Rabobank withdraws cycling team sponsorship after Armstrong scandal

The Lance Armstrong affair prompted a major sponsor to cut ties with cycling yesterday, raising questions about whether the sport can ever restore its tainted image.

Rabobank, which has sponsored a professional cycling team for the last 17 years, said cycling had been irrevocably damaged by a succession of doping cases, not just the high-profile scandal involving seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong.

The US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) last week placed the Texan at the heart of what it alleged was the biggest doping programme in sports history.

The claim has heaped pressure on cycling's governing body and seen Armstrong lose a string of high-profile backers. "We are no longer convinced that the international professional world of cycling can make this a clean and fair sport," Rabobank board member Bert Bruggink said.

"We are not confident this will change for the better in the foreseeable future," he said, later telling a news conference the damning Usada report into Armstrong was "the straw that broke the camel's back". He added that the Usada report showed that there was a "sickness", not only in international cycle racing, but also "at the highest level within cycling, including a number of the relevant authorities, including checks on the use of doping".

Rabobank has been the standard-bearer for Dutch cycling and enjoyed success.