T-Mobile out

ContrelaMontre

I blame the sponsors for making half arsed changes. They should have either committed to clean cycling or got out because they (as they now admit) were incapable of changing the culture.

They have made the worst of a bad job.

Woolfie

And the harsh lesson pro cycling learnt today is we should be more like UK Athletics (and others) and pretend nothing bad is happening. Your sponsors will stay interested then :twisted:

Anonymous

ContrelaMontre wrote:

I blame the sponsors for making half arsed changes. They should have either committed to clean cycling or got out because they (as they now admit) were incapable of changing the culture.

They have made the worst of a bad job.

You blame the sponsors now they have got out?

ContrelaMontre

Missed the joke there whitley! Over my head.

The situation is that T Mobile has made a massive fcuck up - in particular leading along Joe Public and screwing over a whole load of riders etc.

The situation is of their making - it is all their fault.

moray_gub

iainf72 wrote:

ContrelaMontre wrote:

[splutter] this is fcucking ridiculous [splutter]



Is Bob Stapleton?

Look at his track record over the last year and answer me truthfully. If you need reminding, kept Honchar, kept the Dr Ferrari massive (Sinkewitz, Rogers and Merckx), dodgy DS's who only admitted things when backed into a corner. Wanted to hire Zabel, hired Hincapie and had an anti-doping program that was more talk than substance.

He's sold the sponsor and clean riders he's hired something which isn't close to the reality and has now paid the price.

Can you clarify a few things for me Ian you say he kept Honchar ? I thought he got rid of him You say he kept Sinkewitz I thought he gor rid off him as well Merckx and Rogers what exactly have they done that is considered wrong ? and whats wrong with hiring Hincapie , has he failed a drug test that i was unaware of ? Or do you consider him guilty of drug taking purely becuase he rode for USP/Disco ?

cheers
MG

vermooten

Good riddance to cycling's worst sponsor. I hope we'll look back on this as the turning point.

Anonymous

ContrelaMontre wrote:

Missed the joke there whitley! Over my head.

The situation is that T Mobile has made a massive fcuck up - in particular leading along Joe Public and screwing over a whole load of riders etc.

The situation is of their making - it is all their fault.

Oh right: Didn't realize they were obligated to the promotion of clean professional cycling.
Just thought they were in it for the Brand Exposure.Silly me.

vermooten

Deutsche Telecom paid for Bjarne's EPO and growth hormone in the 90s. They also paid for the devil tattoos you can see in Hollentour on the arms of the T-Mobile riders which, which it has been alleged, were used to cover up the needle pucture marks used by some riders to deliver the juice. They paid for Sinkewitz's testogel etc etc

I suppose Telekom's successes in the 90s were a great advert for German reunification, and it must hurt like hell now to discover that it was all founded on a lie. I'm amazed they stayed with cycling as long as they did.

But cycling doesn't need their dirty cash (though Wiggins et al might disagree on that one).

dave_1

should Sinkewitz have kept silen? Depending on your stance..omerta or not..? Sinky gets a 1 year ban and 50 people lose their job perhaps? Did Sink help us understand doping methods any better , enhance the anti-doping movement? Were I a T Mobile rider...I'd be tempted to crucify him, along with Ullrich and the other hot shots of the T mob/ Telekom era

jimmythecuckoo

Bugger www.teamhighroad.com is already registered... I was after a money making opportunity there.

LangerDan

Dave_1 wrote:

should Sinkewitz have kept silen? Depending on your stance..omerta or not..? Sinky gets a 1 year ban and 50 people lose their job perhaps? Did Sink help us understand doping methods any better , enhance the anti-doping movement? Were I a T Mobile rider...I'd be tempted to crucify him, along with Ullrich and the other hot shots of the T mob/ Telekom era

Dont forget that among those riders now at risk:
- several were members of the team when doping was rife
- others who insisted on signing when there were major questions about doping in the squad
- some who have significant questions over their own past

There will be team personnel who will , unfairly, face a Christmas on the dole this year but I wouldn't regard it as being a wholesale slaughter of the innocents.

iainf72

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

Bugger www.teamhighroad.com is already registered... I was after a money making opportunity there.

