Professional Cycling - ASO Forced Rabobank to Pull Rasmussen!

Yep! It's confirmed.



"We would have made the Rabobank team face up to their responsibilities,'' Prudhomme said, suggesting they would have lost their invitation.

Prudhomme MUST have informed Rabo that they were going to lose their invitation to ALL ASO events if they didn't pull Rasmussen.

Politics...in reality it is what the tour is about....

Politics...in reality it is what the tour is about....

Yeah, nothing to do with doping, just politics..... :rolleyes:

Yeah, nothing to do with doping, just politics..... :rolleyes:

Yea your right....it has everything to do with doping....politics is really has nothing to do with it...

Politics? What?

They want people that they believe have doped, to be out of the tour. They are desperate to try and clean up their image with the public. If they turn a blind-eye to it, people will be outraged. A person cannot be allowed to miss drug testing and then lie about it. How non-political can it get.

Those French. They hate the Danes. It's been a long simmering dislike, but after Ris, you just knew the next Dane to do well was going to be toast.:rolleyes:

Politics? What?

They want people that they believe have doped, to be out of the tour. They are desperate to try and clean up their image with the public. If they turn a blind-eye to it, people will be outraged. A person cannot be allowed to miss drug testing and then lie about it. How non-political can it get.
Yes, except that UCI rules state that you can miss doping tests and continue to ride. There is very strong suspicion of doping but no evidence (upto now), so it seems politics certainly play a role.

Prudhomme MUST have informed Rabo that they were going to lose their invitation to ALL ASO events if they didn't pull Rasmussen.
If Rasmussen had won, could ASO really have excluded Rabobank from next year's Tour without an actual positive doping test?

Those French. They hate the Danes. It's been a long simmering dislike, but after Ris, you just knew the next Dane to do well was going to be toast.:rolleyes:


Do the French like anyone? Sure doesn't seem like it.

If Rasmussen had won, could ASO really have excluded Rabobank from next year's Tour without an actual positive doping test?
Technically, I think they can. Whether they would do it is another question. They certainly didn't dare to do so with Armstrong even though they would have loved to.

Politics? What?

They want people that they believe have doped, to be out of the tour. They are desperate to try and clean up their image with the public. If they turn a blind-eye to it, people will be outraged. A person cannot be allowed to miss drug testing and then lie about it. How non-political can it get.

LMAO. Yeah because American football has been hurt by the outrage. Oh, wait, no, soccer/football's been hurt by the blind eye turned to all the soccer players in Operation Puerto. No, it's all the outrage at baseball for not catching all the HGH/steroid users that's leading them to record ticket sales. :rolleyes:

YOU HAVE IT EXACTLY BACKWARDS. Turning a blind eye will HELP the sport financially. People are MORE OUTRAGED that they're CATCHING dopers.

Yea your right....it has everything to do with doping....politics is really has nothing to do with it...

Blaireau is the simpleton of Bikeforums, and that's saying a lot.

C'mon...Blaireau has no clue. None.

LMAO. Yeah because American football has been hurt by the outrage. Oh, wait, no, soccer/football's been hurt by the blind eye turned to all the soccer players in Operation Puerto. No, it's all the outrage at baseball for not catching all the HGH/steroid users that's leading them to record ticket sales. :rolleyes:

YOU HAVE IT EXACTLY BACKWARDS. Turning a blind eye will HELP the sport financially. People are MORE OUTRAGED that they're CATCHING dopers.

Good post.

It's all about business.

When guys race around in a circle for a few minutes on Saturday's, that's a "sport"...

This is a business. Most of you have no idea. It's comical.

If Rasmussen had won, could ASO really have excluded Rabobank from next year's Tour without an actual positive doping test?

If there's no rule against something the ASO canbasically do whatever they want.

If Rasmussen had won, could ASO really have excluded Rabobank from next year's Tour without an actual positive doping test?

It's an invitational. That means you are invited. If you don't get invited, then you are excluded. ASO owns the race. As a result they can invite anyone they damn well please. Generally, they will invite all the top teams. That's because this is a business who's product is a good exciting event.

Supposedly...

Those French. They hate the Danes. It's been a long simmering dislike, but after Ris, you just knew the next Dane to do well was going to be toast.:rolleyes:

I really blame it on the fact so many people confuse danishes as French cuisine. French people are extremely angry that something that is sold by Krogers and Piggly Wiggle would even be considered French cuisine. Payback is a *****.

