German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF have expressed an interested in returning to airing the Tour de France cycling race.
The broadcasters stopped showing the race in 2012 after temporarily halting coverage during the 2007 Tour due to doping scandals in the sport.
But the impressive performances of German cyclists Marcel Kittel, Tony Martin and André Greipel in the recently-completed 2014 tour, plus efforts to clean up cycling’s doping problems, appear to be forcing a rethink.
ARD sports director Axel Balkausky told the SID news agency that the broadcaster “monitors developments in cycling, and especially the Tour de France, very closely,” and added that the emergence of German cyclists in a sport that is making efforts to be clean was “very positive.”
ZDF sports director Dieter Gruschwitz added that “the success of the German riders in this year's Tour de France will be an important issue.”
Pan-European broadcaster Eurosport provided coverage of the 2014 tour in Germany.