German TV Threatens to Drop Tour; Cycling Body Plans Crackdown

1 August 2006 - Sam Sherringham - Bloomberg

ZDF, one of Germany's two public television networks, may drop the Tour de France from next year's schedule because champion Floyd Landis's positive drug test has undermined cycling's premier event.

"We're no longer prepared to broadcast this race unless something changes,'' said Walter Kehr, a spokesman for Mainz- based Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, which shares German coverage of the Tour with ARD. ``The Tour de France is too precious and also too expensive an event to be destroyed in this sort of way.''

Landis was informed last week that a urine sample taken after a mountain stage victory showed an excess of testosterone. He would become the first winner to be stripped of the title for drug use if a second test confirms a violation. The 30-year-old American says he has naturally high levels of the hormone.

The Landis case capped an event overshadowed by doping scandals. Race favorites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were among nine riders withdrawn by teams on the eve of the Tour after being implicated in a blood-doping probe. Both deny wrongdoing. The International Cycling Union, or UCI, said it's planning a full audit of the sport.

ZDF, which wouldn't say how much it pays to broadcast the race, may not be the only company to snub cycling after the latest spate of doping cases, said Howard Farbrother, an account director for London-based sports marketer Redmandarin.

"If you are a big brand considering different sports to go into, I don't think cycling would be the favorite,'' Farbrother said in a telephone interview. ``It's not going to go down well with shareholders, stakeholders or internal management. We will see a shift of sponsors away from individual risk events.''

Liberty, Phonak

The exodus has already begun. Liberty Mutual Group, the No. 4 business insurer in the U.S, stopped sponsoring a Tour de France team two days after its manager was arrested in Spain's biggest anti-doping raid.

Switzerland's Phonak Holding AG, the world's third-biggest maker of hearing aids, had already said it would quit sponsoring cycling this year, even before Landis became its latest team member to fail a drug test.

Olympic time trial champion Tyler Hamilton was one of three Phonak cyclists fired for doping violations last year. And in June, the team suspended Santiago Botero and Jose Enrique Gutierrez for their links to the Spanish investigation.

The drug cases were ``definitely one of the reasons'' for ending the seven-year association with cycling, Phonak spokeswoman Vanessa Erhard said in a phone interview. ``We were extremely saddened by the news about Landis.''

TV Numbers

The withdrawals of high-profile contenders amid doping allegations may have lowered viewing figures for an event shown in more than 165 countries, according to official statistics. In France, the number of viewers declined 14 percent compared with 2005, while in the U.S., it dropped 54 percent in the first Tour since record seven-time winner Lance Armstrong retired.

The average number of German viewers watching live race coverage fell almost 40 percent to 1.81 million following the withdrawal of home favorite Ullrich, the 1997 champion, according to figures from ARD.

Conscious of the potential damage of the drug scandals to the sport's image and earning capacity, UCI President Pat McQuaid vowed to crack down on doping using extra policing and hidden cameras.

"We will look at all aspects, the competition, events, calendar, teams and the management of teams,'' he said. ``If we can do that then we will regain some ground and credibility.''

`Drastic Reform'

The ruling body's stance may help cycling hold onto sponsors such as T-Mobile, which is considering whether to extend its team sponsorship beyond 2008. The mobile-phone unit of Bonn-based Deutsche Telekom AG said it spends 12 million euros ($15.3 million) annually to sponsor one of the Tour's 20 squads.

"We want cycling to prove it's ready for a drastic reform,'' T-Mobile spokesman Phillip Schindera said in a phone interview. "What we have seen so far is that this is the case.''

Sportswear maker Nike Inc. and French bank Credit Agricole SA's LCL unit, which have their logos on the race leader's yellow jersey, vowed to support the Tour in its fight against drugs.

"The Tour remains a superb sporting spectacle,'' Nike spokesman Charlie Brooks said in a phone interview. ``We hope people connected with the Tour do everything they can to keep it as clean as possible and we are confident they are working toward that.''