Keep in mind that Rasmussen has not been caught doping and has broken no rules. He is allowed to miss 2 out of competition tests, and he did.
Now, of course we all know that he doped and is guilty, just like we all know OJ did it, but he has not actually been caught doing anything against the rules. There’s just a lot of circumstantial evidence that adds up to very little legally. What if this were happening to one of your beloved American cyclists - or Lance? Would you be as quick to throw to the dogs?
i think most are pissed there were 3 in a few days. not just Rasmussen.
breaking the rules is breaking the rules. and the presumption is he missed those tests because he was doping and getting it cleared out of his system or somesuch shady dealing.
Lance, Landis, whatever… I don’t care if it was Joe-Tuesday-Night - kick his arse out.
The only rules he broke were lying to his team about his whereabouts. He broke no rules regarding doping and you can’t kick people out based on “presumptions”. There are lots of presumptions about Lance doping and if he were kicked out as a result of these the attitude around here would be most different.
Now if you were to say that the rules ought to be changed such that a single missed out-of-competition test is considered a failed test, then I might agree with your “kick his arse out” sentiment more.
fyi - I have much respect for Rabobank’s decision, and it was their rules that he broke, but no rules regarding doping were broken.
He had a specific reason why he wanted to hide his whereabouts.
I can’t fault his team of the TDF on this. The problem seems to be so bad that radical measures are needed to address it.
Patrice Clerc: “We just want to kill doping. In this sport, the presumption of innocence no longer exists. That’s why we have to make sure we go all the way to achieve clarity. This must be done to reinstate the right of a presumption of innocence.”
The TDF is effectively an invitational event. Thus they have the perfect right to deny a rider the option to compete without justification.
And if it was an American rider? well without getting to controversial, this is much like the right of Augusta not to admit non white members or that military school in Carolina (or wherever) not to admit females. As long as its not publicly funded they can pretty much do what they like.
On the whole, they had to realise that cleaning up the sport was not going involve some ugly situations. However I think the tide is turning and the message is becoming clear. The “Omerta” between team mates will no longer exist when the realise that one guy can screw it up for all of them. Pretty soon they’ll all be singing like canaries if they see any team mates with blood bags of syringes.
It doesn’t matter what reason he had. He doesn’t need a reason. He’s allowed to miss 2 tests and he did. It’s like a start in a track meet (the old rules). You are allowed one false start and you’re disqualified on the 2nd. It doesn’t matter whether the reason for your false start is that you were trying to get an unfair advantage by jumping the gun or whether you had a twitch. You get one and you’re done on the 2nd. For cycling you get 2 missed tests and the 3rd you’re done. Rasmussen didn’t “do” anything wrong - although I know as you do that he did something wrong.
Now, the lying to his team and the world on his whereabouts was just plain stupid and he’s getting severely punished for that. The TdF has (correctly) not punished him in any way. They had no grounds to, he’s been entirely within the rules.
I just think that if this were happening to Lance the attitude would be that he were being overly punished for lying when he has not broken any doping rules and not been caught of doping. Hypothetical, of course, but I bet that’s how the reaction around here would be.
“I just think that if this were happening to Lance the attitude would be that he were being overly punished for lying when he has not broken any doping rules and not been caught of doping. Hypothetical, of course, but I bet that’s how the reaction around here would be.”
But the point is-- Lance always reported his whereabouts-- 365 days a year-- he followed the rules— Rasmussen lied about where he was, and the team didn’t feel he was worthy of their support. I don’t blame them-- look how hard it is to get a sponsor (Bruynel is still looking).
It’s been a while since I read his book but I seem to remember quite a bit about the efforts Lance had to go to to keep the doping authorities aware of his location. They regularly showed up at his house and training sites unannounced. He’d get hauled out of bed, have to rush home from a restaurant etc. Lance was also quoted last week as saying Rasmussen should not be in the tour if he missed tests and did not properly keep the authorities notified of his whereabouts.
At least went it came to the out of competition testing rules, Lance
(like virtually everyone else I assume) was a stickler for compliance.
If Lance was a doper, he got away with it because he was doing it in a
way that could not be detected, not because he was skipping out on
tests.
The only rules he broke were lying to his team about his whereabouts. He broke no rules regarding doping and you can’t kick people out based on “presumptions”. There are lots of presumptions about Lance doping and if he were kicked out as a result of these the attitude around here would be most different.
Now if you were to say that the rules ought to be changed such that a single missed out-of-competition test is considered a failed test, then I might agree with your “kick his arse out” sentiment more.
fyi - I have much respect for Rabobank’s decision, and it was their rules that he broke, but no rules regarding doping were broken.
The TEAM (not tour) rules WERE BROKEN. He was booted. Simple. Done. They did the right thing.
The perception of the public that what he was doing is that he was doping. PERCEPTION. And the team didn’t want that, especially if he won, it was AGAIN mar the image of the tour, the team, the sponsor, the sport. So they took the high road. Good for them.