VARIOUS: CYCLE RACING - German cycling federation say that T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz has tested positive for testosterone

German television stations stop broadcasting the Tour de France after cycling federation announce that Patrik Sinkewitz has tested positive for testosterone. German T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz has tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone, the German cycling federation (BDR) said on Wednesday (July 18). The announcement comes at a time the team is recovering from a series of doping revelations by former riders for its predecessor Team Telekom. Germany's National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has informed the federation that a test on a first sample Sinkewitz gave on June 8 had shown increased levels of the hormone, the BDR said on its Web site (www.rad-net.de). Sinkewitz, who pulled out of the Tour de France earlier this week with a broken nose and a shoulder injury after a collision with a spectator, could face a two-year suspension. The BDR said it would write to 26-year-old, who has been suspended by T-Mobile, and he would then have five days to decide whether to request a second sample given on June 8 be tested. If that confirmed the positive result, the BDR said it would take the case to the federal court for sport and T-Mobile said it would cancel the rider's contract. Christian Frommert, director of sponsoring communication at Deutsche Telekom AG, said of the future of the company's cycling sponsorship: "We will let the team finish the Tour de France and after the tour, we will sit together and reach a decision on what we have achieved with our anti-doping fight." German state television stations ARD and ZDF said they would stop broadcasting the Tour until the results of the B sample were known. Speaking to reporters after the 10th stage of the Tour -- a 229.5km ride from Tallard to Marseille -- T-Mobile general manager Bob Stapleton said: "Our code of conduct says that any form of cheating of any kind, any form of manipulation, or the reasonable suspicion of that going on in the team, allows us to act, so obviously Patrick's been suspended from the team. If the B sample confirms the A sample test his contract will be terminated, he'll be fired." Stapleton said the news was "extremely disappointing" but underlined his commitment to the fight against doping, saying the increased testing was in the best interests of the sport. "We're going to stick to the fight, we're not giving up, we're keeping our heads up and we're going to pursue this until we know that all athletes are subject to the same test, that the system is as fair as possible as it can be, and that we try and get doping out of this sport and hopefully other sports," he said. UCI president Pat McQuaid told reporters he would wait for the result of the B sample before commenting. T-Mobile, who won the seventh stage of the Tour thanks to Linus Gerdemann have their own anti-doping programme, including unique blood volume tests that measure the body weight/blood ratio in order to detect blood doping. German cycling has been hit by a string of doping confessions, including former Telekom riders Dane Bjarne Riis and German Erik Zabel's admissions that they used banned substances in the 1990s.

ITN Source | July 19, 2007

Tags:. .injury. .detect. .code. .banned. .weight