T-Mobile plans "round table discussion" over doping

T-Mobile Team and sponsor T-Mobile are staying aggressive in their fight against doping with cycling. They will hold a round table discussion on the issue at the HEW Cyclassics Pro Tour race on July 30, with the national association (Bund Deutsche Radfahrer) president Rudolf Scharping.

Many of the biggest doping affairs have not been discovered through routine testing - for example, Jan Ullrich, David Millar and Richard Virenque were never tested positive in a race. T-Mobile therefore wants to work more closely with the National Anti-Doping Agency. Team Gerolsteiner has also indicated its willingness to participate in the project. In addition, Frommert said, doping critics such as the biologist Werner Franke and Austrian doctor and nutrition expert Kurt Moosburger will also take part.

"We will be looking at every aspect," says T-Mobile Sports Communications director Christian Frommert. The suspension of nine riders before the start of the Tour de France was an alarm signal, he said, and now it is up to the sponsors to act. But the riders and the trainers must also be part of the new beginning, as only "clean cycling" will be attractive to sponsors, Frommert noted.

T-Mobile's continued sponsorship of the team depends on the success of the fight against doping. "We will stay until at least the end of 2008, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we will stop then," Frommert said.