BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- A series of doping cases has led Deutsche Telekom AG to abandon its sponsorship of professional cycling, Europe's No. 1 telecommunications company announced Tuesday. The company has sponsored one of the tour's leading teams -- recently known as T-Mobile -- since 1991.

    "We arrived at this decision to separate our brand from further exposure from doping in sport and cycling specifically," Deutsche Telekom said in a bluntly worded statement.

    Former T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz, who was fired recently after testing positive before the Tour de France, testified that doping was widespread on the team, both before and after Jan Ullrich was its main star.

    Ullrich won the Tour de France in 1997. He retired after being linked to the Spanish doping scandal but has denied any wrongdoing. Other former Telekom riders have admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs, including 1996 Tour de France champion Bjarne Riis.

    Deutsche Telekom only recently agreed to honor its sponsorship contract until 2010, but reserved the right to terminate it at any time.

    Its decision to pull out was the latest and most serious blow to the sport in Germany, where support for cycling has eroded after the series of doping scandals.

    "This was a difficult decision given our long history of support for professional cycling and the efforts of Bob Stapleton in managing the team in 2007," said Hamid Akhavan, a Telekom board member and chief executive officer of the T-Mobile International cell phone unit.

    "We have an obligation to our employees, customers and shareholders to focus our attention and resources on our core businesses," Akhavan added. "We have worked very hard with the current team management to promote a clean cycling sport but we reached the decision to continue our efforts to rid all sports of doping by applying our resources in other directions."

    (Agencies)