Germany over the top on anti-doping, says UCI chief

AIGLE, Switzerland (Reuters) - German media and sports authorities have gone too far in the way they publicize the fight against doping, International Cycling Union (UCI) president Pat McQuaid has said.

"Anti-doping has become a big media show in Germany. They've gone over the limit," Pat McQuaid told Reuters after last week's decision by organizers of the Frankfurt Grand Prix to withdraw an invitation to Italian team Liquigas.

The UCI president warned that German cycling authorities would be asked to show restraint on the matter and stick to regulations.

The Frankfurt organizers rejected Liquigas after the Italian team refused to sign an anti-doping charter which exceeded the UCI rules.

Confessions by former leading riders such as Erik Zabel in the press last year shook Germany, whose state television decided to shun the Tour de France after doping cases involving German riders Matthias Kessler and Patrik Sinkewitz.

Kessler was banned for two years after testing positive for testosterone in April 2007 while riding for the Astana team and Sinkewitz was handed a one-year suspension last year after a positive test for the male sex hormone.

Since then, German team sponsors such as Deutsche Telekom or Gerolsteiner have left or are about to leave cycling.

Deutsche Telekom said they were withdrawing from cycling at the end of last season after the T-Mobile team went through a difficult year with the Sinkewitz affair and former team members confessing to using prohibited substances during the 1990s.

Discovery Channel, the former sponsor of seven-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong also left the sport at the end of last season.

Cofidis, who had Italian Cristian Moreni testing positive for testosterone during last year's Tour, are unlikely to renew their contract at the end of the season.

(Editing by Julien Pretot and Clare Lovell)