Dropped Call

The only reasons you may not have heard the bombshell of Deutsche Telekom pulling its sponsorship from the T-Mobile cycling team go off is because you have either been hiding underneath a rock [and judging by the number of posts this week, you may have thought it was us] or that you are already deaf from the various doping scandal mortars.

In any event, Hamid Akhavan, CEO of T-Mobile International and a member of the Deutsche Telekom board of directors, stated the communication giant's position as such,

"We arrived at this decision to separate our brand from further exposure from doping in sport and cycling specifically. This was a difficult decision given our long history of support for professional cycling and the efforts of Bob Stapleton in managing the team in 2007. We have an obligation to our employees, customers and shareholders to focus our attention and resources on our core businesses. We have worked very hard with the current team management to promote clean cycling sport, but we reached the decision to continue our efforts to rid all sports of doping by applying our resources in other directions."

Many news outlets and blogs point to the recent and prolonged ordeal of Patrik Sinkewitz as the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." And that may be but, I liken the Sinkewitz drama to a drop in the Deutsche Telekom dope-filled ocean; rather insignificant in comparison.


John Wilcockson of Velonews recently took a look back at the 20 year cycling dynasty. Although the photos and the stories bring me back to a time when I truly fell in love with the sport of cycling, the compilation of past doping offenses and recent admissions by the likes of [Bjarne] Riis and [Erik] Zabel, and the continued non-admission by [Jan] Ullrich detract from my holding that team with any regard. But I am also not that naive.

The cycling "playing field" during that time span was never truly slanted in any one team's favor; Telekom could not have been the "exclusive" users of performance enhancers. To suggest the contrary is to stick your head in the sand, as Major League Baseball has chosen to do in the past decade, and what Deutsche Telekom is attempting to do presently.

To have thrown hundreds of millions of dollars into a sport [with a systemic problem of doping] over a 20 year span, only to abort because of recent bad press is, well, rather cavalier on their part. Rather than taking responsibility for their past actions [or inaction as it were] one of cycling's biggest and long standing sponsors has chosen instead to leave the sport at a time when it needs a stabilizing force to buttress its wavering doped up legs.

Some have applauded Deutsche Telekom's move because it sends a message to the doping culture that once tightened the noose of our beloved sport. But in this instance, there's a reason T-Mobile cannot make the claim of "having the fewest dropped calls," as this is certainly their biggest.