Rasmussen gone?

[covenant]

L'Equipe:
25/07/2007
Cyclisme - TDF-Dopage - Rasmussen quitte le Tour
Le maillot jaune Michael Rasmussen ne sera pas au départ de la 17e étape du Tour de France, jeudi, à Pau. Son équipe, Rabobank, a décidé de ne pas l'aligner pour des raisons encore non précisées. Cette décision intervient quelques heures après le départ volontaire de l'équipe Cofidis dont le coureur italien Christian Moreni a été contrôlé positif à la testostérone....

[jinws]

a friend of mine just told me Rabobank took him out of the race. according to some dutch site.

[chipcom]

Holy crap!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/tour07/news/?id=/news/2007/jul07/jul26news

[cibai]

wow, what a messed up tour.

[jinws]

all I can say is WTF?

[Cromulent]

Here's the story (http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2007/tour07/news/?id=/news/2007/jul07/jul26news) on cyclingnews.com.


D'oh. Chip beat me to it.

[merlinextraligh]

sh*t meet fan

[merlinextraligh]

Just keep peein clean Levi!

[USAZorro]

I hope it wasn't because of intimidation. I'm definitely not a fan of his, but unless there's some illness or rules violation, the race needs to be determined on the road.

[yellowjeep]

wtf indeed

[road monkey]

Holy ****. Just... Holy ****.

[wvxc]

Seriously, they are not going to stop until they kill it, are they?

[ElJamoquio]

Nope, it's Contador now, or Evans. I don't think Levi can make the time up on Contador. So Evans needs to hope for a bad test on Discovery Channel.

In other news, Team BF.net is flying to France later tonight to join the TdF already in progress.

[ElJamoquio]

Seriously.

This is dumber than 1998.

Yup. Every day - or hour - another person/team is gone. Probably doesn't matter if Rabobank stays in the tour or not.

[ttopaz]

I guess doping result.

[FixdGearHead]

Seriously.

This is dumber than 1998.

Up until this, I felt that nothing could be worse than the '98 chaos...well, now, '07 has surpassed it.

[chipcom]

In other news, Team BF.net is flying to France later tonight to join the TdF already in progress.

I finally get to run down the road drunk and nekkid waving the BF flag for Ryanf! :D

[yellowjeep]

i really bummed now.

edit: esp if i have to listed to Paul and Phil comment on a nekkid chipcom

[ttopaz]

His stage today looked too good to be true.

[merlinextraligh]

I hope it wasn't because of intimidation. I'm definitely not a fan of his, but unless there's some illness or rules violation, the race needs to be determined on the road.

High probability he's positive for something on the A sample.

[pcates]

I blame the numbers from Lost for this mess

[yellowjeep]

sadly i fear that merlinextralight is right.

[80vette]

I give up I ain't watchen this crap no more. What BS.

[merlinextraligh]

I' about ready to forget about all this and go have some beers, or go ride. Just can't decide which one.

[covenant]

I give up I ain't watchen this crap no more. What BS.

Ditto, I'm out this year.

The only thing I'll miss is Phil and Paul :(

[VT Biker]

Messed up?

Sure - but necessary. Unfortunately, these riders are all monkeys apparantly, and rather than look at the testing requirements and regimin, and the repercussions, they thought that they could get away with. Seems to me, there needs to be some sacrificial lambs to make these idiots fall in line.

I do not think you cancel the tour. As Boonen said, Cadel Evans is clean. So I am going to root for this guy now.

[deyendznyr]

I have a feeling that Rasmussen rode so well today because he knew, or suspected that his time was limited. I think Vino rode hard on his last stage for the same reason.

Doesn't matter I guess. I thought last year was bad. This is ridiculous.

[StanSeven]

I' about ready to forget about all this and go have some beers, or go ride. Just can't decide which one.

Do both

[VT Biker]

Why are you people giving up? We need to as cycling fans reinforce this good behavoir by the Tour, ASO and UCI. We need to let them know we applaud what they are doing.

