November 16, 2007 – Former T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz has been suspended for one year by the German cycling federation, BDR, for testing positive for the banned hormone testosterone.

The suspension, announced Friday, will end on July 17, 2008 after it was backdated to when the positive was made public this summer. The German has also been ordered to pay a fine of 40,000 Euros which will go towards funding drugs tests.

Sinkewitz was fired by the T-Mobile Team during the Tour de France after it emerged that he tested positive for the banned hormone testosterone following an out-of-competition test taken by Germany’s National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).during a T-Mobile Team training camp on June 8, 2007.

After waiving analysis of the B sample Sinkewitz confessed to the doping offence and gave five hours of evidence to the BDR’s disciplinary committee in a successful bid to get his expected two-year ban reduced.

None of Sinkewitz’s testimony involved the restructured T-Mobile Team, now headed by Bob Stapleton.

Sinkewitz also learned last week that the Bonn public prosecutor’s office would not pursue criminal charges in the case. The 27-year-old also agreed to pay an undisclosed five-figure sum to charity, but will face no further legal action.

“Sinkewitz has already been sufficiently punished by the loss of his job and other sources of income,” chief state prosecutor Friedrich Apostel told German agency SID. “In addition, he has cooperated with the investigation and has given valuable statements about doping practices in professional cycling.”