Uh, so they done kicked Michael Rasmussen out. I can't think of too much to say that I did not say yesterday in the Vinokourov post. To reiterate, he was warned 4 times for not letting the authorities know his whereabouts, I am surprised they could not get this straight and prevented him from starting. He got kicked out for lying to his team about where he was. Good for Rabobank.
Well maybe let me try to say some more, the UCI/WADA should spend less time going after armstrong, stripping tour titles from Riis and green jerseys from Zabel, and more time closing loopholes and getting their collective heads out of their asses. Do not go after retired riders or change results from 10 years ago. No one cares anymore. Just get your act together. Make the doping testing system transparent and free of the sloppy crap that plagued the Floyd case.
On rasmussen, most interesting to me is the following (from this velonews article):
Bergsma said the team officials learned that when Rasmussen had said he was in Mexico - where his wife lives - he had actually been in Italy, working with an as-of-yet-unnamed doctor.
Oh please please please please let it be the Notorious Cecchini! I am tired of Ferrari getting all the negative press lately. Sheesh.
What else? I am glad they kicked him out before he was standing on the podium in Paris. I wish they did not let him or Vino start. The boulder report had a nice Vino article yesterday, I think he is way too cynical, but he did say the following of rasmussen during todays live stage blog:
...does his stage win podium ceremony and shakes hands and chucks the bouquet into the crowd. I'd spit in my hand before shaking his.
Word.
More random thoughts. i think kicking the teams of doping offenders out is a pretty reasonable way to increse anti-doping peer pressure amongst riders. I am pretty sad that Cofidis left though. Of the vocal anti-doping brits, I much prefer Bradley Wiggins than Millar. I really do think it is a good thing for riders to be vocally anti doping. But Millar was so vocal and whiny pre doping positive, his zeal of the recently converted leaves me sour. But, really, keep on shouting down the dopers, fellers. Even a few short years ago no one in the peleton would dare say anything, lest they become shunned.
Stopping the tour would be a mistake. We don't have to watch, but it would be nice if there was a strong antidoping statement as the tour ends leading to the mostly drug free Vuelta/world championship/2008 grand tours...
Finally, the best page on velonews is the reasonably quickly updated roster of riders in the tour, with strikethroughs on the abandons, here If all the riders get struck, I will declare myself victor in the 2007 tour.
Ghost bike follow up
3 hours ago
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And I will challenge your victory in court, like all great championships should be won. I'm sure by the time my grandchildren's great grandchildren's history professsors come to terms with the "Bush era" we will have a victor. In the meantime, I'm nominating "alien-boy" JT as victor, after all, its my word against yours.
For what it is worth, that wasn't the bitter/ cynical post.
In a last epic death-rattle, Rasmussen denied being in Italy June 13-14 to danish newspaper B.T. He called the decision by Theo de Rooij to fire him, the work of a mad-man.
Why he would deny something so easily proven is beyond me. His lies seems almost pathological.
Danish readers responded by asking Rasmussen to show his passport...
Evidently he has now been forced to admit his presence in Italy on June 13th. Whether the former pro-rider had a Ferrari style tune-up or not, seems of little importance.
It looks like he did indeed make a severe "administrative error". He forgot that most sponsors like their ambassadors to reflect honesty - an aspect of his career he has badly neglected to administer.
A ban or not is hardly going to change his career by now. Danish television TV2 tried to find a team that would hire him, with no luck. I don't expect them to hire him as a reporter either.
In the aftermath there are still the "Missing in June training" explanation and the Richards explanation.
This could easily get ugly
/Dane
Btw. Mark, can I still vote for Mr. 60% (Riis), or is it only riders actually participating this year we are voting for?
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