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German television broadcaster ARD, which screens the Tour de France here in partnership with rivals ZDF, said Sunday it was hostile to Lance Armstrong’s planned comeback.

Armstrong, who will be 37 on September 18, announced last week that he plans to come out of retirement in a bid to win next year’s Tour de France for the eighth time.

With Armstrong having been accused of doping in the past, Tour organisers have said he will be able to ride in the world’s premier event next year if he complies with their strict rules in the fight against doping.

But the German broadcasters are “not amused”.

“For us, Armstrong is a piece of the past we don’t want to see again,”
Rolf-Dieter Ganz, head of communications at ARD, told Sunday’s edition of Die Welt.

Both ARD and ZDF stopped broadcasting the 2007 Tour de France during the event after German rider Patrick Sinkewitz failed a drugs test and are currently negotiating the contract to screen the 2009 Tour.

“When we renegotiate the contract, we will certainly sit round the table with the Tour director Christian Prudhomme and make it clear to him: we are not amused to hear about Armstrong’s plans,” said Ganz.

“The future belongs to young riders, certainly not to Armstrong’s generation which we had hoped to have seen the back of.”

With several riders having been caught doping during the competition in the last few years, the Tour’s image has been damaged and the German broadcasters’ attitude will carry some weight with the organisers as they look to gain important broadcasting revenue.

“Bicycle.net has a firm position when it comes to doping in cycling. If you are caught you deserve to go down and hard. Whether the ban is two years or lifetime we support it. But, an athlete is NOT GULITY if he has never failed a doping test. Neither rumors nor secret sources are evidence for guilt. If the German broadcasters really believe that Lance was guilty then prove it. Otherwise it is now time to start bringing cycling back to the glory days, and stop re-hashing old garbage.

Welcome back Lance. Welcome back Floyd. And any other athlete who has tested clean their whole career, or served their time.

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