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Tom,
I'd venture the guess it that beer and cycling, as well as running, are closely related to beer sales and the demographics they are looking for in their campaigns. Our local Budweiser distributor sponsors a lot of events here, in the bicycling and running communities. They provide signage (with the logos of course) and other things to events free of charge. I haven't seen the free beer after running races lately like they did a whole lot in the 80's. Personally, I don't have a problem with it when it is done responsibly, by the organizers and the beer distributors. I do understand your point completely and I don't have or, want to provide, an answer for eliminating their support, it seems that they are the only ones to pony up the sums that these events can take to pull off. Interesting topic for thought, thanks for bringing it up