Cycling Blogs Pimp the Sponsor

(right, Jason's pre-race blog entry gives bike sponsor Salsa a "fungus" field test rather than a sterile magazine field test.)

Manufacturers, businesses and nonprofits have long supported competitive professional and amateur cycling by offering equipment and clothing, giving cash, and providing race support products ranging from food items to team cars. Ours is an expensive sport with sponsors often playing a vital role to those who race road, mountain, cyclocross, track, alley cat, triathlon, and bicycle motocross. In turn, cyclists do a variety of things to promote those who support them, incorporating sponsor products into cycling webblogs most recently.

Manufacturers have recognized blogging as an authentic platform for exposing their products. In Industry Giants Press Blogs into Service, Cannondale Bicycle Corporation webmaster Janet Maurice said, “Blogging allows us to communicate to our community in an authentic, real, passionate way,” after the bike company entered blog sphere in March 2005.

But what exactly constitutes “authentic” language in the landscape of cycling blogs and how does that in turn help promote sponsors? To answer this question, I needed to sort through the overwhelming number of cycling blogs to find a few for case studies.

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