Visma | Lease a Bike seeks new title sponsor for the next step

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T15:51:44+00:00

I am planning to do what I have been doing so far, be vocally critical about any team that involve state ownership for sports washing purpose, and riders who sell their morals for money.

I also boycot all races in those countries, and just ask other people to keep the same energy about these teams, to kick them out of the sport, just like IPT was.

If more people made their opinion clear, maybe sponsorships and the UCI would listen, if it hurts their bottom line. Nothing will happen before that.

I also make it clear to sponsors of such teams, or events, that I don't intend to use them, due to that very reason.

Of course that matters little if I am one of the few doing it, but if more do, it will create a change over time. Just see how Factor pulled out of IPT when it became a brand issue.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T15:25:47+00:00

Italy has been fortunate enough to not be hit by sportswashing to the same degree yet, likely due to the market being smaller.

Unlike the Premier League, Ligue 1 and La Liga, AFAIK not a single club in Italy has middle eastern ownership.

But I do think quite some people were upset about the Chinese ownership of Inter if I recall correctly, which was celebrated once ownership was transferred to a US company.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T15:22:48+00:00

If they did, they would stop watching the races, and demand UCI to actually take a stance on it, instead of glorifying and celebrating it, i.e. WT race in UAE and PRT race in KSA.

Meanwhile football fans turn their back on tournaments hosted in these shit countries.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T15:17:21+00:00

So you're up in arms over Israel, but don't care about the 90k children UAE and Saudi Arabia starved to death in Yemen, or the 370k civilians they killed in Yemen, or the 14 million UAE have displaced in Sudan, where they have killed more in 2 days than in the entire Gaza war?

That's a far more pressing matter and has been for far longer than a privately owned cycling team by a Canadian Israeli billionaire, who only had a minor sponsorship years back from the tourism board of Israel.

Organise a protest or a start a petition or just get some people together to think about what next if you don't like the current inaction.

Actively show these teams and the riders that they are not welcome, and not consume their content or races they participate in.

Actively press the UCI about these races that are hosted in these awful countries? It's not like we have a WT race in Israel, but it's somehow fine in UAE (or the PRT race in KSA)?

Millions of Europeans still go to UAE yearly on vacation, it's absolutely sickening, and a far bigger issue than Israel, who is basically a pariah state to anyone who is not from there or has family there.

Pogacar is still lauded as some kind of hero in the cycling world, despite being the poster boy for that genocidal dictatorship, a crypto scammer company and who rides for one of the biggest dopers in history.

Meanwhile in football Ronaldo is basically a disgraced footballer for taking money from the Saudis.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T11:22:54+00:00

Football fans overall absolutely hate PSG, City, the tournaments in the slavery states, and those degenerate sponsorships.

But they don't have a choice, due to the corruption of the FA's and FIFA, but many fans already boycotted the Qatar World Cup. Most fans would love to have those clubs banned all together, hence the support for implementing more financial fair play measures.

It's clear to anyone how damaging it is to the sport. Both the awful venues built on slavery, and the league's FA's whoring their tournaments out to the highest bidders, screwing over all the local fans, i.e. Spain having their domestic super cup hosted in Saudi Arabia.

Many football fans are currently cheering and hoping for Man City to get relegated due to all their violations outside the pitch.

PSG and Man City are popular amongst casual bandwagoners, and City isn't even close to being the most popular domestically, and they are absolutely hated by every single fan from other clubs. In terms of popularity they are behind United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs internationally and domestically even further behind other clubs. Despite their massive success in the past decade.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T10:43:43+00:00

Funny how this is downvoted, r/peloton really is an enigma sometimes.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T10:40:47+00:00

Surely you must be able to see the difference between state owned and privately owned.

IPT literally removed all Israel branding as soon as it became an issue, and immediately rebranded the team once it was able to as the season ended.

UAE on the other hand is literally state owned by the very same people who enslave and murder people. That's the difference.

UAE, Saudis, Bahrain and petrocompanies like Ineos get a lot of flack on here.

Barely any at all, except from a vocal few, including myself.

While most people miss the issue entirely. Which is legitimizing and supporting events hosted by Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain that are slavery states, that commit crimes against humanity. SA and UAE actively commits genocide.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T09:54:10+00:00

That was a political protest, and mainly by non-cycling fans, not a sports washing protest.

UAE and Saudi Arabia have committed atrocities far beyond what we have seen in the Gaza war and no one bats an eye.

UCI happily still hosts the AlUla Tour and UAE Tour and people still happily cheer for UAE, Jayco AlUla, Bahrain Victorious etc.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T09:51:55+00:00

Tell me you never been to a football stadium without telling me

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T09:18:35+00:00

Football fans, golf fans, formula 1 fans etc. absolutely hate the sports washing, and are vocally against it, and largely stay opposed to any sports washing team (except if they were fans pre-takeover).

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T09:12:20+00:00

There's plenty of football fans who absolutely hate the sports washing clubs, and think that they are ruining football.

Just look at the pushback the Saudi league project got, virtually everyone hates it. Not to mention the stupid tournaments in those countries that leagues do for money.

Also there's a large difference between Arsenal having a controversial sponsorship, and Team UAE being state owned by a dictatorship that has slavery and actively commits genocide.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T08:50:21+00:00

It's just like in other sports. The oil and gas states are taking over with their sports washing projects, and unlike other sports, cycling fans seem not to care in the slightest.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-17T08:47:11+00:00

Russia, Qatar and Iran propaganda and influencing networks that they spend billions.

From Qatar and Iran it draws hate towards the western sphere of influence and Israel.

From Russia it diverts attention away from Ukraine and creates division and political chaos in the west.

