Deutsche Telekom ends sponsorship

lucybears said:

Deutsche Telekom AG has elected to end sponsorship of professional cycling with immediate effect. This decision was taken by the Board of Management of the Bonn-based telecommunications group, which had been a sponsor of professional cycling since 1991. Sponsorship of both the men's and women's teams is ended with this action.
t-mobile-team.com889390Open ↗

Stapleton is going to continue as "Team HIGH ROAD" . It seems at the moment that he will finance the team himself. The sad news is that German cycling is dying, there´s only one Pro-Tour Team left: Milram and I suppose it is just a question of time when they will stop their sponsoring. The Sinkewitz affair has been lethal.

portia said:

Stapleton is going to continue as "Team HIGH ROAD" . It seems at the moment that he will finance the team himself. The sad news is that German cycling is dying, there´s only one Pro-Tour Team left: Milram and I suppose it is just a question of time when they will stop their sponsoring. The Sinkewitz affair has been lethal.

There is still Gerolsteiner as well. Ironic, though, that that team, which just a few years back was considered the poor cousin to T-Mob, has turned out to be the one left standing.

Leafer said:

There is still Gerolsteiner as well. Ironic, though, that that team, which just a few years back was considered the poor cousin to T-Mob, has turned out to be the one left standing.

Yes, but Gerolsteiner decided to stop its sponsoring at the end of 2008 and Hans Michael Holzcer has not produced a new sponsor yet.

You can blame Armstrong for this one.... and the UCI...... well done Pat....
___________________________

BERLIN (AFP) — T-Mobile, the mobile phone division of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, said Tuesday it was ending its sponsorship of a major cycling team after a succession of doping scandals.
"We have decided to take this step to distance ourselves and the T-Mobile brand from the latest doping revelations in sport and especially in cycling," T-Mobile boss Hamid Akhavan said in a statement.

"We have worked hard with the current team management to create a cleaner sport of cycling. We have now decided to put our money to other uses," Akhavan said.

The T-Mobile team, formerly known as Deutsche Telekom, has been rocked in recent years by allegations that its cyclists used drugs.

The team sacked its highest profile rider, the 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich, in July 2006 amid allegations he was involved in a Spanish doping network.

Ullrich has since retired from cycling but continues to protest his innocence. T-Mobile also sacked German rider Patrik Sinkewitz in July this year after abnormal levels of testosterone were found in his blood.

Sinkewitz was given a one-year ban this month and has admitted using drugs. The announcement ends Deutsche Telekom's 16-year association with professional cycling.

[quote="whiteboytrash"]You can blame Armstrong for this one.... and the UCI...... well done Pat....
___________________________
No. Armstrong came into view when everybody was already at it. It was Hein Verbrugghen who tolerated the mess.

Sad day. I found this on the AP wire:

Quoted post said:

BERLIN (AFP) — T-Mobile, the mobile phone division of German telecommunications giant Telekom, said Tuesday it was ending its sponsorship of major cycling and blaming Lance Armstrong for the entire mess.

"We have decided to take this step to distance ourselves and the T-Mobile brand from the latest doping revelations in sport and especially in cycling and Lance Armstrong," T-Mobile boss Hamid Akhavan said in a statement. "Lance Armstrong is responsible and for that we call him an assholio. Lance, you're an assholio."

"We have worked hard with the current team management to create a cleaner sport of cycling," Akhavan continued, "but Armstrong is too big of an assholio for us to reconsider. He's just a plain ass. And a hole. And of course eee-o as well. Put them together and you have assholio."

The T-Mobile team, formerly known as Depoopchute Telekom, has been rocked in recent years by allegations that its cyclists used drugs because of Armstrong.

The team sacked its highest profile rider, the 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich, in July 2006 amid allegations he was involved in a Spanish Armstrong network in which bags of Armstrong were link to the German champion and other riders.

Ullrich has since retired because of Armstrong but continues to protest his innocence saying it's all because of Armstrong. T-Mobile also sacked German rider Patrik Sinkewitz because of Armstrong in July this year after abnormal levels of Armstrong were found in his blood. He blamed it on Armstrong.

