Rapha criticised over Pantani water bottle text’s links to eating disorders

Rapha has been criticised over text relating to Marco Pantani that appear on one of the water bottles it sells, which some social media users say may encourage eating disorders.

Since its earliest days, the London-based brand has included snippets of text relating to cycling history in its products – in the case of clothing, often in the form of a white patch sewn on the inside.

On Wednesday, Twitter user Dave Standard posted a picture of a white Rapha water bottle and said the brand was “extremely irresponsible” for including text on the reverse that highlighted Pantani’s diet.

The text read: “To achieve race weight, Marco Pantani would, according to legend, ride for six hours on nothing more than water, returning home to just a slice of watermelon.”

In a series of tweets, Standard outlined the struggles he had encountered with his weight both while racing and afterwards, including a coach calling him a “fat pudding” and suggesting he was better suited to racing on the track rather than the road.

Had lots of ‘interest’ in this - most agree, but some think I am a ❄️ or need to ‘get a life’ - that view is valid. Why I react is because of my own fat-shaming and eating issues when I was racing and the anorexia and bulimia I saw in my team mates - pic recent London 100 pic.twitter.com/RgE9GEjyb0

— David Standard (@DaveStandard) July 31, 2020

Had lots of ‘interest’ in this - most agree, but some think I am a ❄️ or need to ‘get a life’ - that view is valid. Why I react is because of my own fat-shaming and eating issues when I was racing and the anorexia and bulimia I saw in my team mates - pic recent London 100 pic.twitter.com/RgE9GEjyb0

— David Standard (@DaveStandard) July 31, 2020

It’s not a silly message on a bottle - it’s an instruction for those kids who are desperate to achieve- who will take whatever ‘legend’ they can find to do what the pros do - sport has no meaning other than to encourage the young @rapha need to do better

— David Standard (@DaveStandard) July 31, 2020

Among the replies was one from Paralympic rowing and handcycling champion Rachel Morris, who said that her own struggles with anorexia and bulimia had nearly led to her dying.

This is irresponsible. This is not how modern athletes should train...the science shows us that. Having an #eatingdisorder #anorexia & #bulimia nearly cost me my career&life. My PARALYMPIC🥇show how hard I had to fight it&watch other athletes lives get ruined by EDs. #notokay

— Rachel Morris MBE (@Rachel44Morris) August 1, 2020

Others questioned the wisdom of using Pantani at all due to his doping history, as well as recreational drug use that led to his death in 2004 in a Rimini hotel room.

Pantani is an *interesting* choice too given his well-documented links with other forms of ‘nutrition’

— Andy (@chandertron1917) August 1, 2020

According to legend, Marco Pantani died sad and alone in a hotel room from cocaine intoxication. Nobody from the sport that continues to try and make money from his legend tried to help him.

— Dr. JQ (@justinhomewood) August 1, 2020

Rapha has acknowledged Standard’s tweet and said it would “pass it onto the team to look into.

thanks for highlighting this - we'll pass it onto the team to look into.

— Rapha (@rapha) July 29, 2020