German TV Channels Drop Tour de France Over Dope Case
19/07/2007 |
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German state broadcasters ARD and ZDF suspended coverage of the Tour de France midway through cycling's premier race after a rider tested positive for doping.
The boycott will last until Patrik Sinkewitz's case is resolved, the television stations said today. The 26-year-old German, who withdrew after crashing into a spectator three days ago, tested positive for testosterone a month before the race, his T-Mobile team said today.
``We were in intensive discussion with the German racing teams and they swore that everything would be clean,'' Guenter Stuve, ARD's director of programming, told the station's Web site.
The broadcasters are reacting to the latest doping scandal to hit cycling's credibility following Floyd Landis's positive test, also for abnormal levels of testosterone, in winning last year's Tour de France. The American denies wrongdoing and his case is being examined by an arbitration panel.
A decline in TV coverage may threaten the $100 million sponsorships of Tour de France teams, further hurting a sport that has lost credibility because of repeated doping cases, according to Jesper Worre, a former rider who organizes the Tour of Denmark.
The test on Sinkewitz that gave a positive reading was carried out June 8 by Germany's anti-doping agency, T-Mobile team spokesman Marc Ullerich said. Sinkewitz can request a backup test if he disputes the reading that showed an excess level of the hormone, which can be injected in synthetic form to boost an athlete's muscle fibers, he added.
Rider Suspended
``Me? Why me? I don't know anything about it. This can't be,'' Sinkewitz was quoted as saying by German sports magazine Kicker's Web site. ``I am due to have an operation and I can't think about it now.''
T-Mobile suspended Sinkewitz pending the outcome of the second test and will fire him if that's also positive, Stefan Wagner, another team spokesman, said.
The incident may undermine efforts by Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile to eliminate doping from the team it backs after scandals involving 1997 Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich and other former riders on the squad.
T-Mobile renewed its sponsorship, worth about 13 million euros ($17.9 million) a year, in July 2006 after replacing the squad's management and overseeing the introduction of internal drug testing.
Riis Confession
At the same time, the Bonn-based team fired Ullrich after he became embroiled in a blood-doping probe in Spain linked to 58 cyclists. Ullrich quit the sport aged 33 in February, saying allegations against him were wrong.
Bjarne Riis, the 1996 Tour de France champion, was one of six former riders who in May confessed to doping on the squad in the 1990s, when it was known as Team Telekom. Riis is the only Tour winner to confess to doping.
Sinkewitz is recovering in a hospital in Hamburg after sustaining a broken nose and jaw in a collision with a spectator after the July 15 stage in the Alps.
The accident happened as Sinkewitz and a group of teammates were cycling to their hotel in the ski resort of Val d'Isere. The spectator, who is from Luxembourg, is recovering after initially losing consciousness.
On the same day, Australia's Michael Rogers, leader of the T-Mobile team, crashed out of the Tour and teammate Mark Cavendish of Britain withdrew.
The race three-week race ends in Paris on July 29.
(Source: Bloomberg.com)
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