Professional Cycling For the Fans - Rasmussan's Release

I have an alternate theory here:

Under the fact that the team asked him to leave, he does not forfeit any pay, as opposed to being flagged for doping. It could very well be that part of this is Rasmussan deciding that for the sake of him and his family, he was better of keeping his pay for the past year versus getting caught, versus losing everything (see Vino).


Now - it makes you wonder if there was concern on his part that eventually they would catch him doping. It could also be that he had a blood transfusion to get him through the mountain stages, and is expecting that a positive result will come back. Given all of this, the TdF cannot take away his pay, since technically, by the time he is caught, he is no longer riding the Tour.

That would be a smart legal “chess” move. But why go this far if you knew you were going to pull out?

So according to the rules, what happens if you pull out before the results of a test are made public (assuming he did, or will test positive at some poit)? How will they handle the fines/punishment?

I have an alternate theory here:

Under the fact that the team asked him to leave, he does not forfeit any pay, as opposed to being flagged for doping. It could very well be that part of this is Rasmussan deciding that for the sake of him and his family, he was better of keeping his pay for the past year versus getting caught, versus losing everything (see Vino).


Now - it makes you wonder if there was concern on his part that eventually they would catch him doping. It could also be that he had a blood transfusion to get him through the mountain stages, and is expecting that a positive result will come back. Given all of this, the TdF cannot take away his pay, since technically, by the time he is caught, he is no longer riding the Tour.

I think he'd lose that argument if they found a positive sample.

It was just a theory.

I would probably lean towards the fact that Rabobank and the Team Management saw this as a PR nightmare. I mean, how would Rabobank sell this win to the public. He is so tainted, that this win does no good for the sponsor.

i think rabobank knew they would be under pressure if they allowed him to ride, given that he broke the rules. in this tour's climate, with everything else going on, how could they justify letting him stay?

Given all of this, the TdF cannot take away his pay, since technically, by the time he is caught, he is no longer riding the Tour.
I'm pretty sure that it's the UCI who would take his pay, not the TDF, so I don't think this applies.

Also, you'd have to be convinced he would have a positive test in order for this theory to work. Rasmussen himself, although I think he has been shady, seemed very confident that he would not have a positive test. I believe he was correct. I'm not sure exactly how he would have been cheating, but it seems that it must be in a way that would be very difficult to detect [autologous blood infusions, etc.]

-bullseye

its a bit of an F-you from rabobank to disco that they even let him ride today. Who knows, maybe they know everyone else is dirty too so they would at least spoil the yellow jersey race.