I read Velonews. I must say that I disagree with your opinion 100%. You seem to be a Ras fan, and that's great. He is the likely winner of the TdF, so he's gonna get some press. Certainly Velonews hasn't singled out Ras for anything. You'll find the same reporting on nearly every cycling site on the web.
I don't understand your issue. Could you please post some quotes from Velonews that you think are not fair to Ras????
... Brad
The joyless jersey? Rasmussen seems to be the only one celebrating his success
By Andrew Hood, VeloNews European correspondent
Filed: July 25, 2007
Michael Rasmussen was celebrating his victory in Wednesday's epic climbing stage that all but secured the yellow jersey, but no one else was.
No respect: Rasmussen is not getting the cheers he had hoped for.
photo: Agence France Presse - 2007
The Tour de France race leader was repeatedly booed during the 218.5km march across the Pyrénées by angry cycling fans frustrated by a string of credibility-killing doping scandals that threaten to overwhelm the Tour.
The Rabobank captain admitted he heard the taunts as he attacked to victory atop the Col d'Aubisque to take a commanding 3:10 lead over Alberto Contador with just four days left in the 2007 Tour.
"It did happen during the stage. I believe there's a lot of frustration among the people and in the peloton about what's going on," Rasmussen said. "After what happened to Vino, since he is not here, people are taking their frustrations out on me."
Rasmussen might be wrong if he believes that those boos were meant for Alexander Vinokourov, who left the Tour along with his entire Astana team in disgrace Tuesday after he tested positive for homologous blood doping.
Rasmussen's credibility has sunk faster than he climb up the Tour's hardest mountains.
The yellow jersey has been taking plenty of heat following revelations that he was formally warned by the UCI last month for inaccurate information about his whereabouts in the critical pre-Tour window to be available for out-of-competition tests.
A story published on VeloNews.com about allegations from a former mountain biker that Rasmussen tried to trick him into transporting banned doping products to Europe didn't help, either.
On Wednesday, the influential French sports daily L'Equipe ran the headline, "Rasmussen's Lies," above a story about his rest-day press conference when he tried to dispel rumors surrounding inconsistencies about his whereabouts during crucial pre-Tour training periods.
Rabobank officials revealed Tuesday they fined Rasmussen 10,000 euros for the warning.
ASO president Patrice Clerc turned up the heat Tuesday when he said, "Rasmussen shouldn't have been allowed to start the Tour."
The mood was tense at Wednesday's start in Orthez as French and some German riders staged a silent protest in light of the Vinokourov scandal that's rocked the Tour.
Rasmussen was loudly booed when he went to the pre-stage sign-in ceremony. The podium announcer even momentarily stopped his endless banter as the skinny Dane signed his name to the start list.
Despite the growing pressure, he rode Wednesday's stage to perfection, winning decisively and further tightening his grip on the yellow jersey. He's obviously not letting it affect his performance.
The intensity of the negative feelings toward Rasmussen remind many of the divisiveness provoked by Lance Armstrong's seven-year Tour run when the Texan's Tour dominance rubbed some the wrong way.
"Now I understand what Lance Armstrong went through for seven years. My respect for him is growing day by day," Rasmussen said. "The only good thing about the Vinokourov situation is that it proves that the system is working. To that, I can only add that I've had 14 negative tests on this Tour."
The growing Rasmussen brouhaha is also squelching any joy around the Rabobank bus.
On what should be the most rewarding day of the Dutch squad's 12-year history, team officials admitted it's hard to rejoice in light of the growing sense of distrust of Rasmussen and cycling's sliding credibility.
"We cannot celebrate too much in light of what's happening in cycling right now," said Rabobank sport director Erik Breukink. "It's frustrating. We've worked hard to reach this moment and we cannot enjoy it as we'd like."
If the boos weren't enough, a wasp stung Rasmussen on his lower lip on the descent off the Larrau climb and he rode most of the stage with his mouth swollen "like I had a golf ball in it."
At least the swollen lip didn't come from a sucker punch from a fan.