First Vino, now Rasmussen!

[Micah Foehammer]

Ramussen pulled from Tour
Overall leader fired from team hours after stage win

GOURETTE, France (AP) -- Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark has been removed from the race, a devastating blow to cycling's premier event which has been rocked by a series of doping scandals.

"Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating [the team's] internal rules," Rabobank team spokesman Jacob Bergsma told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday.

The expulsion, which Bergsma said was ordered by the Dutch team sponsor, was linked to "incorrect" information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director over his whereabouts last month. Rasmussen missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28.

The 33-year-old rider, who won Wednesday's stage, had looked set to win the race, which ends Sunday in Paris. But Tour officials questioned why he was allowed to take the start on July 7 in London, England.

"We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable," Tour director Christian Prudhomme told the AP.

The leader of cycling's governing body applauded the decision.

"My immediate reaction is, why didn't they do this at the end of June, when they had the same information," Pat McQuaid said. "The team decided to pull him out; that's their prerogative. I can only applaud that. It's a zero-tolerance policy, and it's a lesson for the future."

With Rasmussen out, Spanish rider Alberto Contador of the Discovery Channel team would move into the race lead.

more here:

http://www.velonews.com/tour2007/new...s/12842.0.html

[ 07-25-2007, 06:18 PM: Message edited by: Micah Foehammer ]

[Aelia Jusa]

This is just chaos. I love the tour but it's hard now to look at riders who are dominant and not wonder what they are doing to achieve it. Two whole teams out and now Rasmussen. It did definitely look pretty fishy with Vino blitzing the time trial and then hopeless the next the and then brilliant again the day after. Very like Landis last year after he had that shocker and then smoked everyone. And of course the result of last year's tour is still not settled, more than a year later.

What I think I find difficult the most is seeing the athletes in interviews, like Rasmussen has been talking about the controversy over the last few days, and you would never think from their demeanour that they are anything other than 100% innocent. I suppose it takes a certain type of person to deliberately cheat to begin with, so they would also have a fairly loose interpretation of ethics and so on, but still. It sometimes borders on sociopathic the way they can protest their innocence so vehemently, or talk about how determined they were and never giving up and so on, like Vino after his stage win, and then it turn out that they are as guilty as anything.

Oh well, it's good for Cadel at any rate!

[Target]

Did the riders learn nothing from Landis last year This is such a shame.

Will Contador be able to hold off Evans in the TT? Leipheimer I think is to far behind Evans now.

[johnny]

I can't believe there are still riders stupid enough to cheat. What Rasmussen did (lie about his whereabouts) is disrespectful towards the people that pay his salary and his teammates, who now have little left to gain in the Tour, and should have left that freakshow altogether. Whoever wins it now, it doesn't matter anymore, this is a farce and might just as well be stopped right here and right now, because EVERYONE in the peloton is a cheater one way or another.

Remember that sitdown yesterday? Well, it was a protest of the riders against their cheating colleagues, and guess what happens next....Moreni from team Cofidis, who was one of the riders involved in the sitdown tested positive on testosteron. Moreni out....the entire team Cofidis out....great going guys. Even the ones who protest against cheating cheat themselves.

[dplax]

Yeah...Moreni didn't even ask for a B sample he knew he had cheated...as to Rasmussen, I thought that I liked the guy, but misleading everyone over where he had been...it's actions like this that are shattering the image of the sport over and over again.

What a pity...

[Micah Foehammer]

Originally posted by Aelia Jusa: This is just chaos. I love the tour but it's hard now to look at riders who are dominant and not wonder what they are doing to achieve it. Two whole teams out and now Rasmussen. It did definitely look pretty fishy with Vino blitzing the time trial and then hopeless the next the and then brilliant again the day after. Very like Landis last year after he had that shocker and then smoked everyone. And of course the result of last year's tour is still not settled, more than a year later. What I think I find difficult the most is seeing the athletes in interviews, like Rasmussen has been talking about the controversy over the last few days, and you would never think from their demeanour that they are anything other than 100% innocent. I suppose it takes a certain type of person to deliberately cheat to begin with, so they would also have a fairly loose interpretation of ethics and so on, but still. It sometimes borders on sociopathic the way they can protest their innocence so vehemently, or talk about how determined they were and never giving up and so on, like Vino after his stage win, and then it turn out that they are as guilty as anything. Oh well, it's good for Cadel at any rate!

DId you hear that Landis released a statement within hours after Vino got booted defending him? CLaimed it was a conspiracy on the part of the race administrators and the testing lab to boot Vino and to discredit him (Landis). Okay, FLoyd, just shut up .... we tried to give you the benefit of the doubt but this conspiracy theory crap is going too far. lol At least Moreni had the guts to tacitly admit to cheating by waiving the B sample.

I can't even begin to imagine the fallout if one of the remaining top three should test positive. At least with Rasmussen you can argue that he did not fail a test, but was being booted for violating team rules. Although you have to wonder WHY he would lie about his whereabouts when he was training unless their was something he was afraid the team would find out. Like maybe he was training in Italy under the auspices of the infamous Dr Ferrari, notorious as the doper's doctor of choice.

This is all just so sad.