Alex Rasmussen accepts team firing, sorry to miss Olympics

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Alex Rasmussen seems resigned to his fate, that he must sit out from racing until April 1, 2013. He is depressed to miss the 2012 London Olympics and says that he understands why his team Garmin-Sharp let him go.

On Wednesday the Court of Arbitraiton for Sport (CAS) announced that he would serve a retroactive 18-month ban for three violations of the “whereabouts” requirements.

Speaking of Garmin-Sharp, Rasmussen told sporten.dk, “It was not so much a surprise that they fired me. They didn't really have a choice. All teams would have done the same. If you can't ride, you can't ride, so why should you be on a team?”

The Dane had in fact been at a training camp for the Olympics, where he was to ride on the track, but he had to leave that camp on hearing the news. “There is a very depressed mood. We had a really good team that was ready to go for the medals. It is over for me. I must go home and move on.”

He called the whole procedure “very stressful and characterized by many ups and downs,” and said, “I have to look at the positives. People have, after all, been out a long time with injuries, and I still have my good form and the desire to ride races. They can't take that from me.”

A chance for the Olympics?

Meanwhile, his attorney Henrik Stagetorn has figured out a possible way for Rasmussen to be allowed to ride in the Olympics. An appeal of the CAS decision would delay the suspension's effective date, and if he is not suspended, he could ride in London.

“We are considering whether we should take the matter to a Swiss court to appeal the CAS ruling,” Stagetorn told the Ritzau news agency.

“Should it make any sense to appeal, then we will request that the CAS decision be suspended pending a decision by the Swiss court.”