I really blame it on the fact so many people confuse danishes as French cuisine. French people are extremely angry that something that is sold by Krogers and Piggly Wiggle would even be considered French cuisine. Payback is a *****.

:roflmao:

Actually the real reason is obvious: once he started saying he understood how Lance felt, implying Lance was right and been unfairly treated, Ras HAD to go. They really, really hate Lance.

Politics? What?

They want people that they believe have doped, to be out of the tour. They are desperate to try and clean up their image with the public. If they turn a blind-eye to it, people will be outraged. A person cannot be allowed to miss drug testing and then lie about it. How non-political can it get.

You just defined what the bad version of politics is and then call it non-political. Truth be d@mned. Process be D@mned. If it were about doping then he never would have been allowed in the Tour. All of Rasmussens actions were before the Tour. If they were withing the rules before the Tour started they are still legal now. If they were not then they why was he allowed to start?

Politics neck deep.

J'accuse anyone?

YOU HAVE IT EXACTLY BACKWARDS. Turning a blind eye will HELP the sport financially. People are MORE OUTRAGED that they're CATCHING dopers.

Then F*ck the sport. If they cannot keep it clean, it's not a sport.

I stopped watching the TDF. I sent letters to Versus and all the sponsors asking them to pull out.
Let it collapse.
This year's Tour should have been canceled TODAY.

As it stands, there is a very good chance a Discovery rider may win this farce, and U-S-A will again be chanted, then it would just be another victory for Lance's superior doping doctors.

so Rasmussen is dirty -what the hell does that say about Contador?

I can't believe this. The team knew about Rasmussen's failures to take the doping tests in June or earlier, and now, in the middle of the tour, is when they decide to sanction him for it?

It makes absolutely no sense, is Rasmussen's team trying to do everything possible to give bicycle racing a bad image? If they had prevented him from racing ion the tour from the beginning, it would have been a minor scandal, but now, when he was poised to win, the message they are sending is that the only way you can win the tour is if you dope.

How would you feel if you were Rabobank? I heard that a search was done on the name, it popped up something in excess of 20,000 hits and 90% of them were doping related.

I am not sure I would be pleased if I was on the Board of this institution...

I agree Rabobank is partyl responsible for this mess, as they themselves thought they could get through this race without this entire incident becoming a controversy. However, after Vino, the T-Mobile rider and the Confidis rider, the ASO and UCI had enough.

I think the protesters at the race were what put them over. You just cannot have a race where giant syringes are one of the main props held by the fans. Not exactly how you clean your image for sponsors. So they pressured Rabobank to do something.

Now - the question being asked by some is this: did Rabobank get Rasmussan to confess, or was that a lie by Rabobank to put some make-up on this public relations pig?

My take: if Rasmussan clearly was innocent, he would have proved it. It seems to me he cannot account for his whereabouts in Mexico. Otherwise he would have presented proof such as cell, bank or credit card statements. As I have stated, I would put money on the fact that Rasmussan had his main account with Rabobank, so they had proof of his whereabouts, and may have illegally (not sure what the privacy laws are in Denmark) accessed his records for the purposes of reviewing his assertion that he was in fact in Mexico. This could be why they are mum as to what the proof was. The last thing Rabobank needs is the public thinking they peer into people's banking records.

However - since Rasmussan has literally done nothing that would indicate innocence, WHO CARES WHETHER HE WAS KICKED OUT DUE TO ASO PRESSURE OR WHEN HE WAS KICKED OUT?

I can't believe this. The team knew about Rasmussen's failures to take the doping tests in June or earlier, and now, in the middle of the tour, is when they decide to sanction him for it?

It makes absolutely no sense, is Rasmussen's team trying to do everything possible to give bicycle racing a bad image? If they had prevented him from racing ion the tour from the beginning, it would have been a minor scandal, but now, when he was poised to win, the message they are sending is that the only way you can win the tour is if you dope.

Welcome to the world of Corporate Public Relations. Do not admit disaster until you can no longer not admit disaster. It is why so many companies hold off on product recalls. You try to wait out the storm, because if you can, the reward is usually greater than fleeing at the beginning. However, if the storm becomes too great, you then admit to it, and put as much perfume on the turd as possible, all the while pointing to the turd next to you. This is what Rabobank did. They thought they could wait out the controversy, and it would die down eventually. But it did not, especially after Vino et all. So now, they have tried to spin the incident as to how they acted for the good of the sport, but that little turd Rasmussan, he is evil.

