STAPLETON CONFIDENT THAT T-MOBILE WILL STAY WITH TEAM

Despite rumours and comments indicating that T-Mobile might end their sponsorship, team manager Bob Stapleton is convinced the team is doing all the right things and that the German telecoms company will continue the sponsorship of the team in 2008 and beyond.

In the last few days details of Patrick Sinkewitz's confessions that he used EPO and blood transfusions while in the team in 2006 have sent further shock waves through German cycling. According to reports in the German press, senior T-Mobile management are set to hold a meeting, perhaps on Wednesday, to decide if they continue their sponsorship until 2010 or pull the plug now using a special get-out clause. So far T-Mobile have always supported the team after it was cleaned-up by Bob Stapleton, but the string of three doping cases and especially the Sinkewitz case, has created tension and anger at T-Mobile.

According to the German dpa news agency, Stefan Althoff, director of sponsoring for mother company Deutsche Telekom, said the Sinkewitz revelations created "a new set of facts, which we have to deal with" and hinted the team sponsorship could be ended even though the team has undergone major changes since 2006.

"Contracts can always be canceled, the question is only what the terms might be. We can't pretend that things would go on like this. Things have happened and we now realize that we misjudged things in the past. Who would have thought that such things would happen in Freiburg?? he said.

"We are stunned at the impudence and the unscrupulousness with which the doping continues, but there is more behind it,? he said in an interview with FR-Online.de.

"We are trying to find answers to the same questions as everyone else: Who? How? When? Because we can and will only make our decision on the basis of facts, we won't rush into action. We must gather clear facts in order to make a clear decision. We must now deal with this situation responsibly.?

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