I’ve been enjoying the Tour de France this year more than I expected to. Monday’s stage in the Pyrenees had all the classic reasons why I love watching the Tour: the brutal and heart-wrenchingly beautiful geography, the live chess game of the peloton, the camaraderie, the combativeness, the surprise heroes. And most of all the pain-defying athleticism that is almost impossible to wrap your head around.
A lot has been written about the terrific performances by Team Columbia and Team Garmin-Chipotle so far and the fact that both teams are at the forefront of anti-doping with massive internal testing programs. These teams had the foresight to make investments early on to ensure their riders are clean and be able to prove it. What’s great is that they’re proving that transparency and doing the right thing is also a sound strategy. They’ve been able to get sponsors, reduce their risks as organizations and are now showing the world how much more exciting it is to watch clean riders winning stages in the Tour.
To me, the Tour this year is a parallel with what being a sustainable business is all about - being smart about systematic investments in transparency and doing the right thing also happens to reduce your risks, attract capital, make you leaner and make you more competitive. Any other strategy seems just about as boring and outdated as doping. I’ll be watching Garmin-Chipotle and Columbia for the next couple weeks, and keeping my fingers crossed.
Tour de France
I’ve been enjoying the Tour de France this year more than I expected to. Monday’s stage in the Pyrenees had all the classic reasons why I love watching the Tour: the brutal and heart-wrenchingly beautiful geography, the live chess game of the peloton, the camaraderie, the combativeness, the surprise heroes. And most of all the pain-defying athleticism that is almost impossible to wrap your head around.
A lot has been written about the terrific performances by Team Columbia and Team Garmin-Chipotle so far and the fact that both teams are at the forefront of anti-doping with massive internal testing programs. These teams had the foresight to make investments early on to ensure their riders are clean and be able to prove it. What’s great is that they’re proving that transparency and doing the right thing is also a sound strategy. They’ve been able to get sponsors, reduce their risks as organizations and are now showing the world how much more exciting it is to watch clean riders winning stages in the Tour.
To me, the Tour this year is a parallel with what being a sustainable business is all about - being smart about systematic investments in transparency and doing the right thing also happens to reduce your risks, attract capital, make you leaner and make you more competitive. Any other strategy seems just about as boring and outdated as doping. I’ll be watching Garmin-Chipotle and Columbia for the next couple weeks, and keeping my fingers crossed.
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