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Omo Activ Sport - not an energy drinkSix riders hospitalised after mistaking detergent for energy drink
Six riders ended up clean inside and out at a Norwegian mountain bike event on Friday August 29 after drinking laundry detergent that they mistook for energy drink.
Organisers of the FredagsBirken long-distance mountain bike race in Rena near Oslo were handing out samples of Omo Activ & Sport liquid detergent, but hadn't anticipated riders would mistake it for sport nutrition.
"Eighty percent of our participants are married men," event boss Jo Gunnar Ellevold told E24.no. "From this we can conclude that married men would not know what Omo is."
The riders who mistakenly drank the detergent were treated with copious fluids at A & E in Rena. The organisation checked with Norway's Poisoning Information Centre to find out if there was likely to be anything toxic in the detergent.
Ellevold said: "We were informed that it is not dangerous to one’s health to drink around a decilitre of detergent. It produces some foam and it is natural that one will experience some discomfort for a time after drinking it."
Ingunn Rønningen Kleven from the event organisation told Norwegian news agency NTB: “Since this clothes washing detergent is especially developed for training clothes, we thought it would be relevant to give it to our contestants. They could use it to wash their clothes after the event.
"We have never experienced anything like this before. But usually we hand out samples of mackerel in tomato and the like; that might be a little safer."
The event organiser has handed out sample bottles of Omo before without a problem, but in the light of this incident, the bottle design might have to be changed.
Anne Gjemdal, head of information at Omo manufacturer Lilleborg, told NTB: “We thought it was obvious from the label that it is a detergent, but considering what has happened, we will re-evaluate if the labelling is good enough.The product is labelled according to strict regulations.”
Gjemdal added: “We are deeply sorry that people have mistakenly thought Omo was a sports drink. We hope those affected [by the misunderstanding] are well taken care of.”
After initial reports of riders drinking the detergent samples, organisers added a large notice in the sign-up area telling riders not to drink it.
At least we can be sure they were riding clean.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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31 comments
Vacant.
I do all the laundry in our house - which means I get to dodge the ironing
So that's why the BF is so keen to get laundry in the washing machine... IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW..... I just though I'd been lucky enough to find an amazing man!
How I imagine the distribution of those samples went....
What were the symptoms, foaming at the mouth?
Probably better for them than the many guys who drank degreaser from one of the Dragon Ride goody bags, back when the feed stops used to run out of food and water.
Clearly they put the detergent on the wrong cycle
"From this we can conclude that married men would not know what Omo is."
I reckon that there's a fair few married men who know exactly what a box of OMO left on the window ledge means, and a fair few married women who could tell you exactly why they left it there
OMO hmm
I have a little packet on the back shelf of my car here in Dubai…..not had any takers yet
But then I'm always on my own so the trollies know that it's a ruse 
This is priceless. They are gonna get so much grief.
Did someone mention what spin cycle?!
How stupid are these chaps! Were they trying to get a mass 'Darwin Award'
Perhaps it should have been called 'OH NO'
funny, but you can see how it might happen... you stagger pass the finish line - tired, hungry and thirsty. Someone hands you a bright coloured bottle of something. you drink it.
The event I did this weekend was sponsored by Erdinger, an alcohol-free Bavarian beer. But here's the beauty of it, they market it as an Isotonic Recovery Drink - absolute genius!
https://www.facebook.com/ErdingerAlkoholfreiUK
Erdinger's primary product is a 5% ABV weissbier, they also do a great full flavour brown or Dunkle bier, delicious stuff! t The 0,0% is used quite a lot on the cycle sponsor circuit but is no way their main item, just fyi.
I love this stuff, there's nothing better after a long ride than a great meal with a big bottle of it! I do wonder if the process of adding the salts etc that you find in isotonic drinks was necessary anyway to get the correct taste in alcohol-free form. Whatever - as you say, marketing genius!
Similar thing happened to a bloke at the club,
he drank a sample of varnish, had a terrible end but what a lovely finish!!
how absolutely ridiculous
.... but was there a performance advantage??
Note sure that OMO is on the banned substances list...
Perhaps the bubbles make you lighter...
They may provide unexpected propulsion!
I believe it increases your power to white ratio.
(Sorry!)
New masking agent discovered, removes all traces of drugs and stains on character....
If this was marketed correctly it could be an energy drink and saddle soap in one!
"But usually we hand out samples of mackerel in tomato and the like..."
I'd rather drink detergent.
What?....are you serious - how funny.
Headline should have been..."RIDERS ARE CLEAN AFTER SWALLOWING SOME OMO!"
......., it is the first of September and not April isn't it?
Adds a whole new meaning to 'clean' rider doesn't it
Shame, hopefully they're going to be ok. They won't live it down with their mates
100% of dogs have 4 legs. 100% of cats have 4 legs. From this we can conclude that all dogs are also cats.
Funny story though
Not true, an average dog has 3.99 legs. Therefore all 4 legged dogs are cats and all 3 legged dogs are tripod invaders from Mars.
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