June 1, 2007 (Mainz, Germany) — The German television chain, ZDF (second largest in Germany) is threatening to boycott coverage of the 2007 Tour de France unless it receives more assurances that the race organizers will take a stronger stance against doping.

A statement issued this week by chief editor, Nikolaus Brender, indicated that a decision on the matter would not necessarily follow immediately after a meeting with the German and Swiss cycling federations, but that ZDF’s wants it to be certain that “doping no longer has a chance at the TdF.” He added another public chain of television stations, ARD, is in agreement with ZDF on this matter. An average of 1.49 million German television spectators watched each stage of the 2006 TdF.

Riis Excluded from Denmark Sports Hall of Fame

Meanwhile, Bjarne Riis, winner of the 1996 TdF, was officially excluded from Denmark’s sporting “hall of fame” according to an AFP report yesterday. Riis admitted last week to doping with erythropoietin (EPO) when he won the 1996 Tour while riding for Telekom. Tdf director, Christian Prudhomme, said that it would be shocking to see Riis at the 2007 Tour. Riis, while no longer a professional cyclist, is manager of the CSC ProTour team that is participating in the TdF.

2007 TdF Team Update

In total, there will be 21 teams participating in the 2007 TdF according to the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) which owns the Tour. In the start line up in London on July 7 will be the 18 ProTour teams that took part in 2006, plus the Swiss-based Astana, Portuguese-based Agritubel, and British-based Barloworld. Conspicuously missing is the ProTour team, Unibet. A French law prohibiting publicity for gambling houses””other than Francaise des jeux””is ostensibly behind this exclusion.

Tour de France teams and leaders:
– AG2R (Christophe Moreau)
– Agritubel (Juan Miguel Mercado)
– Astana (Alexander Vinokourov)
– Barloworld (Robert Hunter)
– Bouygues Telecom (Thomas Voeckler)
– Caisse d’Epargne (Oscar Pereiro)
РCr̩dit Agricole (Thor Hushovd)
– Cofidis (Sylvain Chavanel)
– CSC (Carlos Sastre)
– Davitamon (Cadel Evans)
– Discovery Channel (George Hincapie)
– Euskaltel (Samuel Sánchez)
РFran̤aise des Jeux (Sandy Casar)
– Gerolsteiner (Stefan Schumacher)
– Lampre (Daniele Bennati)
– Liquigas (Filippo Pozzato)
– Milram (Erik Zabel)
– Quick Step (Tom Boonen)
– Rabobank (Michael Rasmussen)
– Saunier Duval (David Millar)
– T-Mobile (Michael Rogers).