T-Mobile progresses drugs crackdown

Manx cyclist Mark Cavendish's team T-Mobile is to follow up on the interviewing of one of its former riders, Patrik Sinkewitz, after he tested positive for drugs.

Sinkewitz has admitted using illegal blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO) and undergoing banned blood transfusions in the past.

He was sacked by T-Mobile during this year's Tour de France after failing a pre-race drugs test, which he blames on a testosterone gel used in training.

The T-Mobile management says 'the interview and confessions of Sinkewitz in recent news articles confirm the necessity of the dramatic changes the sponsor and new management have made in the T-Mobile team and the further changes needed in the sport.... We continue to make more progressive changes in anticipation of the 2008 season.'

The future of the team's sponsorship deal with the european telecommunications company was in doubt following the doping scandals which rocked 'Le Tour' but it resolved to fight for a drug-free sport.

Mark Cavendish is known for his staunchly anti-doping stance and was one of the first riders to sign the UCI's anti-doping charter.

Picture: T-Mobile and Isle of Man cyclist Mark Cavendish