Not sure I quite understand why, but apparently, there is a storm brewing on German TV ...and it's related to the Tour de France. Patrik Sinkewitz, a rider for Germany's team, T-Mobile, was suspended on Wednesday because he failed a doping test in which he tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone. (To make matters worse, this guy crashed and burned on Sunday when he was injured in a high-speed collision with a course spectator as he rode his bike from the stage finish to his hotel - that's a bummer - not even injured on the race course). Just not this guy's week.
Anyway, back to point of today's post. After two German TV stations broke the news of the rider's suspension on Wednesday, these TV stations decided they were suspending coverage of the Tour de France altogether until further notice. Don't get me wrong, I know the cycling sport struggles over the issue of doping, and while I understand the need to police this, it seems that the German media's decision to yank coverage based on the actions of "one bad apple". Assuming the rider is ultimately found guilty, as he is appealing the ruling and requesting another drug test, this announcement has spoiled the fun for millions of Germans who might be interested in following the daily trials and tribulations of not only the T-Mobile team "sans Sinkewitz", but other Tour de France teams from around the globe.
The Tour has been pretty vocal in its fight against doping, so it's a shame that the real losers in this soap opera are apparently the Tour de France and its legions of German fans who wanted to catch a little TV coverage of the event.
Liken this to a player from major leaque baseball found guilty of a drug test for "performing enhancing drugs" and NBC, CBS, and ABC networks yank coverage of major league baseball in the US.
So, in the famous words of The Jackson Five, "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch, girl".
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3 comments:
Hi,
It is not just a "bad apple", there've been a lot of them, and last year a whole team, with a German company sponsor...so perhaps will this help to understand german's special way to do. I belive they are tired. Every year, every bike tour/giro/race (whatever) ends with the same news. It also depends on how much german media pays to have the TV rights, and how it becomes a bad business.
Wow, that's huge! I hadn't heard anything about that here. Of course, I'm trying to avoid media until after i can get the harry potter book read.
PS - I have THE new book...Picked up an English version in Sweden. Don't tell me the ending.
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