If American T-Mobile boss Bob Stapleton thought the past few days at theTour de France had been trying, Wednesday was a hot day spent tossed outof the frying pan and into the fire.

On Sunday’s stage 8 into Tignes, the T-Mobile squad saw banged-up Britishrider Mark Cavendish abandon his first Tour, Australian Michael Rogersleave the race after crashing as the virtual yellow jersey on the road and German Patrik Sinkewitz sent to the hospital with a broken nose and injured jaw after a freak collision with a fan followingthe stage.

On Tuesday’s stage T-Mobile’s German Marcus Burghardt struck a spectator’sdog, which had run loose on the descent of the Col d’Iseran just 45km intothe stage. Though Burghardt hit the deck, he finished the stage with only scratches and scrapes and was instrumental in starting the winning break on Wednesday's 10th stage race into Marseille.The bad luck for the German squad continued Wednesday. Before stage10 started in Tallard, Stapleton was met by a pack of journalists outsidethe T-Mobile bus as it pulled into the starting area.

Unbeknownst to the team, Sinkewitz had tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone from a drug test conducted by the German Cycling Federation on June 8. The result was allegedly leaked to German television reporters, and sprung on Stapleton as he stepped out of the bus for the start of stage 10.Stapleton has been credited with rescuing the T-Mobile squad from thebrink of collapse last year following Jan UIlrich’s suspension from theteam for suspected involvement in Operación Puerto. The lynchpin in maintaining T-Mobile as a sponsor was the team’s new internal testing program, designed to monitor riders’ blood levels for any signs of manipulation, which was unveiled at the start of the season. Stapleton recently appeared on the July 30 issue of VeloNews, under the headline “The Man Who Can Save Pro Cycling.”

Before he had received any official notification from the German federationor its anti-doping agency, Stapleton was forced to defend his team, itsinternal testing policies and the movement to clean up the sport.“Clearly we are disappointed that one of our athletes has breached hiscode of conduct and is involved with some form of doping,” Stapleton said.“Part of this validates what we’ve been pushing for all along, which ismore testing, more out of competition testing, and testing all athleteson all teams. And not relying solely on what individual teams do in theirown test procedures. So on one hand, we feel like this is consistent with the actions we want to see in the sport, and that is the part that is showing promise that the more tests there are, the more they apply to everyone, the more pressure there is to change the doping culture in sport.”

Sinkewitz, a strong classics rider in his third Tour de France, tookhis biggest career result in 2004 when he won the Tour of Germany. Sinkewitzwas suspended by T-Mobile, and if his B-sample also tests positive, in addition to being sacked, he would become the first T-Mobilerider to test positive by an independent anti-doping agency since the squadintroduced its new anti-doping policies. Earlier this year T-Mobile suspendedUkranian time-trial specialist Sergei Honchar due to blood abnormalitiesidentified through the team’s internal testing program.Sinkewitz, currently in a hospital in Hamburg recovering from his injuries,said he had no idea how he could have tested positive for testosterone."Me Why me I don't know anything about it. This can't be," was his reaction,reported by German on-line sports magazine Kicker.  "I am dueto have an operation and I can't think about it now."Unlike Honchar, who showed signs of blood manipulation, Sinkewitz wascaught with an elevated testosterone level, something T-Mobile’s testingprocedure doesn’t look for. Asked why Sinkewitz hadn’t been caught by the team’s internal testing, Stapleton explained that the team focuses on searching for signs of blood doping and the use ofEPO [erythropoietin].“We don’t do anti-doping tests. We do blood-based tests to screen theathletes for any unusual circumstances, and then do follow-up tests ifwe see anything unusual,” Stapleton said. “The teams were never intended to do anti-doping tests. The independent anti-doping agencies should do these tests. The fear is that if the teams do these tests, it’s a way to actually dope up to a certain level in your team. Our view was that should be done by independents, completely random, completely outside of the team. I think this shows that the process works. There have been several high-profile athletes caught in advance of the Tour with this accelerated and more in-depth testing being done. This shows that the process works.”

