I guess the men in black story had something to it after all. Leading the Tour means nothing to the Danish National Team. You toe the line, or you stay home.
Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen has been axed from the Danish national team and told he will not take part in either the world championships or the Olympics following a drugs-testing row, it was announced on Thursday.
The director of the Danish Cycling Union (DCU) Jesper Worre told DR1 television station that Rasmussen had received a number of warnings about failing to inform doping authorities of his whereabouts during training.
“We consider this case with great seriousness, and the executive of the DCU decided that Michael will no longer be part of the national team and he was informed of this on June 26,” said Worre.
“The DCU is not saying that Michael tested positive. But there are question marks over his behavior and attitude.”
Source: velonews.com
And then you have the whole “training in Mexico” thing:
The early morning tests Tuesday came a day after Rasmussen faced questions from journalists about his training regimen, which takes him for long periods to the mountains of Mexico, far from areas where many other cyclists train and, presumably, far from where medical inspectors spend most of their time.
Source: nytimes.com
A donde el pharmacia?
hmmm…Let’s see, He can train in Denmark where every third car is honking at him and yelling for autographs, with a dozen riders hanging on his wheel every day -OR- he can go down Mexico way, hang with his in-laws and train on empty mountain roads in peace and quiet with all the asada and pulque he can pound in the evening and maybe a little cactus whiskey to sooth the pain of the day. Which would you choose? Then again, it is closer to Columbia and the dude’s crazy skinny – even for a bike racer. Personally, I think the Danes are just making a big flap about nothing… I hope.
Chicken lives in Italy where there’s mountains aplenty to train on. Must be some special thin air them Mexicans have if he can take over 2 minutes out of everyone else despite not doing anything and recovering from a broken leg in the months prior to the Tour. He’s dirty. Just like his team mate Oscar ‘not raced for months but kicking ass when I do’ Freire.
How convenient to wait till he is in Yellow in the tour, before telling the press… Why not inform everyone on the 26th of June?