- HOT TOPICS:
- Cav wins stage 2 •
- Cancellara wins opener •
- Sastre can't start in yellow •
- Boonen gets green light
T-Mobile to decide future in cycling by Sunday
The German T-Mobile team will learn on Sunday if the cellular phone company will withdraw its sponsorship, a spokesman announced on Tuesday.
"We will consider things and make a decision at the end of this year's Tour de France," said T-Mobile communications director Christian Frommert, whose company has a contract to sponsor the team until 2010.
It has been a difficult year for T-Mobile which terminated the contract of 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich in July 2006 after he was linked to the Spanish Operación Puerto doping investigation. That firing led to a complete overhaul of the team’s management structure as well. The team is now managed by American Bob Stapleton.
And then earlier this year, seven former Deutsche Telekom riders, including now disgraced 1996 Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis and sprinter Erik Zabel, confessed to using banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO).
But with Stapleton at the helm, the team appeared to be a new course, when it was dealt a major setback as rider Patrik Sinkewitz was found to have abnormal levels of testosterone in urine sample and was suspended from the team.
Sinkewitz is waiting to hear whether his B sample, also taken on June 8, shows the same result.
The team now face an anxious wait until the Tour finishes in Paris on Sunday, because T-Mobile is able to break their contract with immediate effect - even before the Tour of Germany which begins on August 10.
Co-sponsor, Adidas is also seriously considering withdrawing its partnership agreement with T-Mobile and German televisions channels ARD and ZDF cancelled their coverage of this year's Tour in light of Sinkewitz's failed drugs test.
A recent poll by the German edition of The Financial Times showed that only 15 percent of Germans are remain interested in this year's Tour. While that figure is significantly higher than interest in the U.S., it falls well short of the 63 percent figure noted at the height of the sport’s popularity when Ullrich was a factor in the race for the Tour’s overall title.
Agence France Presse and VeloNews.com editor Charles Pelkey contributed to this report
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