Rabobank withdraws Rasmussen from Tour

26 July 2007

The man set to win this year’s Tour de France, wearing the yellow jersey, leader of the Rabobank team, Michael Rasmussen, was expelled from the Tour de France on Wednesday. The management of the Rabobank withdrew him from the Tour because the Dane had violated the internal team regulations.

Rasmussen was fired on the spot. The other cyclists of the Rabobank team will announce today whether they will proceed with the 17^{th stage of the Tour. The other Rabobank team members are welcome to continue the race.}

“On various occasions he told us where he had been training but this information was incorrect,” said the disappointed director of the Rabobank team, Theo de Rooij, in a hotel on Wednesday.

Rasmussen missed random drug tests on May 8 and June 28, saying he was in Mexico. But a former rider, Davide Cassani, told Denmark’s ‘Danmarks Radio’ on Wednesday that he had seen Rasmussen in Italy in mid-June.

It turned out that Rasmussen had lied about this stay in Mexico. The Dane told his team and the cyclists’ union UCI that he had been training there. But at that moment he was in Italy , where he had been recognised by the former Tour de France cyclist Davide Cassani.

When Rasmussen was confronted with this news he confirmed that he had indeed been in Italy. “For De Rooij this was the reason to expel Rasmussen,”spokesperson Bergsma said in a statement.

On Wednesday night the French police raided the Rabobank hotel and a number of police officers searched the rooms.

There was no immediate reaction from Rasmussen, who has led since July 15 and looked set to win the race which ends on Sunday in Paris.

Subject: Dutch news