"We can no longer ignore Armstrong," Akhavan said. "He has responsible for Armstrong in cycling and Armstrong in sport. And, he's an assholio."

helmutRoole2 said:

Sad day. I found this on the AP wire:

very good ! :p

.......has the sport officially become ridiculous ?

whiteboytrash said:

very good ! :p

.......has the sport officially become ridiculous ?

It has, WTB, in Gerrmany it has discredited itself completely, other nations prefer to believe in the show-offy behaviour of their athletes. The greatest pretender is Spain and its so-called sports minister, who prefers to kiss-kiss Contador. Sinkewitz stated that most of his colleagues from Spain and Italy are sheep as far as education is concerned, they do not have any proper schooling to do any other job, say they´re too stupid to do anything but move a bike. They have no vocational training whatsoever.

Well, something's gotta change. But I suspect that the country is still in mourning over Jan. And they've been sunk by the Sink.

Crankyfeet said:

Well, something's gotta change. But I suspect that the country is still in mourning over Jan. And they've been sunk by the Sink.

No, definitely not, SOCCER is Germany´s main concern, though all those leagues whatsoever get on MY nerves. Nobody is mourning because of Jan apart from his hardheaded fans. But being committed to cycling and producing bad news because of PETTY cyclists like Sinkewitz triggered the decision by Telekom to opt out. I think they´re right, enough is enough. They have to sell something after all and shareholders will question whatever commitment.A petty cyclist like sinke should not be in their way.

The media killed cycling in Germany. The teams,managers etc. gave them ammunition but the media fired the lethal bullet.
No surprise here!

jhuskey said:

The media killed cycling in Germany. The teams,managers etc. gave them ammunition but the media fired the lethal bullet.
No surprise here!

Sincerity is at stake: the media only revealed what cycling was(is) about. It is the one who is chemically speaking most armoured who wins the tour. why should we pay as viewers for such events? here you have to pay for public tv.

jhuskey said:

The media killed cycling in Germany. The teams,managers etc. gave them ammunition but the media fired the lethal bullet.
No surprise here!

I disagree. Only stupidity kill cycling! Thanks Verdruggen

portia said:

Sincerity is at stake: the media only revealed what cycling was(is) about. It is the one who is chemically speaking most armoured who wins the tour. why should we pay as viewers for such events? here you have to pay for public tv.

Sometimes the truth is fatal. When it all come around, it is still just entertainment to those that watch.

poulidor said:

I disagree. Only stupidity kill cycling! Thanks Verdruggen

If you want to use a one word description how about greed?

This is part of the shake-up we had to have. I really don't hold any hope that cycling will root out doping on principle, the greed is too great. But when the biggest sponsors start pulling out one after another, and pro cycling finds up the creek without a paddle, then if what is seemingly is the main motivator - the hip pocket - gets a hit they may perhaps start to get serious about it.

Too bad so many clean riders and support personel have to have their livelihoods ruined.

Eagle of Toledo said:

This is part of the shake-up we had to have. I really don't hold any hope that cycling will root out doping on principle, the greed is too great. But when the biggest sponsors start pulling out one after another, and pro cycling finds up the creek without a paddle, then if what is seemingly is the main motivator - the hip pocket - gets a hit they may perhaps start to get serious about it.

Too bad so many clean riders and support personel have to have their livelihoods ruined.

The unfortunate paradox though is that as the sponsorship $$$ dry-up, the sport will need to spend more and more $$$ on dope-testing.

This is great news for them to pull out; a few more real big ones and cycling can die for a few years, get their [censored] together and start over.

Life is starting to look good in the pack. 😄

When will Hincapie announce he is going to Astana?

I wonder how this works from a legal standpoint regarding the team riders and staff. They are truly farked when this happens this late in the year. The chance of finding another team is low. Contracts are supposed to be submitted to the UCI in just over two weeks. It seems like they would have a legal case against T-Mobile.

Who is on T Mobile these days? There have been so many changes over the last two years I have lost track of things. Hincapie. Rogers. Gerdemann.

What the hell does Rogers do? If he has any thoughts about winning the Tour, they are gone for next season. There is no way he can find a team that will support him. A single day rider like Hincapie can probably find a place for himself that will support his attempts at P-R and Flanders, but Rogers is buggered.