No one has cottoned onto the "High" in their name yet, eh?

iainf72

Moray Gub wrote:

Can you clarify a few things for me Ian you say he kept Honchar ? I thought he got rid of him You say he kept Sinkewitz I thought he gor rid off him as well Merckx and Rogers what exactly have they done that is considered wrong ? and whats wrong with hiring Hincapie , has he failed a drug test that i was unaware of ? Or do you consider him guilty of drug taking purely becuase he rode for USP/Disco ?

I meant from 06 -> 07. Honchar being in the new clean T-Mobile raised some eyebrows at first. Why would you sign someone obviously dodgy to your clean team? Sinkewitz / Rogers were working with Dr Ferrari in 06 and that usually means some help. They might have only been getting some training programs but maybe not.

Hincapie - No, I'm a George fan actually as some here will testify to. But he comes from a background of alledged dodginess.

None of them had been caught (aside from Honchar) doing anything dubious but there were large question marks over them. If you ran a business, employed 50 people and had to employ someone would you take someone on who could lose everyone their jobs if there were a rumours of dodgy doings?

T-Mobile were trying to project an image - There was no reason NOT to hire them but the chances those people would let you down was far greater.

iainf72

Mr Wiggins expresses shock

Langenberg

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

Bugger www.teamhighroad.com is already registered... I was after a money making opportunity there.

I think you are still in with a chance... as this seems to be the correct site:

http://www.highroadsports.com/

off the back

For sure it is a bad day for cycling - one of the few teams that are serious about tackling the doping issue loose their sponsor. I can't blame T-mobile either as pointed out earlier they are in it to get good PR - unfortunately the bad outweighs the good (this is no doubt a combination of what has and is going on in the actual T-mobiel team and the wider cycling world) and it does not make sense to risk dragging their company name through the dirt any further. Cycling PR has been greatly devalued so a major win does not bring as much publicity as before - the average Joe Schmidt has lost interest in cycling. Plus you have to huge added risk of your riders testing positive and leaving yourself prone to bad PR.

For me complaining about them leaving is the same as complaining about a fan not watching the tour any more. Saddened but not totally surprised. Lets hope T-mobile (or whatever they are called) can win plenty and bring in new backers into the sport - it would be terrible to loose what they are building.

skavanagh.bikeradar

T-Mobile aren't the innocents in all this. Yes, they were lead down the garden path, but in the past 2 years they got a series of massive wakeup calls and didn't do enough to avoid today. And while you can say the sponsor probably isn't involved that closely with the cycle team, consider how long t-mob have been around, thier high profile and recent scandals. Bob Stapleton tried, but was hamstrung by the overall mess things were in and possibly the people advising him. He allowed some weird decisions on retaining and hiring riders who as earlier posts have said were more likely to let him and t-mob down than not.

As someone else said this is more sad than shock, and you could see it coming over the last few months especially now that Pat Sinkewitz has told it like it is and put the fear up everyone at t-mob. It'll be interesting to see how Quick Step reacts given the brown stuff hovering near to their fan.

All this on the day a British athlete gets to turn the anti doping tide back in the favour of dopers. Bonkers, maddening, disappointing.

nick hanson

iainf72 wrote:

Mr Wiggins expresses shock

Mr Wiggins will probably come out of this quite nicely,financially,at least.
He will have a contract,which will have to be paid out (one of the very few good things that came out of the debacle of teams such Le Groupement & the Linda Mcartney team folding,funds have to be lodged to cover wages for this sort of eventuality)
You can see why Brad is considering looking for another team,He'd be quids in

ridgerider

Surprised by the timing of their decision, are they not so confirdent about a cleaner future for the sport as we are?

ut_och_cykla

SecretSqirrel wrote:

Strange timing??
Dare I ask if it has anything to do with the story that was withdrawn from Cycling News yesterday regarding Uncle Bob investigating the Sponsors?

YEs I read that yesterday too - and now when I looked for it ...GONE! No strange coincedence methinks

Jajacp

Oddly enough I am going to cancel my T-mobile contract today, because the reception is so poor where I 've moved to. I will now be able to tell them it's because they've pulled the cycling team sponsorship. Which will doubtless confuse the poor person in the t-mobile call centre, who won't have a box to tick for that.

LangerDan

Can we take it from the immediate rebranding as "Team HighRoad" and Stapleton's comments that he has sufficient money to continue ahead for two more years without a main sponsor that he is forging ahead with the the complete T-Mobile squad? Complete, as in still retaining all those individuals whose presence in T-Mobile made a mockery of the stated ambitions of a drug-free new beginning?