My take is that both sides are turds, although Rabobank was less of a turd, since they did not get themselves in this position in the first place. It was not like they pressured Rasmussan to go to Italy.

How would you feel if you were Rabobank? I heard that a search was done on the name, it popped up something in excess of 20,000 hits and 90% of them were doping related.

I am not sure I would be pleased if I was on the Board of this institution...

I just tried a web search on Rabobank. In the first 7 pages there were no references to drugs.

Joe

I'm very disappointed with the tour. The fact that they had the gonads to say Rasmussen was pulled from the tour by Rabobank is insulting. We all know the team was pressured to remove him because of some heresay controversy that happened outside of the tour. The bottom line is he was not positive for doping, and should therefore be allowed to compete. I think politics is an even bigger problem in the tour than doping.

Interesting title. I actually believe that the uproar is because of information that the UCI has provided. Didn't the UCI also provide the dope results about Pat....withheld until after the tour started.

Has anyone forgotten the battles that the UCI has been having with the ASO? I honestly think the UCI would like to see the Tour die.

That being said I do believe that when there is smoke there is fire. It's the timing that I believe the UCI is exploiting at this point.

easy fix....my buddy and i were talking about it....EVERY rider gets tested EVERY day...the next morning results are posted and if your names not on the list you don't ride. Problems solved.

easy fix....my buddy and i were talking about it....EVERY rider gets tested EVERY day...the next morning results are posted and if your names not on the list you don't ride. Problems solved.

Impossible. Do you know how many millions of dollars that would cost? More than all of cycling makes combined.

Impossible. Do you know how many millions of dollars that would cost? More than all of cycling makes combined.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Yep! It's confirmed.

"We would have made the Rabobank team face up to their responsibilities,'' Prudhomme said, suggesting they would have lost their invitation.

Prudhomme MUST have informed Rabo that they were going to lose their invitation to ALL ASO events if they didn't pull Rasmussen.

Prudhomme's statement was referring to if they had known about the missed tests before the Tour started, Rabobank would have either lost their invitation, or been forced to keep Ras out of the Tour. Rabobank's decision to pull Ras was because of alleged lies Ras told his director.

Good post.

It's all about business.

When guys race around in a circle for a few minutes on Saturday's, that's a "sport"...

This is a business. Most of you have no idea. It's comical.

Its in -- very small -- part because of ostriches like you, who think ignoring doping is a good thing for pro-cycling, that the sport is in such a sorry state today.

Newsflash: being a cycling fan is not akin to joining the mob, or some religious sect, it should not entail a complete erasure of your moral standards and intelligence. Assuming you started with a little of both, of course.... Considering your posts, I wonder. :rolleyes:

easy fix....my buddy and i were talking about it....EVERY rider gets tested EVERY day...the next morning results are posted and if your names not on the list you don't ride. Problems solved.

silly

Blaireau is the simpleton of Bikeforums, and that's saying a lot.

C'mon...Blaireau has no clue. None.

If being a simpleton means criticizing those who attack velonews and the press in general for being aggressive in their coverage of about Rasmussen's duplicity and doping in general, I'll take that title anytime.


If you think being smart about pro-cycling is trying to obfuscate the gravity of the situation with respect to doping in the TdF, a lot of TdF riders would disagree with you -- though perhaps not your favorite ones...

Yep! It's confirmed.




Prudhomme MUST have informed Rabo that they were going to lose their invitation to ALL ASO events if they didn't pull Rasmussen.

How does this confirm anything? ASO has been saying all along that they would not have invited Ras had they known about the missed tests.

There's no conspiracy here, once Rabo found out about Ras's lies, they realized this was going to equal some seriously bad publicity for them, so they fired him. This happens in the real world all the time.

I'm not sure why people are blaming the organizations (ASO, WADA, UCI, USADA etc) for the current problem in cycling. They may have been complicit in the past, but its been fairly obvious that they will not tolerate it anymore, hence the riders can only blame themselves now.

As it stands, there is a very good chance a Discovery rider may win this farce, and U-S-A will again be chanted, then it would just be another victory for Lance's superior doping doctors.

