Looks like 10 Speed fave George Hincapie won’t be pretty in pink next year.

T-Mobile  announced Tuesday that it is pulling out of its $18 million sponsorship deal with  the T-Mobile  cycling team,  leaving  one of professional cycling’s premier teams without a sponsor for next season and perhaps leaving Tour of Missouri winner Hincapie without a team for next season.

The telecommunications giant  withdrew the sponsorship to protect its brand image from the doping scandals that have shaken the foundation of the sport.  The  team has been  on double-secret probation  for the past year because, under previous management, the team  was at the epicenter of cycling’s doping crisis.

Scenes like this one, with T-Mobile fans running alongside T-Mobile riders on Alpe d’Huez at the 2006 Tour de France,  are  history. Photo by Dave Luecking    

Doping was an accepted part of the team culture under the previous regime, which produced two Tour de France winners and dominated the sprint jersey at the Tour. Bjarne Riis, the 1996 TdF champ,  has admitted to using EPO, six-time TdF sprint champ Erik Zabel has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs, and 1997 TdF winner Jan Ullrich was sacked by the team two years ago after being implicated in Operacion Puerto in Spain. Ullrich denies any wrongdoing.

The last straw for the corporate muckety-mucks at T-Mobile was the positive drug test of Patrik Sinkewitz this year. Though the test was an out-of-competition test conducted in June, the positive find of testosterone was  announced during this year’s Tour de France, further embarrassing the company.

For the past year, the T-Mobile team has been under the direction of American Bob Stapleton, who cleaned house of  the former management and  institituted strict anti-doping controls, similar to those of Slipstream-Chipotle, the American anti-droping crusaders.

Slipstream’s Brad Huff  of Springfield, Mo., made his editorial statement with his choice of socks at the Tour of Missouri. Photo by Dave Luecking

Sinkewitz’ stupid mistake of using a  testosterone cream  cost  his team  $18 million in sponsorship dollars and put its future in peril.

To his credit, Sinkewitz admitted his doping, cooperated with  German authorities investigating drug use in cycling  and as a result received only a one-year ban from cycling instead of a two-year ban. To our dismay,  he really sounded dumb in speaking with The Associated Press on Tuesday. Maybe something was  lost in the translation.

The AP quoted Sinkewitz as saying T-Mobile’s departure is “not a surprise. It’s a pity that some things went wrong in the past. A completely new start was made recently and some things had changed. Too bad that the sponsor is quitting now.”

Yeah, too bad , and it’s a pity Sinkewitz was the dope who prompted the decision, and he can’t say he had not been warned. T-Mobile had wanted to drop the sponsorship  after the Ullrich mess,  but reached an agreement to continue with one of their own - Stapleton was a T-Mobile executive in the U.S. — in charge of cleaning house, with the stipulation that the next positive doping test would be the last.  

Despite the loss of his primary sponsor and the loss of adidas as a sponsor a few weeks ago,  Stapleton pledged Tuesday to forge on with the team.

“We hope to go forward independently with the team to achieve our goals of continued competitive success and being a leader in anti-doping efforts in professional cycling,” Stapleton was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.  

As to what  happens with the team’s riders,  they would all be free agents if  the team closes shop, which probably will happen without a $15-million sponsor showing up on Stapleton’s stoop.  So, Hincapie, who signed with T-Mobile after the Discovery Channel team folded,  might be out of a cycling job. Perhaps Hincapie Sportswear should take over the team.    

With his team facing an uncertain future, Big George Hincapie might not be able to defend his Tour of Missouri title. Photo by Dave Luecking

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