Tour de Yorkshire: Campaigners have every right to protest Ineos, says organiser as new team launches under accusations of 'greenwashing'

Organisers of the Tour de Yorkshire say anti-fracking campaigners have every right to protest against Ineos, as the controversial new sponsor of Team Sky was unveiled on Wednesday.

Ineos is a petrochemicals company owned by Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, which has come under severe criticism for its environmental record and has been accused by Friends of the Earth of using cycling to “greenwash” its image. As well as being a major producer of plastics, Ineos also has a substantial interest in fracking in the north of England and has lobbied for a loosening in UK law on the controversial method of gas extraction – making Yorkshire a strange choice for the new sponsor’s official launch.

Team Sky, which has dominated Grand Tour racing for much of the past decade, was officially launched under its new guise as Team Ineos ahead of the start of the Tour de Yorkshire on Thursday, although the team’s new branding was already on show at the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland this week where the Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas is currently racing.

Speaking at Team Ineos’s launch in the Yorkshire Dales, the billionaire Ratcliffe said: “We’re doing a lot to improve technology on plastics. They are essential to modern life. We don’t chuck it in the sea. We do what we can but we can’t solve the problem. We’ve spent 30 years on the Ineos project. It’s become very large and very profitable. We make $5-7bn a year in profit so there’s no harm in diverting a modest amount into worthy sporting endeavours. I like opera but I prefer sport.”

Anti-fracking campaigners have plans to attend the race, which begins in Doncaster and finishes in Leeds on Sunday, and have produced 15,000 masks of Ratcliffe’s face contorted to look like the devil to be handed out along the route. There are likely to be other protests including land art with the aim of being picked up by broadcast helicopters.

“Firstly, everyone’s got the right to protest peacefully, the commercial director of organiser Welcome to Yorkshire, Peter Dodd, told The Independent. “We know the vast majority of protesters very much support the Tour de Yorkshire and don’t wish to spoil the race. There’s complex issues around fracking, and we’re a tourism organisation so we are in close contact with the national parks and local authorities.

“As a tourism body we organise the Tour de Yorkshire to promote Yorkshire to a wider world audience. We’ve no control of the individual sponsorships of the teams taking part. We will manage and deliver the event and like I say, people can protest peacefully. You can’t stop people from protesting peacefully, that’s good, that’s fine. That’s everybody’s right.”

In a statement, Simon Bowens of environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth accused Ineos of a “shameless hijacking” of the sport in order to improve its tarnished image, and called for a ban on fossil fuel industry sponsoring sport.

“Ineos is shameless in its hijacking of cycling to greenwash the terrible impact it has on our planet,” said Bowens. “The company speaks of the virtues of pedal power while at the same time producing millions of tonnes of plastic each year and trying to drill and frack large swathes of the British countryside including right here in Yorkshire.

“Fossil fuels have no place in sports sponsorship. Oil and gas companies are using advertising and sponsorship to distract from the awful damage their products cause in the exact same way that tobacco companies used to. Tobacco was banned from sports sponsorship due to the damaging health effects – this should also apply to fossil fuels which wreak havoc on the health of the planet.”