The Tour of Germany will go ahead as planned in 2008 despite the decision by Deutsche Telekom to end its sponsorship of the T-Mobile team after a succession of doping scandals.

"The Tour of Germany will take place no matter what happens," said Kai Rapp, head of the organizing committee. "The most important thing for us is that television does not take cycling off air. The rest is secondary."

The Tour of Germany is the biggest stage-based race organized in Germany, and is one of two that figure in the ProTour calendar.

T-Mobile, the mobile phone division of German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, is also one of the event's main financial sponsors, but it has not yet taken any decision on its immediate future with the Tour.

German public television station ARD has said it would broadcast the 2008 Tour de France and Tour of Germany.

"We don't decide on broadcasting an event by the presence of a sponsor or not," said ARD president Fritz Raff.
by Agence France Presse