Germans refuse to broadcast Le Tour

17 October 2008 | 10:50 - afp.com

German media giants ARD, the number-one broadcasters, and fellow national television channel ZDF announced they will not cover the Tour de France again because of recent cases of failed drugs testing.

"The sporting value of the Tour de France has been reduced by the accumulation of failed drugs tests," said ARD chairman Fritz Raff after the decision was made following a meeting in Cologne.

"Therefore, its broadcast value has sunk deeply."

ARD pulled the plug on broadcasting the 2007 Tour here in the middle of the competition after German rider Patrick Sinkewitz failed a drugs test for testosterone.

The broadcasters had been set to renegotiate their contract with Tour organisers to screen next year's race, but Thursday's announcement means there are now no plans to screen the world's premier cycling event here in the near future.

The consortium cover a broad range of media including television, radio and websites.

And German television channel ZDF have followed ARD's example.

"ZDF will also not broadcast the Tour without ARD," said ZDF's chief spokesman Nikolaus Brender.

The decision by ARD and ZDF comes less than 24 hours after Austria's Bernhard Kohl, the best climber at this year's Tour who finished third overall, admitted to using CERA, the new generation of banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin).

Kohl's admission came after he failed a test this week for the drug in retroactive controls carried out by France's national anti-doping agency.

The 26-year-old Gerolsteiner rider said he took the drug to help him speed up recovery after a heavy fall in June's Dauphine Libere, a warm-up race for the Tour.

He is the fourth rider on this year's Tour after Italian duo Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli and Gerolsteiner team-mate Stefan Schumacher to have been caught out by the new tests for CERA (Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator).