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Friday, July 27, 2007 |
The day before yesterday the leading rider of the Tour de France, Michael Rasmussen, was fired by the management of his team because he is said to have lied about his stay in Mexico. Not because he used doping. Rasmussen was checked more than fifteen times and not once was he found positive.
The only issue here is that he is said to have lied about being in Mexico while he was in Italy as one ex-rider said he saw him in Italy one month before the Tour.
First, this is not yet evidence. Second, no evidence of doping has been found so far. Even a police search of all Rabobank riders did not result in anything.
For two weeks now the French press hyenas have been after Rasmussen. What they want is juicy stories. One day L'Equipe writes about the courage of Vinokourov, the next day he is the greatest criminal ever.
The pressure from the press has ruined the Tour. The accusations towards Rasmussen have put pressure on the team management and the Rabobank and the ASO (Tour organization) to remove him. So the rabble has got its way.
The best rider, the winner of the Tour, has been eliminated; the best team has been crippled. And all on account of the laughing hyenas of the scandal press. Can we be sure that the smear campaign was not initiated by the team (Discovery) of the present yellow jersey bearer, Contador?
The question is why did Rasmussen lie (if he lied)? He missed two doping controls and purportedly lied about where he was at the time. That could indicate he used doping while he was training. But this could never ever have had any influence whatsoever on his performance in the Tour. It doesn't make sense. At worst he could have used doping to restore his capacities after a hard training period, so that he could start the Tour fresh. But that is conjecture. Nothing is proven. Moreover, Rasmussen had to pay a fine of 10,000 Euro for missing the controls. That the matter has come up again is due to the scandal press and the antagonism between UCI and Tour. If they had problems with Rasmussen they should have said right before the start of the Tour that he was not allowed to ride. They chose the moment when Rasmussen was riding in the yellow jersey, heading for victory in Paris.
At this moment rumours are more important than facts. Rasmussen did not use doping during the Tour, he was checked more than 15 times. But the negative publicity has put pressure on the Rabobank, and on the Tour manangement, who in their turn put heavy pressure on the team management.
This is not fair. Real cheaters like Vinokourov and Landis who were found positive for doping are always caught. But when the paranoia hits the fan, the Tour is dead. The career of a fine rider was ruined completely without proof of doping.
The best rider of the best team was removed for a technicality. I'm no longer following the Tour. Toodle-oo, au revoir, auf wiedersehen in better times.
11:29:56 AM 
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NYTimes: "The director of the F.B.I. offered testimony Thursday that sharply conflicted with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's sworn statements about a 2004 confrontation in which top Justice Department officials threatened to resign over a secret intelligence operation.
The director, Robert S. Mueller III, told the House Judiciary Committee that the confrontation was about the National Security Agency's counterterrorist eavesdropping program, describing it as 'an N.S.A. program that has been much discussed'. His testimony was a serious blow to Mr. Gonzales, who insisted at a Senate hearing on Tuesday that there were no disagreements inside the Bush administration about the program at the time of those discussions or at any other time."
WashingtonPost: "The Pentagon is making contingency plans for a gradual U.S. withdrawal of troops from Iraq, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who called the planning a 'priority'."
CrooksAndLiars: "If the Bush administration wanted to fuel conspiracy theories about its classified plan for maintaining governmental control in the wake of an apocalyptic terror attack, it could not have come up with a better strategy than refusing to let Congressman Peter DeFazio examine it."
News: "Denmark has withdrawn most of the 430 troops it has stationed in Iraq earlier than expected, a report said today quoting the Danish military."
DownWithTyranny: "The American Research Group has his approval rating down to 25% and sinking. 71% of Americans now disapprove of Bush's job performance."
AlterNet: "News flash: The American economy is a hyperreality engineered by Ph.D.s working hand-in-hand with colluding media multinationals, political officials and some of the biggest names in business - and the banks that invest in them. In other news, greed is still good.
Hedge funds have helped create a counterfeit economy that some experts say could lead to another full-blown economic depression."
10:49:26 AM
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