T-Mobile ends cycling sponsorship

T-Mobile is to end sponsorship of its cycling team after a succession of doping scandals, leaving Britons Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins in limbo.

Less than two weeks ago, T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz was given a one-year ban for taking illegal substances.

In June, several former T-Mobile riders, including Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis, admitted past doping.

"We [want] to distance ourselves from the latest doping revelations," said T-Mobile chief executive Hamid Akhavan.

Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunications giant and umbrella company for mobile phone division T-Mobile, had been sponsoring cycling since 1991.

And it signed a new deal - supposed to run until 2010 - after this year's Tour.

Team manager Bob Stapleton said: "We hope to go forward independently with the team to achieve our goals of continued competitive success and being a leader in anti-doping efforts in professional cycling."

The Discovery team of Tour de France winner Alberto Contador disbanded in August after failing to find new sponsorship.

Cavendish and Wiggins both revealed recently that they would miss next year's Tour to concentrate on the 2008 Olympics but the news will still hit their preparations.

Wiggins and his former team Cofidis were thrown out of the Tour last year after one of the team, Italy's Cristian Moreni, failed a drugs test.

Source: BBC Sport