In the meanwhile its announced that High Road shall take over the sponsorship. T-mobile is going to be Team High Road from now on. anybody got a clue what (market) High Road is as a sponsor.

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Colnago extreme-C Scott Addict SL

The sport in the US has been fairly stable. Races come, races go. Coors Classic, Ore-Ida Classic, Tour DuPont, San Francisco Grand Prix, Tour of Texas, Tour of Virginia: the list goes on of great races which are no longer around. It's doing fine now, but there's hardly an overwhelming trend, considering races which actually happen, and not just races which are promised.

I am just relieved that the team will continue & the riders & team staff will continue to have jobs!

I'm guessing time zones, I think a lot of this gets released to the media while the guys in Australia are in the middle of a good nights sleep.

Sad if it will end,
hope the team can continue for 2008.

Maybe a name swap? Orange is woring together with T-mobile.
Hope the magenta yersies stay in the peloton.

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Chris Kuiper
www.KuiperTrading.com

T-Mobile was the most expensive Pro Team of them all. For their return, at the very least, T-Mobile AG was entitled to a clean team. Maybe this is what the sport overall needs - maybe there is TOO much money available to these teams and riders.

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Campyfan

will my T-Mobile bill go down next month???

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Campyfan

Oopies you are right, seems i messed this one up. I had read that MAN withdrew from sponsorship a while ago, that had confused me. Sorry for the wrong information. The sad fact remains, a doper is persona grata, a caught doper possibly also is, a confessing doper isn't.

M.

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Snowman and Strong Walker
Scott Sc
my old stuff
my new stuff

Very sad day in cycling. T Mobile will be missed in the pelton. Dopers SUCK!!!!

Sidenote, I hope our fellow member Zakeen is not taking this to harsh...

Carlos

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Soon.....

I'd suggest that whilst Sinkewitz didn't help, the demise is more to do with Riis, Zabel, Ullrich and Honchar who are all much higher profile than him and have either admitted to drugs use, been caught or been strongly suspected of drug use whilst part of the Telekom / T-Mobile team, with all these stories coming out this year.

Sadly, several notable anti-drugs riders are on the roster for next year - hopefully they will still have the budget to ride the big events.

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No scales on the trails

It sounds like T-Mobile had to be seen to do something: although there has been nothing suggesting the current team is a problem, most of the public would just hear "T-Mobile Dope Scandal", which is not what the PR dept wants.

The question remains whether ANY of the major teams would look presentable if given the same level of exposure: pragmatically, they are all run as businesses. If doping was widespread and advantageous, from the business point of view it would have been crazy for them to be too vigilant in years past... it's all very well to claim to be a clean team, but no one much will notice if you never win.

Hopefully High Road can keep it all together for long enough to avoid a fire-sale. Reading between the lines, I suspect the settlement with T-Mob has given them a fair chunk of their budget for the next 2 years.

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Graham

Poor Phil Ligget will have some work ahead with all the new teams and riders. I think its best in the long run that we start over from a PR point of veiw.................The king is dead, long live the king..............

Germany seems to be in a state about all this doping, hell even Eddy Merx has been the subject of scorn. Lets get some new teams (and some new faces at the UCI as well ).

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WW Velocipedist Gargantuan

High road is the name of the management company that runs T-Mobile. They're doing a slipstream.

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This board would be a nicer place if everyone would take themselves less seriously.

I almost miss Mr Search...

Giant is out now too. They have paid an incredible amount of money for the team sponsorship surely in hopes of winning the big one. But with all those hoped dashed and T-Mobile constantly under performing, I can see how Giant is happy about this escape clause.

Plus Adidas is out.

http://www.bike-eu.com/news/2583/giant-ends-sponsoring-t-mobile-team.html

Is anyone else a bit fumed about the company, with possibly the most blood on its hands, who some time ago tacitly sat by knowing dope was rampant, yet expected victory on its EPO-buying dime? They knew. And if they meet the measure of their accountability it will cost much more than they will provide. In the case of T-mobile/Telekom, its not just about what the cyclists did. No way.