[deyendznyr]

Does all this mean that the testing is getting better? The controls are working in a certain way?

[yellowjeep]

I' about ready to forget about all this and go have some beers, or go ride. Just can't decide which one.

if you rode a fixed gear you could just put a pbr in your cage.... two birds one stone

or ride to go get beers

[ttopaz]

Now on velonews http://www.velonews.com/tour2007/details/articles/12944.0.html.

[captin pank]

I wonder if his docs figured out that they messed up and that he's going to have a positive test and just quit before the **** hits the fan.

[ericcox]

Ah hell, I'm just about to go do my first crit in many years -- and I didn't do that many of them back then.

And I do hope there is more than the missed dope test; while those piss me off, the riders do have rights that should be enforced. If they want two failures to inform to = failed test, write the damn rules that way. Otherwise, why have standards?

[road monkey]

Ima go ride this **** off.

[FrankBattle]

Contador has won. Yay!(?)

I am thrilled. I never liked the Dane anyway.

Is anyone surprised?

[jibi]

Tour de France R.I.P.

[bdcheung]

**** that, I'm still watching. Doped or not I want to see an effing race.

[Cromulent]

**** that, I'm still watching. Doped or not I want to see an effing race.
Thank you.

[yellowjeep]

so he was in italy and not mexico.... um why now?

[ttopaz]

I hope that Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen won't jump from one of the mountains.

[merlinextraligh]

if you rode a fixed gear you could just put a pbr in your cage.... two birds one stone

or ride to go get beers

Good idea! I've got a fixed gear, but it doesn't have a bottle cage.

[tubs]

No punches being held by the organizers that's for sure. Rasmussen winning would have left a bad lingering cloud because of the 4 missed controls. I half suspected he would be forced out because of this and maybe this is exactly what happened.

I think this is good long term though in the sense that any question of possible doping will effectively end a rider's career. Sad but good cuz a weeding/culling process is part of getting to a better state.

[wvxc]

so he was in italy and not mexico.... um why now?



The lengths these guys go to never cease to amaze me.

[godspiral]

They wouldn' have todays doping test results done. I'd guess its some allegation in his past, which IMO would be a disapointing reason to pressure him out. It would be even sadder if it was just general media pressure.

[FrankBattle]

No punches being held by the organizers that's for sure. Rasmussen winning would have left a bad lingering cloud because of the 4 missed controls. I half suspected he would be forced out because of this and maybe this is exactly what happened.

I think this is good long term though in the sense that any question of possible doping will effectively end a rider's career. Sad but good cuz a weeding/culling process is part of getting to a better state.

I agree completely. The sport could ill afford 2 years in a row of a disgraced/questionable "winner."

[VT Biker]

I also wonder if Rabobank was forced to look at the fact that Confidis and Astana were both kicked out as teams, and figured that for their sponsor's sake, they could not risk the entire team being kicked out.

Also - we have no idea if Rabobank the company put pressure on team management to get rid of him due to the negative press.

So - what are the odds Rabobank decides to exit Cycling now as well.

Let the blood flow at this point. Lets get rid of all of these cats.

[ttopaz]

From Velonews 'It is not even sure if the team will carry on in the race' about Rabobank.

[wvxc]

They wouldn' have todays doping test results done. I'd guess its some allegation in his past, which IMO would be a disapointing reason to pressure him out. It would be even sadder if it was just general media pressure.

The link says he lied about his whereabouts. He was actually in Italy instead of Mexico. I guess that's why he missed a couple of those tests.

[covenant]

I'd guess its some allegation in his past, which IMO would be a disapointing reason to pressure him out. It would be even sadder if it was just general media pressure.

just in:

However the team has learnt that Rasmussen lied to them over where and what he was up to during the month of June when he was in fact in Italy and not in Mexico as he had told them.

"He broke team rules," said a team spokesman, who said that the Dane has also been fired from the team