The day after: No more Tour on German public TV

In a first reaction on the decision by the German channels ARD and ZDF to stop broadcasting the Tour until the B-sample is analysed, most political parties have supported the decision.

"I think this is the right decision," said Dagmar Freitag, spokeswoman for sports political questions of the SPD. Klaus Riegert from the CDU agreed "It was the right point in time to say 'enough is enough'." The Green Party and the Left had similar reactions, while Detlef Paar from the FDP warned of total boycott and said that the investigative journalism has to continue.

Dagmar Reim, director of the Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, expects that "those consequences need to extend to other sports." She thought it was unimaginable that cycling is the only sport where there is doping.

Viewers can still tune into Eurosport to get their daily dose of Tour coverage. Many people have pointed out the double standard applied, as it is unlikely the 2008 Olympics or soccer broadcasts will be affected. And for those who wanted the results of yesterday's stage, they were available on the web sites of both channels.