T-mobile Ends Long-term Cycling Sponsorship

T-Mobile has confirmed that it will end its title sponsorship of its cycling team following the long line of drugs scandals to have the hit the sport.

The decision comes less than two weeks after 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.

The brand recently signed a new deal, supposed to run until 2010, after this year’s Tour de France.

The decision leaves British cyclists Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins without a team assuming no investor can be found to replace T-Mobile.