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Mountain Biking

Third Biggest Porn Website in the World xHamster Sponsors Italian Mountain Bike Team Promosport Racing

The most NSFW sponsorship deal in the history of the sport?

Picture the scene: there we were, watching some porn, when out the corner – WAIT. WHAT DID THE THERAPIST SAY? “Don’t start sentences by talking about porn at work. It’s socially frowned upon.”

Okay, so picture the scene: there we were, flicking through, err, bike websites, when out the corner of our eye, we saw the news that xHamster, the third most popular porn website on the internet, are now sponsoring Italian cycling team Promosport Racing.

Ranked by Alexa as one of the 100 most popular websites across the entire internet, xHamster released a press release about the deal which disclosed: “[We] tend to believe that cycling, as xHamster, is all about passion, commitment and a great deal of teamwork.

“It’s about accepting the challenges and exceeding the limits, while working in a team of professionals whom you can undoubtedly trust. That’s the reason why we stand behind the sponsorship of Promosport Racing team”.

The more you read those words, the more deeply disturbing that sponsorship deal really becomes. ‘Exceeding the limits’? We don’t want to know. Certainly seems like a fairly divisive deal which isn’t at all productive for the mountain bike or cycling scene as a whole.

According to Road.cc, xHamster say their goal is “to raise awareness in the community about safe sex and the health of men and women around the world.”

We’re probably just going to just take Road.cc’s word for that rather than opening up xHamster in the office to check their remit. My boss’ boss is sitting two desks behind me and I quite like my job.

Federico Silvi, the Vice President of Promosport Racing, who focus mainly around mountain biking, added: “It takes a viable brand for a viable team, and we couldn’t expect a better adding for season 2016. We are incredibly excited to have xHamster among our main sponsors.”

Hopefully not quite as excited as the majority of xHamster’s clientele when they’re making use of the website.

To be honest, this sponsorship deal probably doesn’t send the best message about the cycling community, and it seems incredibly alienating on a variety of levels. That said, we doubt the PR stunt will prove anything more than a quick “WTF” on the radars of the universe.

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