2007 Tour De France: J’Accuse

With the story is still steaming on the positive test of T-MOBILE’s Patrick Sinkitwitz, the Tour caravan received 3 bad news about current maillot jaune Michael Rasmussen of RABOBANK.

First, Rasmussen was defrocked from the national cycling federation of Denmark for not telling the federation his whereabouts on at least 2 occasions. WADA rules states that you have to inform them your itinerary for the next 3 months for their unannounced drug test. Missing a 3rd test will mean an automatic positive test.

What was weird was the timing of the announcement when the second missed test was on  June 29. Now, the TdF wants to know, “why now?”

Second, former US MTBr Whitney Richards accused “Ras” of lying when Ras asked him to transport to Italy from the US a box that was supposed to contain a pair of cycling shoes but instead contained blood substitute Hemopure. Hemopure is a product taken from cow hemoglobin and is used in emergency procedures since it doesn’t need refrigeration. Anyway, Richards has told his story a few years before but nobody would feature it since he didn’t want his name and Ras’s name mentioned. Therefore, there is a little credence to his story.

But why come out now? Richards said he was ticked when he heard Ras said that people should “trust me” for not taking drugs.

Third, Ras was accused as one of the “men in black”, a term used to describe a few top riders (including Alexander Vinokourov and his ASTANA team) who train in neutral jersey to avoid WADA personnel.

Emil Zola, can you write that letter again?

Race Of Truth

There will definitely be a shake-up in the GC tonight. A poor rider against the clock, Ras will likely lose 90sec of his 2.35min lead according to his team. If you ask me, that’s too generous but you can’t blame his team for propping Ras up mentally.

Tomorrow, we could see Cadel Evans (@2.41), Andreas Kloden (@3.50) and Levi Leipheimmer (@3.53) crowd out the top 5 in GC. But my bet is that Evans will rip away the jersey with Kloden a close second. Levi, who hasn’t shown anything but ride defensively (and boringly), should show his cards now or DISCOVERY CHANNEL might be forced to protect white jersey leader Alberto Contador. However, I think that the winner tomorrow will be a toss up between Kloden and Vino with Evans a close 3rd. If  Kloden will  have a substantial lead over his teammate, then I guess the team will have no choice but to transfer the team leadership from Vino to Kolden.  Remember that Vino is 8.03min behind Ras at this point.

If you remember 4 years ago, it was on this TT course that Lance Armstrong lost to Jan Ullrich and almost cost him the Tour.

BTW, the next 3 stages are in the Pyrenees and therefore are HUGE!!! You can watch them live here: http://www.steephill.tv/2007/tour-de-france/. Click “live internet” and then look for the NOS channel. Or you can check ESPN at every 6AM for a 36-hour delayed telecast. Good luck!!!