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Michael Rasmussen (cyclist)

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Michael Rasmussen
Personal information
Full nameMichael Rasmussen
NicknameKyllingen fra Tølløse
(The Chicken from Tølløse)
Height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight[undue weight? – discuss]
Team information
DisciplineRoad (formerly MTB)
RoleRider
Rider typeClimbing specialist
Major wins
Tour de France, 4 stages,
King of the Mountains (2005, 2006)
Vuelta a España, 1 stage

Michael Rasmussen (born June 1 1974 in Tølløse) is a Danish professional road bicycle racer who rode for the Dutch team Rabobank.[1] Specializing in climbing, Rasmussen has shown a propensity for attempting spectacular stage wins in mountain stages in which he breaks away from the peloton early and rides alone for most of the stage.

Michael Rasmussen is known for his care for detail when considering weight. He is known for peeling off unnecessary stickers from his bike, not wearing the Livestrong wristband (which has become something of a tradition among many Tour de France riders) due to the additional grams. He only carries one water bottle holder and his Colnago Extreme-C bicycle frame weighed in at 6810 g (6.81 kg), only 10 g more than the minimum allowed limit.[citation needed]

His nickname in Danish is Kyllingen (English: The Chicken), originating from his period as a mountain biker when a couple of teammates were watching Danish children's TV show Bamses Billedbog, about a bear and a chicken. A large team mechanic was nicknamed Bear, and so Rasmussen was dubbed The Chicken.[2]

In the 2007 Tour de France, Rasmussen, while riding in the yellow jersey, had his contract terminated by the Rabobank team and was consequently removed from the Tour[3]. The team cited internal code violations.[1]

Biography

Rasmussen began his cycling career as a mountain biker, and he won the Mountain Bike World Championships in 1999 before becoming a stagiaire at professional cycling team CSC-Tiscali in 2001. Here he secured a one-year contract for the 2002 season, and following a string of good results in August and September, including his first professional win, he switched from CSC-Tiscali to the Rabobank team in the 2003 season.

Tour de France History

2004

His first Tour de France was in 2004 in which he failed to get any stage wins and the polka dot jersey went to Richard Virenque who won the mountain competition. Since then, he asked his team to allow him to train completely alone and only focus on the Tour de France for the 2005 season, which was granted.

2005 Tour de France: Rasmussen wearing the polka dot jersey on the stage 20 individual time trial, sporting bruises from the first of two falls.

2005

At the 2005 Tour de France his training paid off when he took the lead for the polka dot jersey on Stage 8. The next day he won Stage 9 after riding alone for about 75% of the course; he had broken away from the peloton after only 3 km and remained ahead all the way to the finish line 168 km later. He topped the first category 1 climb of the Tour de France, the Ballon d'Alsace. In the penultimate stage (Stage 20), an individual time trial, he suffered a disastrous performance, losing his overall third place following a fall after 4 km, two bike changes, two wheel changes and crashing into a ditch. After his first fall, he lost his self-confidence and his downhilling strength (as said by Rabobank's sports director Erik Breukink). Rasmussen finished in 77th place on the day and dropped from 3rd to 7th on the GC. However, by that time, he needed only to finish the final stage the next day to assure his status as the King of the Mountains for the 2005 Tour.

After stage 20 he was seen riding alone on a highway. Rasmussen said he did that to clear his mind after what happened that day.[4] After earning the maillot à pois rouge (polka dot jersey) during the 2005 Tour de France, Rasmussen not only wore the jersey, but a polka dot helmet, shorts, gloves, socks. For the final stage of the race, he rode a polka dot bike made by Ernesto Colnago, founder of the Colnago company.[5]

2006

In the 2006 Tour de France, he finished well in the overall GC but wasn't the team leader, that honour went to Russian Denis Menchov. Rasmussen nevertheless won the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey for the second year in succession and claimed stage 16 in the process. On Stage 16 he broke away after just 4km and took the "Souvenir Henri Desgrange" (awarded to the first rider across the summit of the highest mountain in each year's tour) on the Col du Galibier (2645 m), winning 5000 euros for his efforts. He led over all of the climbs and won stage 16 by over a minute to the nearest chaser, Carlos Sastre of Team CSC. In Paris he claimed the final Polka-Dot Jersey of the 2006 tour while holding his recently born child, who was clad in a polka-dot shirt and cap.

2007

In the 2007 Tour De France he won the 8th stage from Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes, taking the Yellow jersey and polka dot jersey. On July 25th, he held a 3:10 lead on Alberto Contador, who was in second place for the Yellow yersey. With only four stages remaining, this made him one of the top favourites for bringing the yellow jersey to Paris in 2007.[6] That evening however, he was withdrawn from the race and fired by his team Rabobank for "violating internal rules". It was reported by a retired professional rider, that he had seen Rasmusen in Italy during June 2007, where Rasmussen himself claims to have been practicing in Mexico. The accusations were denied by Michael Rasmussen. [1]

Controversy

Missed doping controls

Rasmussen was the center of controversy whilst wearing the yellow jersey in the 2007 Tour de France, when it was announced that he had been suspended from competing for the Danish national cycling team at future UCI World Championships and Olympic Games events following missed doping controls.[7] Rasmussen failed to report his whereabouts for a 3 week training session in Mexico and was therefore unavailable for testing during that period; he received one recorded warning from the UCI for this.[8] Counting these missed tests together, the Danish Cycling Union decided to ban Rasmussen from competing in their colours. Rasmussen said "I do admit that I've committed an administrative error. I was informed of this at the Danish championship 2 1/2 weeks ago, so it's no news... It might be a surprise that it comes out right now."[9] The timing of the announcement led to speculation by Patrice Clerc, the Chief of the Amaury Sport Organisation, who organise the Tour de France, that the UCI had leaked the news in the middle of the Tour de France in an attempt to damage it, as part of the ongoing dispute between the two and the running of the UCI ProTour.[10] This was rejected by the UCI President Pat McQuaid, who said the timing was down to the Danish Cycling Union.

Alleged doping in 2002

According to a multiply-sourced VeloNews[11] article published on July 20, 2007, mountain bike racer Whitney Richards accused Rasmussen of trying to get him to transport a box, which Rasmussen had told Richards contained a pair of his favourite cycling shoes, to his training base in Italy in early 2002. The box turned out to contain packets of Hemopure, a bovine-hemoglobin-based blood substitute which is not currently approved for human use outside of South Africa and did not become commercially available there until January 2006, and which might potentially have been used in a doping program. At the time there was no screening test for Hemopure; it is, however, currently banned under the WADA Code. Richards states that he destroyed the Hemopure to which Rasmussen is said to have grown angry and said to Richards "Have you any idea how much that shit cost?"[12]

A second journalist[13] confirmed that Richards had related the same story to him over two years ago, off the record, and claims that the incident is the same one described in the epilogue of journalist David Walsh's recent book From Lance to Landis. Rasmussen had declined to comment in any way on the story, saying only, "I cannot confirm any of that."

On July 23 2007 he was pushed about his reluctance to deny the allegations in an interview on British TV channel ITV4 (also broadcast in a podcast). In response he formally denied any such incident had taken place, and said that he hadn't spoken to Richards for 5 years and he was unsure what he had done to cause such allegations from Richards.[14]

Removal from the Tour

On July 25, the same day as Michael Rasmussen won a stage and nearly ensured his overall win in the Tour de France, he was fired from team Rabobank and subsequently removed from the race.[1] An Italian cycling commentator and former professional road bicycle racer, Davide Cassani, had stated that he had seen Rasmussen in the Dolomites mountains in Italy during a period of time in which Rasmussen himself had stated that he was in Mexico.[15] When confronted with this accusation, according to initial press reports, Rasmussen admitted the facts to his team leader, which resulted in Rasmussen's removal from the team and the Tour.[3] Rasmussen himself later denied that he had admitted any such thing, at the same time stating that Rabobank manager Theo de Rooij was a desperate man on the verge of a nervous breakdown.[16][17] Rasmussen's family-in-law later confirmed to the Danish newspaper BT that he had visited them in Mexico, but that didn't know where exactly he had been on 13 and 14 june 2007.[18] The team's main sponsor Rabobank backed up the decision to withdraw Rasmussen, but also announced to remain active as a sponsor in cycling. [19]

The same evening, the remaining riders of the Rabobank team were given the choice to start the 17th stage without Michael Rasmussen, or to withdraw. That evening they decided to withdraw, but the team changed its mind and announced the following morning that the riders would be starting the 17th stage. [20] Although he started with the rest of the team, Denis Menchov (team leader on the road, who deferred to Rasmussen when the latter seemed to have a better chance at winning) abandoned the race in the middle of the stage. [21]

Major results

1999
Mountain Bike World Champion
2002
Giro dell'Emilia
Stage 4 in Tour of Burgos
2003
Stage 7 in Vuelta a España
2004
Stage 6 in Dauphiné Libéré
Tour de France:
14th place overall classification
3rd place mountains classification
2005
Tour de France:
7th place overall classification
Winner of Mountains classification
Winner stage 9
2006
Tour de France:
18th place overall classification
Winner of Mountains classification
Winner stage 16
Combativity award for Stage 16
2007
Tour de France:
Winner stage 8
Winner stage 16
Combativity award for Stage 8
Leading general classification since stage 8
Withdrawn from the race after stage 16 while still leading general classification

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Rasmussen out of Tour de France
  2. ^ Anthony Tan, To Rule the Roost, CyclingNews.com, July 10, 2004
  3. ^ a b "Team Rabobank withdraws and fires Rasmussen" (Press release). Rabobank. July 25, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-26. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Shane Stokes, Magnificent seven for Armstrong, CyclingNews.com, July 25, 2005
  5. ^ John Stevenson, Michael Rasmussen's Colnago Extreme C Special Pois, CyclingNews.com, July 26, 2005
  6. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/austin_murphy/07/23/vinkourov.subplot/
  7. ^ Weislo, Laura (2007-07-20). "Tour leader dumped from national team". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2007-07-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Tour leader Rasmussen in the red as fresh doping allegations made". Yahoo! Eurosport. 2007-07-21. Retrieved 2007-07-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Tour leader Rasmussen admits error in drug-testing rules after expulsion from Danish team". International Herald Tribune. 2007-07-20. Retrieved 2007-07-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Stokes, Shane (2007-07-21). "McQuaid rejects ASO's claim that UCI is trying to damage Tour de France". Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2007-07-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Pelkey, Charles (2007-07-20). "Ex-cyclist levels doping charges at Rasmussen". VeloNews.com. Retrieved 2007-07-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Walsh, David (2007-07-22). "Rasmussen rides into new storm". The Times. Retrieved 2007-07-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Lindsay, Joe (2007-07-21). "Boulder Report: Fresh Doping Allegations Hit Rasmussen". Bicycling.com. Retrieved 2007-07-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Boulting, Ned (2007-07-23). "ITV Tour de France Podcast - Stage 14". ITV Tour de France Podcast. Retrieved 2007-07-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ TV 2 Tour de France - Michael Rasmussen ude af Touren.
  16. ^ Johansen, Thomas Møller (2007-07-26). "Rasmussen til B.T.: Min chef er gal". www.bt.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 2007-07-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Staehelin, Jacob. Michael Rasmussen: Jeg er grædefærdig, B.T. Tour section, p. 3, July 26 2007.
  18. ^ NOS (2007-07-27). ""Rasmussen was wel in Mexico"" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2007-07-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ NOS (2007-07-26). "Rabobank blijft actief in wielersport" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2007-07-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ NOS (2007-07-26). "Het plezier is weg bij Boogerd" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2007-07-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Nieuws.nl (2007-07-26). "Menchov houdt Tour voor gezien" (in Dutch). Retrieved 2007-07-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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