I will only chant if Levi wins. If Contador wins, I will not chant, I will just hum 'I'm proud to be an American'.

silly

it might be silly but it's obviously the ONLY way to stop people and or have an honest account of what people are doing. of course it would cost an absurd amount of cash...but i bet it would cost seriously less than the Tour rakes in total....the problem as with most sports it's become more about the franchise than the people competing in it. As with any proffessional sport how many of them would do what they do if the money wasn't there.

Impossible. Do you know how many millions of dollars that would cost? More than all of cycling makes combined.

i don't think you or i for that matter have any idea how much money the tour rakes in....so lets say we don't do every rider....let's do the top 40....you move into you get tested...you drop out of it you don't...test the top 40 everyday...i am SURE that would be within the budget of the tour...if France and the tour commitee are so damn concerned about it they could fix it, i am quite sure that is not impossible.

i don't think you or i for that matter have any idea how much money the tour rakes in....so lets say we don't do every rider....let's do the top 40....you move into you get tested...you drop out of it you don't...test the top 40 everyday...i am SURE that would be within the budget of the tour...if France and the tour commitee are so damn concerned about it they could fix it, i am quite sure that is not impossible.

A ballpark figure would be about $1000 per test. 1000 X 40 = 40,000 per day

40,000 X 21 (you definetly want to be testing rest days) = $840,000

So close to a million bucks to do this. Anyone know how much the tour budget is?

I just tried a web search on Rabobank. In the first 7 pages there were no references to drugs.

Joe

I did a Google news search and almost all of the links were to stories about the scandal. There was te odd bank related story.

I think the whole point here, is that the sponsor did not want to be tied to a yellow jersey winner at this Tour with so many question marks about his availability for testing.

The prize money on offer is not insignificant, with the total for the 2006 Tour amounting to 3.17 million Euros this is just the money awarded....you know there is much more in the kitty.

LMAO. Yeah because American football has been hurt by the outrage. Oh, wait, no, soccer/football's been hurt by the blind eye turned to all the soccer players in Operation Puerto. No, it's all the outrage at baseball for not catching all the HGH/steroid users that's leading them to record ticket sales. :rolleyes:

YOU HAVE IT EXACTLY BACKWARDS. Turning a blind eye will HELP the sport financially. People are MORE OUTRAGED that they're CATCHING dopers.


Yeah right, that's why they fired Rasmussen for lying. Rabobank doesn't want to make money! Talk about getting it backwards. Rabobank speaks with their money - clearly stating that keeping Rasmussen in the race would cost them.

A ballpark figure would be about $1000 per test. 1000 X 40 = 40,000 per day

40,000 X 21 (you definetly want to be testing rest days) = $840,000

So close to a million bucks to do this. Anyone know how much the tour budget is?

Yeah but the orig. suggestion was to test all year round. That would be waaaaay too much money. And if you want the results within hours, it'd be more money for sure.

Agreed, quick turnaround would be $2000 (I deal with labs a lot), so 1.6 mil for the whole tour. This would deter a lot of guys at least for doping up before a big stage.

I am not talking about testing every rider all year long...just during whatever tours they are in....that easy, hell like i mentioned...even if it was 2-3 days time late it would still probably deter...and if you pop, LIFETIME DQ from professional racing.

I am not talking about testing every rider all year long...just during whatever tours they are in....that easy, hell like i mentioned...even if it was 2-3 days time late it would still probably deter...and if you pop, LIFETIME DQ from professional racing.

Rasmussen didn't fail a single dope test. neither did Basso, Ullrich, etc. It would do nothing beyond spend more money.

Rasmussen didn't fail a single dope test. neither did Basso, Ullrich, etc. It would do nothing beyond spend more money.

they should still continue to have the current requirements they do now...ie random tests and having to know the whereabouts...if a guys misses telling someone where he is or misses a test...that to me is an admittance of guilt...they get paid good money to ride, with that comes responsibility to the fans and the sport itself even if it is rough on them.

Do the French like anyone? Sure doesn't seem like it.

Only the Germans ironically...who have tried to invade them not once but twice in the last 100 years.

Bicycle racing = WWE

How many more before this is all said and done?

.

As it stands, there is a very good chance a Discovery rider may win this farce, and U-S-A will again be chanted, then it would just be another victory for Lance's superior doping doctors.



Once again proving American Health care is superior. F Michael Moore.:)