Rasmussen is fired.
Yesterday I went home half a day early to see Le Tour. It was a great race, I enjoyed it very much. There were drivers who gave everything, tactics were ok and there was a real fight between the numbers 1 to 4 in the overall standing. And the winner was… fired later that evening.
So what have I been watching? A fight between addicts? Who can I trust now? It has become a play for people who is the smartest in hiding what they use.
I’m not going to watch Le Tour anymore. It’s over. I’m not going to watch people who play the game unfair.
(Everyone charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. Deep inside me I hope Rasmussen will make a convincing statement soon.)
UPDATE: removed the “And my next bank account will not be at the Rabobank but some other bank.” sentence. Now I’ve calmed down I dont think that is a fair statement. They did nothing wrong, but I still prefer them to sponsor Sailing or something.
People, get real.
90% of those who finished Da Tour in the last 10 years are regular users of doping.
If you think otherwise, then do admit that you also believe in Santa Claus. I’ll forgive your ignorance about professional (cycling) sports then.
Guys, this stuff is already pretty common in *amateur* circles, and amongst ambitious youth cyclists. You can’t seriously believe they give up on this once they become professionals, and once they belong to the world’s elite in cycling.
Anyone wanna bet when the next sports branch (Soccer?, Rowing?, Triathlon?, Skiing?, Swimming?,…) is being hit by a ‘massive doping scandal’ like this one?
It will not be long that someone will seriously propose to legalize all this: “Let them use any means they can come up with, after all, it’s their own business… Swimmers may even grow (or surgically stitch-attach) swim-webs in between their fingers if they can…”
It’s all “Bread and Games” (like in Ancient Rome) anyway, don’t you realize this?
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/me is now off to watch a soccer match….
Due to the very strict and effective controls in professional cycling there had been many positive controls. This is not a scandal, this is a proof of effective controls. The controls are successful.
Many stars do not show anymore the performance they used to show. Just look at Valverde! Guess why! Well, the controls are effective. And having an effect!
This tour was the first in years where I would say it is just the opposite of what Kurt says, nowadays 90 % are clean.
Why are there no doping scandals in other sports? Simply because there are no strict controls there – yet.
Now open your eyes and do not punish the clean ones for the deeds of the dopers. First they loose because the unclean ones are faster, and now they loose again because you blame them for what others are doing… aaah, it’s a cruel world!
They were pressured by ASO, the organisation behind the TDF and I’m pretty convinced that was a major reason they did what they did.
There was a resonably long interview on Danish TV2 the other day and according to Rasmussen himself, he hasn’t admitted to lying about his whereabouts, though he was a bit tight-lipped since he’s hired a laywer (for good reason too – I think he’s been treated really badly). Again, according to him, he’s gotten 2 warnings for not telling about his whereabouts and the first one he doesn’t think really counts as that was from early in 2006 and it was 5 Rabobank riders that had all forgotten it. The others got, at most, a phone call – he got a written warning. The second warning he has fully accepted and he’s been fined for it too. He’s been tested before and under this years tour 17 times, all negative.
I’m not saying he’s not doped or that he hasn’t used doping, I don’t know and I’m not sure what I think myself either, but he hasn’t been tested positive.
Rabobank has now themselves started an investigation to figure out what exactly happened.
The winner became Contador instead – is he a more worthy winner considering he’s been connected to the big Spanish doping case…?
Actually I think the comment about Rabobank is a bit unfair. After all, they did fire Rasmussen for trying to dodge doping test. They could have kept him onboard and hope the UCI would not suspend him from the TdF. The team did the right thing by not covering for him
As I understood the story, Rasmussen had refused repeatedly to provide his training schedule, as requested by the international federation. In addition, the information he gave was false (training in Italy, and not Mexico).
So we could suppose that he broke the rules of his contract, and thus was fired for that. We could also suppose that team Rabobank (most likely not directly controlled by the bank) has somewhat more, and more accurate, information than the general public.
As for not watching people who play unfairly, at least three other cyclists were excluded for substance abuse this Tour. Last year was the same, …
Rasmussen has acted very naive and foolish… I enjoyed the fight yesterday very much, and it was a great pleasure to see how the Rabobank team played there hand, excellent work indeed, especially of Thomas! The more disappointing indeed to read the paper this morning to see that Rasmussen has not been able to play by the rules… all tests indicate he’s not in drugs whatsoever, but not applying to the rules is so unprofessional, and very unfair to his teammates who worked so hard for him in the past few etappes :(
Why do you even care about that whole sports thing? It’s not like it has any real value – at all… It’s entirely silly big companies sponsor these stupid sport events, they should sponsor usefull things like WNF or other charities. They can’t, as ppl (stupidly) prefer to watch sports and admire the companies sponsoring it (look at football and then I mean the game where you’re only allowed to touch the ball with your feet, duh). I don’t blame RaBobank for this (and it’s a decent bank, imho), I blame all those silly sport freaks. Play a game – go ahead, it’s healthy to do sports. But as soon as you go even half-national, all fun is gone, it’s only about sponsorship… And pretty unhealthy for sure.
I was a bit harsh about Rabobank. They did the right thing.
The whole issue is about missing two deadlines, and there are rules that mean on one are under investigation until they have missed three. Rabobank has never backed Rasmussen, and has now backstabed him. I don’t care if he is doped or not, you are innocent until proven guilty, and he has not been proven guilty.
Personally I would like to see all sorts of doping drugs legalized. This would make this boring sport a lot more interesting. There could be mutants with enormous muscles, imagine that.
Everyone should be allowed to take what he wants.
:)
That is not the reason he is fired. He is fired because he lied about his training schedule. Being in Italy instead of Mexico. That can be explained as trying to not get a doping test. He has admitted he lied about the location of his training schedule.
I’m waiting for the day that atlethes will be specificly bred and improved using genetic manipulation. No doping to be found anywhere…
_One_ man claims to have seen him in Italy.. Please consider this: A man associated with another team in the Tour, has made an unfounded claim that has got the current leader thrown out.
But he confessed
Graham Obree, cyclist and world-record breaker in the early 90s, is now legally a woman. Already when he was running, he clearly had a female-like breast, probably resulting from performance-enhancing hormone treatments. This is so sad, I don’t think we really want to see it happening to others.
No he didn’t :D
Check again.. There was a rumor that he did, but it was wrong. He has reaffirmed this morning that he was in Mexico.
We’ll possibly never know if he used forbidden substances, but we certainly know that he, wilfully, didn’t respect anti-doping procedures… which are not optional, they are rules. He broke the rules, he deserves to be fired.