A "night of the long knives" wouldn't go astray if Bob wishes to attract a new title sponsor, though I won't hold my breath waiting.

(What is it about Bob and forgiving people? Its highly unlikely that he got to be a very wealthy telecommuncations tycoon by behaving like Mother Teresa all day. Yet faced with cyclists he now appears to have become SpongeBob Stapletonpants)

timoid.

Where does this leave the sponsorship for the Tour of Britain? The High Road tour of Britain anyone?

You can't blame Riis, Ullrich and Zabel. They made the team with their (dodgy) exploits. Without them drumming up interest in the sport for Telekom/T-Mobile users, the team would not have received the backing it has over the past two decades.

T-Mobile have made a business decision (and in my opinion the correct one), that the benefits of staying in the sport are outweighed by negative impacts. I'm just surprised they didn't make it sooner.

ContrelaMontre

whitley wrote:

ContrelaMontre wrote:

Missed the joke there whitley! Over my head.

The situation is that T Mobile has made a massive fcuck up - in particular leading along Joe Public and screwing over a whole load of riders etc.

The situation is of their making - it is all their fault.

Oh right: Didn't realize they were obligated to the promotion of clean professional cycling.
Just thought they were in it for the Brand Exposure.Silly me.

They aren't obligated to do anything and I haven't indicated such.

The problem I have is that they could have quit after Puerto broke or at many points since. What they've done instead is lead everyone on a merry dance for the last year and a half including the fans but also very importantly the likes of Cavendish, Gerdemann, Wigger, and Pinotti.

They claimed to be sorting themselves out and supporting these athletes who I honestly hope are the future of the sport and now what?

Complete farce. As I said it is the worst way to deal with a bad situation.

GroupOfOne MkII

Timoid. wrote:

Where does this leave the sponsorship for the Tour of Britain? The High Road tour of Britain anyone?

They didn't have any involvement in The ToB this year, other than a team competing so we'd be unlikely to have 'The High Road Tour' however amusing a name that is

Does seem that Bob has the finances to carry on the teams as they are without a new sponsor. On CN it talks of a couple of wealthy benefactors who have given money which is interesting, could we see more of these private persons pledging money to teams (a la Slipstream, Tinkov etc) because they're well off cycling fans rather than the more traditional sponsorship model.

I guess cycling is a sport where the middle rich (if such a phrase exists, by that I mean not the uber-wealthy buying up football clubs) can still see a lot of returns for their investment. I.e. For a not too massive sum you can own a whole cycling team with relative ease.

Also CN says new sponsors are interested, and I guess now with T-Mobile & Adidas leaving (possibly Audi too if that's been confirmed?) Stapelton would be free to look for non-Germanic sponsors. Also will the team continue to be German registered or is it likely to become American (or even British ) registered?

off the back

Cant agree with your comments - Complete farce. As I said it is the worst way to deal with a bad situation.

Bob has got money to continue for 2 years unaided - so by all accounts T-mobile must have paid up for at least 1 year if not the 2 remaining years of the contract. given what has been happening in T-mobile they could have walked away claimed breech of contract (for allowing doping practices) or sued for damages by bad publicity caused by it all. That would have left riders without finance and a lengthy legal battle where we could air our the dirty laundry (AGAIN). So I think T-mobile have been very fair. the riders and team can continue and by all accounts are still being bank rolled by T-mobile -only T-mobile dont want to have their name on the jerseys.

It will be interesting to see what kind of sponsor will step up to be counted at this stage - and what will be their motivation -pilantropist, commercial etc

windyphil

Next Stop E-bay for collectors items, magenta, soon to be retro, jerseys !

dave_1

Did Telekom execs care enough after Festina 98 to keep a closer eye on what was being done in their team? Perhaps they wanted the huge sales boosts in Germany and beyond enough to keep their head in the sand? Maybe they are to blame and hence paid their way out...to High Road which clearly has millions of dollars paid to them from the contract breach

GroupOfOne MkII

Rather unfortunate quote by Walter Godefroot on CN:

Looking back, he continued, "I have no regrets. I can still look at myself in the mirror. You must forget the negatives and remember the positives."

Hmmm Walter, I think that's what got us in this mess to start with

Jajacp

and I also notice from the same article that Giant are considering their position. Now if cycle manutactures want to pull out of professional cycling...