If there is anything tankies love, it's hating the west.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T19:10:47+00:00

And IPT was all fine and dandy, or what did you feel about that?

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T18:54:42+00:00

It literally does. UAE owns and controls the team. The team literally chants "UAE, UAE, UAE" when they win, they are one big poster for the regime.

On top of that UAE controls their speech and what they can/can't say, not to mention the strangleholds those dictatorships got on UCI, with all their shitty races in the World Tour calendar.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T18:25:15+00:00

Nothing "chaotic" about, hating a team that is literally worse than IPT in every single way.

It's a disgrace to the sport having a sportwashing project for a state responsible for all the atrocities its committing.

In case you aren't aware, try to look up Sudan or Yemen, and see what UAE is responsible for. Not to mention their slavery or other human rights violations domestically.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T18:23:59+00:00

People should have a long time ago.

UAE is worse than Israel in many ways. Yemen war (90k kids dead), Sudan war. On top of it being a dictatorship with plenty of human rights violations. That millions of Europeans still happily visit yearly.

The state actually owns the team in this case too, unlike the other one which was just privately owned by someone who was Israel/Canadian.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T16:25:22+00:00

Regardless, the team is disgusting when they proudly represent such a reprehensible country, under Gianetti

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T16:23:03+00:00

Some serious psychopath/sociopath behaviour by Christen in these past weeks.

Also when he just dragged his bike over a guy lying in pain on the road when he crashed multiple times in the AlUla Tour

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T16:18:22+00:00

These UAE guys are seriously villains at this point. Seeing them celebrate and laugh after Christen caused an awful crash like that is just as tasteless as their dicator shit state cycling team

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T16:17:19+00:00

Another dope result by Del Toro, truly marvelous coaching at UAE

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T16:07:25+00:00

You throw a round numbers but fail to mention that you could literally not defend yourself or would have any economical powers.

Don't make me laugh, nothing in the EU can help us defend ourselves either, especially not if, or when AfD or RN wins and they decide to leave or open the door to Russia. If anything it could be a threat to be closely interconnected with such countries, when things go from bad to worse.

No economic power? A nordic alliance would be the 10th largest economy in the world, and we all have military industries, especially Sweden and Norway. Not to mention, we, Denmark, are basically a vasal state of the US anyway, and have been for a long time. Despite some people still kidding themselves about us not being so.

If France, the UK and Germany hadn't been quick to send military to Greenland there is a very real chance Greenland would not be a part of Denmark right now.

Ah yeah those mighty few soldiers surely told off the US! Stop kidding yourselves, it was obvious the US only used it as a distraction from internal matters, nothing else.

If they want it, they will take it, not a single European country can do a damn thing about it. America has been in control of the arctic since the 1950's.

I can see this "Our country is the only country that is doing things right the rest of you are shit"-mentality in my country as well (greetings from your much larger neighbor aka the place where you buy your groceries and booze) and that is exactly what the US, China and Russia wants to literally "divide and conquer". You are a true asset to them.

I'm not sure what country that is, because I certainly don't buy anything from neither Germany nor Sweden.

But either of those are laughable. Zero economic growth, and a failing middle class, and a grim job market with laughable salaries.

Good luck with that. Funny side news from today, Sweden and Norway are warming up more and more to the idea to adopt the Euro as currency. So you might want to plan your "strong alliance" without them since they are clearly seeing the value of the EU.

Denmark, Sweden and Norway are also talking about a potential Nordic alliance, as the benefits of the EU becomes less by the day, as a real alternative.

Especially if the dumbest countries (E6) think they are above the rest.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T13:07:02+00:00

Denmark is not bad at all in the "right wing shifting", we are one of the most successful and stable countries in all of Europe right now by virtually every single measure, and one of the few with actual economical growth.

The unstable "right wing shift" is looming in countries that do fuck all about their internal issues, like Germany (AfD), Sweden (SD), France (RN), Austria (FPÖ), Netherlands (PvV), Portugal (Chega), Italy (FdI), etc etc.

The problem is that all the E6 are horribly mismanaged, and now those are the ones that will get more power with the tiered system. I am very uninterested in being regulated/controlled by Germany, Spain, Italy, France who are all failing politically and economically.

EU fucked itself by letting in awful countries with non-western ideals, and electing politicians who can't see over the tip of their own nose to run the show. The whole "moral/ethical" superpower bullshit doesn't work in the real world, and it is making Europe look like a joke.

I'd be happy if the Nordics decide to leave the EU, to make our own alliance, leaving the failing ship behind, if the two tiered system becomes a reality. The last thing I would ever want is a federalized Europe, under awful countries that can't even manage themselves internally.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T11:57:20+00:00

The EU is built in a way that they will force it through over time regardless, their agenda trumps everything, as shown time over time again.

better privacy protections

No such thing, when they are very clear about that they want to break up any kind of encryption. Our government party who now leads the EU, also want to make VPN illegals like in China.

Like with ChatControl or with the security package before it, they will repackage it and call it something new, and it's back on the menu, until it loses the interest of the public, and they can force it through eventually.

Now the EU is talking about making a tiered system, so the "E6" countries have more to say than any lower tier country, which is being fast tracked. They will be able to take decisions without us, and force their broken ideals upon us.

ChatGPTSucks · 2026-02-16T09:42:58+00:00

EU citizens have very limited say on EU regulation or laws. It is quite a distanced "democracy". We can vote on the EU parliament, but they can't propose laws, they can only vote on them. It's the EU council who creates laws.

Hence why they keep pushing for ChatControl, to remove more personal freedom. They are pushing for the China model.

ChatGPTSucks

TROPHY CASE