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Swiss paper drops race coverage, will focus on doping stories
One of Switzerland's largest daily newspapers, Tages-Anzeiger, is stopping race coverage from the Tour de France immediately and will only report doping-related stories, an editor said on Wednesday.
"We won't have reports of the race anymore. It doesn't seem to make sense to have a report on the day's stage because the doping issue overshadows everything," day editor Andres Buechi told AFP.
Buechi said the Zurich newspaper's editors had decided just to give the stage and overall standings on the sports pages, alongside stories from their reporter following the Tour on the latest developments in the doping affairs.
"We'll do that until the end of the race," Buechi said. "With every single day that passes the result is skewed by doping allegations, and somewhere along the line it's become irrelevant. Today there was a sit-in by some riders to protest against the alleged doping. That's become much more important than the sporting events."
Buechi said the newspaper hoped the events that have rocked cycling's most prominent race again this year would serve as a "catharsis" or turning point that would help clean up the whole of the sport.
"There's also an opportunity with this whole rather harsh affair," he said. "Maybe it's the start of a better future for cycling, maybe at last it'll mark a move in the right direction."
The newspaper is maintaining its planned standard coverage of subsequent cycling races this season, Buechi said.
German public television stations ARD and ZDF stopped their live coverage of the Tour de France last week following T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz' positive drugs test.