Adding to the gravity of the situation, German television stations ARD and ZDF announced Wednesday that they were stopping their coverage of the Tour de France "until clarification of the Patrik Sinkewitz case." Like Versus in the U.S., ARD has the rights to broadcast the Tour in Germany."We can't screen an event involving some teams and riders under suspicionof doping," explained ZDF chief producer Nikolaus Brender.  "We wantto show by this gesture that we're ready to support cycling only if it's clean, that's to say without banned doping substances.”There has been intense backlash in Germany since Ullrich’s fall fromgrace and the recent doping admissions by former former Telekom ridersErik Zabel and Rolf Aldag. German daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung announced to its readers on the eve of the Tour that it would abstain from covering the 2007 edition of the race and instead concentrate on the fundamental issues of cycling, including doping and organized crime.Ignorance is not bliss
Patrice Clerc, the president of the Tour's parent company ASO (AmaurySports Organisation) failed to comprehend the German television’s decision,especially in the light of cycling's proactive stance in the fight against drugs cheats."It's a paradox. The Tour de France is being sanctioned, but shouldwe sanction an event that is actually doing its best to weed out drugscheats " said Clerc. “Cheats are being found, and German TV is playing the 'empty chair' policy. If we don't look for banned substances, we won't find them. A lot of sports don't look for anything. We've decided to take another attitude, we're fighting against doping, and we're being sanctioned because cheats are being found!”Stapleton had a similar tone, saying that now was not the time to abandoncycling.“Everyone has their own business interests that they are pursuing,”Stapleton said of ARD and ZDF. “That’s their choice. There is obviouslya lot of scrutiny in German around doping, and I think that is fair and valid. I think every magazine, newspaper, television channel and person needs to make their own decision on where they stand on these issues. Do you want to stay and fight Do you really want to try and make a difference Or do you want to throw up your hands and walk away That’s a decision for everyone here to make on their own. My decision is to stay and fight.”Just four days earlier the German media was rejuvenated when 24-year-oldTour rookie Linus Gerdemann won stage 7 out of a breakaway and took therace lead from CSC’s Fabian Cancellara. In the wake of recent scandals and admissions, Germans had found a new hope in the handsome and wholesome Gerdemann. Pressed for comment on the Sinkewitz case, Gerdemann expressed disappointment and surprise.“I still don't know if it's true, there hasn't been another analysisyet,” Gerdemann said after stage 10. “But if it is, it shows that the controlsare starting to work, and that the possibilities to dope are getting smaller and smaller. For sure it's not good for our team, but I also believe it's not possible for us to possible to dope in our team. It shows that if someone is doping,  he's going to get caught. I don't want to judge because we should wait for the B sample. It would be sad if it's true, but also it will be idiocy. To play like this with our jobs, our profession and our team, it is not reasonable. I cannot understand why someone would act like that.”Reached in Germany while attending a T-Mobile team camp for riders andstaff not in France, Canadian Michael Barry echoed a similar sentimentto Gerdemann, saying he found Sinkewtiz’s result “depressing, personally and for the sport.”“It obviously hits harder when it is a teammate and you think you are on a team that is completely clean,” Barry said. “But at the same time it shows the tests are working as more riders are now getting caught.”Stapleton said that while the past few days at the Tour had been difficult, the news of the Sinkewitz’s positive test eclipsed the trials and tribulations the team had faced during the race.“I would have said up until today that all these challenges we’ve faced in this Tour would have made us stronger,” Stapleton said. “I think this is extremely difficult for the athletes to bear. I think they believe their livelihoods are at stake. I think they feel that all the personal commitments they’ve made to this team have gone for not. I’m sure they are very deeply disappointed. We had only a brief time to talk before the departure. Of course they are devastated. They put a lot into this. We ask more of them than athletes are asked in most sports. They signed a code of conduct that says if we think you are screwing around, we can fire you. They have subjected themselves to the blood volume tests, which are not pleasant. I think they feel absolutely betrayed.”
- Agence Presse France contributed to this report