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Landis may be last straw for German network
The managers of Germany’s ZDF said Thursday the public television network might cease broadcasting the Tour de France in reaction to winner Floyd Landis testing positive for testosterone.
"We signed a broadcasting contract for a sporting event, not a show demonstrating the performances of the pharmaceutical industry," ZDF editor-in-chief Nikolaus Brender said. "We are going to think about our future as broadcaster and maybe refuse to broadcast this event."
Even before the race started on July 1 it was engulfed in doping controversy, with top German contender Jan Ullrich, his T-Mobile teammate Oscar Sevilla and Italian Ivan Basso among nine riders expelled over their links to a Spanish blood-doping ring. Brender called on the International Cycling Union and Tour organizers to take a harder line against riders and teams found guilty of doping.
The absence of 1997 Tour winner Ullrich, the only German to win the race, cut the audience of the two German public stations covering the Tour from 2.69 million viewers to 1.49 million for the first half of the race.
Landis's Phonak team on Thursday announced he returned a positive doping test on the evening of his sensational comeback win in the Tour's mountainous 17th stage which set up his eventual overall victory.
