Michael Rasmussen to sue Rabobank

bambi

whiteboytrash, Thanks for the article!

Is there a link for it?

The Danes voted that Rasmussen should have been nominated as the cyclist of the year... Rasmussen agrees... (Of course he was not a nominee)
http://sporten.tv2.dk/cykling/artic...id-9766494.html

TheDarkLord

Weird how his own cycling federation should expel him, and then after becoming the subject of boos among spectators (in TdF), he becomes in hero back home because of the way events played out...

Crankyfeet

Good article and thanks for posting it WBT.

What it doesn't say is where else de Rooij/Rabobank sent faxes. If you are not sure where someone is, it wouldn't be unreasonable to send multiple faxes to multiple locations. Only mentioning one of those locations would imply that they knew exactly where he was.

But it's fairly clear that they knew that he was training somewhere different from where he had told the UCI he was training.

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bambi

I'm not Danish... Just live there.
And I agree, but the Danes always believe in their fellow citizens, including Rasmussen...

TheDarkLord

The last point is enough to show that the whole "fired for lying to the team" is a sham. That is not to say that Chicken is not guilty - but Rabobank is clearly not as innocent as they would like others believe.

poulidor

I want to give a good point for Rabo's team and De Roij for the management of the new rider generation. That proves a will to change, a real hope for a good future for cycling.

Yojimbo_

Very good article....can't way to see how it all ends up.

Probably will be settled behind closed doors though, and we'll never know.

Bro Deal

I found that interesting also. It brings up the question of why the team gave the older riders leeway. Did they think the veterans were beyond hope? Or was it too hard to change the relationship the older riders expect to have with the team they are working for? The way that T-Mobile got rid ot their older riders indicates the former.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

italiano

Very good article, WBT. It was worth invested time to catch up with this thread… .

(to foreword Cranky poking fun in me, I ran my linguistic debuggers )

The first thing that comes to mind is not what and how much the Rabo team knew about Rasmussen’s whereabouts. It’s clear and inescapable that there was some level of team management complicity..

But the most tasteless and disturbing thing to me personally was that Rasmussen not only repeatedly lied but also involved innocent friends and family to conceal his lies. He developed elaborate patterns to escape like having his wife drive him to airport or pleading with De Rooij to keep press of his sorry arse in Italy. He looked very much like a user and manipulator of sensitive team situation, not victim, .. I value this as a graver etica violation than his decision personal to lie. I detest false victimhoods.

The other point attracted my attention was that Verbruggen is still very much pulling the UCI strings. It’s not surprising that he, a Dutchmen, and not a current Irish president of UCI, call a Dutch bank to cover up UCI escrement. Hein know how to do it. .

Yeah, “fired for lying to the team” is a sham. But I am not disturbed by this. It was a right decision.
I don’t believe in two wrongs making one right. The team officials who farked up should also be punished.

Surprisingly, such a comprehensive article did not mention another doping incident related to Ras: his alleged Dynepo positive. May be French withdrew its conclusion out of fear to stoke more fires.

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For inches and centimetres, let fools contend."
-- Damian Grammaticus

italiano

bump

__________________
For inches and centimetres, let fools contend."
-- Damian Grammaticus

whiteboytrash

http://www.nrc.nl/achtergrond/artic...mussen_schandal

- anyone know where I can get some Nike Air Jordan's for cheap ?

TheDarkLord

My problem is that this situation has some similarity to the current situation with Mayo. Chicken should not have been allowed to start TdF. Since he for whatever reason HAD started, I think he should have finished the race. The team knew the situation, and pulled off a fast "fired for lying" excuse to bow to pressure from ASO (and managed to look like the outraged good guys in the process). I am not defending the Chicken here; however, it is a question of following protocols properly (and to quote yourself italiano, two wrongs do not make a right). Take the case of Mayo - he is almost surely doped. But is it proper to ban him now after the way UCI has broken its own rules by retesting the B-sample?

The question is why did UCI allow Chicken to start? Is it to purposefully damage ASO and TdF, or did they just not anticipate a situation by Chicken getting the yellow jersey?

poulidor

You have to know that ASO requested all teams to have only clean riders and to respect the rule of no one single missing test in the last month before TDF!!!
You can see from where was coming the ASO pressure on Rabo: "you knew, you did nothing, fix it now".

Crankyfeet

We can see the possibility that Rabo knew about Rasmussens deception before the race now, but how would ASO have known that at the time?

Furthermore, whilst I have no faith that the UCI wouldn't be too concerned if ASO got hurt in a media bloodbath, I am having difficulty working out what they (UCI) should have done to stop Rasmussen from competing. Until his deception was revealed, Razz had not tripped the "three times your farked" violation. UCI could have been sued for publicly revealing the two missed tests (which were not legal grounds to suspend him).

It wasn't until the lie was revealed by Cassani that Rasmussen's story was farked. So I don't understand Prudhomme's bleating, though I do understand why he would initially suspect the UCI had something to do with it.

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