Thursday Team T-Mobile announced that its sponsor Deutsche Telekom had decided to continue to sponsor the team, despite a few problems during this year’s Tour De France – notably the doping cases. As part of the deal there will certainly be a few different faces on the T-Mobile team. T-Mobile said it had agreed with riders and management, and would contribute a portion of salary toward a fund of 1 million euros to help fight against doping.
Additionally as part of the deal Deutsche Telekom AG reserved the right to immediately terminate the commitment in the event of further doping cases.
T-Mobile is among the biggest sponsors in professional cycling, a sport that has drawn large numbers of viewers to the mobile platform – notably in Europe. This year’s unfortunate events have been bad news for T-Mobile. Under the current T-Mobile or its predecessor Telekom, the German telecommunications company has been a major cycling sponsor for 16 years. The team claimed two Tour de France victories with Bjarne Riis in 1996 and Jan Ullrich in 1997.