At this point, I’m watching the Tour de France more out of morbid curiosity than anything else. And, I suspect a number of the riders themselves are wondering why they’re still taking part in this race.
The day before yesterday, Vinokourov, winner of the 13th and 15th stages, was found to have engaged in blood doping (transfusion) before the start of the 13th stage. As a result, the entire Astana team was asked to withdraw from the Tour, a request that was honoured. So, that was goodbye to not just Vinokourov, but also men like Kashechkin and Klöden.
Yesterday, Vinokourov was found to have tested positive during the 15th stage, too.
There was worse to come, though. During the 16th stage yesterday, it was announced that another rider had tested positive for doping. The name wouldn’t be released until after the race.
After the race, it was announced that Moreni, an Italian rider on the Cofidis team, had tested positive for testosterone a few days earlier. The predictable result was that the entire Cofidis team withdrew from the race.
And then, just when you think it can’t get any worse, if only because the hour is late enough that most people have retired for the evening and the machinery of the Tour has wound down for the day, the Rabobank team announces that it is withdrawing yellow jersey Michael Rasmussen from the race with immediate effect. The guy who is leading the race and who won the day’s stage in spectacular style, the man who looked set to ride to Paris in yellow and walk away with the race victory, is now no longer even in the race.
And what was the straw that broke the camel’s back? It turns out that Rasmussen had lied when informing the Danish cycling federation about his whereabouts so that they could conduct out-of-competition testing. He had said that he would be in Mexico, when he had, it seems, actually been in Italy. He had also misinformed his own team about his whereabouts during the same period.
His undoing was that an ex-rider, now a commentator for Italian TV, had seen Rasmussen in the Dolomites in early June. The man had actually spoken to Rasmussen and was sure that it was him. He mentioned this encounter in passing to a Danish journalist, who realised that this was at the same time that Rasmussen was claiming to have been in Mexico.
One thing led to another and, before you know it, Rasmussen is ejected from the Tour and may well never race again. No doubt this will please the UCI, the French press (for whom any victor who isn’t French is undesirable) and all of the other people who have been calling for Rasmussen’s expulsion from the race over the last week.
In the last twelve hours, I have been hearing words like ‘traitor’ to describe Rasmussen and it occurs to me that the quest to cleanse the sport is now turning into an inhuman witchhunt.
I, for one, have a lot of sympathy for Rasmussen. Let’s not forget that he was tested for doping at least 14 times during this year’s Tour de France and found to be negative every single time.
Who knows why he gave incorrect information to the UCI about his whereabouts? Perhaps he had planned to go to Mexico, but later changed his plans and remained in Italy. Even if he deliberately lied, perhaps he felt he had good reasons for doing so. He is known to be a very private man and perhaps he resented being followed around by men in white coats with a syringe in one hand and a test-tube in the other.
As far as I’m concerned, until he is proved to have using doping, the most one can find Rasmussen guilty of is lying; and lying alone should not be grounds for expulsion from competition.
According to UCI rules, receiving three warnings for failure to be available for out-of-competition testing is equivalent to a positive test result. Rasmussen had received only two such warnings, which is why he was still in the race until yesterday. He was ultimately expelled for having lied about his whereabouts to his own team, thereby transgressing the team’s internal code of conduct. Neither the UCI nor the ASO had any grounds for taking action against him.
Michael Boogerd, Rasmussen’s team-mate, is the only person I’ve seen show much sympathy for Rasmussen today. He said that he could imagine perfectly how it must feel to be Rasmussen today, that his life is now in tatters, and that he will probably never race professionally again. His career is over, and that without even having tested positive.
In my opinion, Michael Rasmussen had demonstrated himself to be the top rider in this year’s Tour de France. He was without a doubt the strongest in the course and it will be a hollow victory for whomever now rides in the yellow jersey onto the Champs-Élysées.
