one of the successful sponsors of the Tour ng Pilipinas before it keeled over in 1998. And it provided an environment where any poor boy who could ride his bike fast can dream of becoming a millionaire, not a chain-smoking lung diseased individual.
Go ahead, AMGEN, as long as you're not advocating the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports, commit yourself to the next century of cycling.
I'd like to wish my cycling, talking and gossiping buddy Goeffrey Lariosa good luck! Geoff left for the US last Saturday to look for greener pastures. With the way our government is doing its business, I'm sure Geoff isn't the last person I know to look for a better future abroad.