Rasmussen before the storm (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an appeal of a two-year suspension by Michael Rasmussen on Thursday. Rasmussen was fighting the sanction which is due to expire July of this year. The unusual case was decided in July of last year by the Monaco federation, which gave Rasmussen his racing license, but the sanction was back-dated to the day he left the Tour de France on July 25, 2007.
Rasmussen was removed from the 2007 Tour de France while leading the race when his team at the time, Rabobank, learned that he had lied about his whereabouts during the period leading up to the Tour. He reported to the UCI that he was in Mexico, but reports surfaced during the Tour that an Italian commentator had seen Rasmussen training in Italy at the same time. Rasmussen later admitted to lying, but insisted that his team was fully aware of where he was training.
The CAS ruled that Rasmussen had indeed broken the anti-doping rules of the International Cycling Federation (UCI) because: "He did not announce his new location to the UCI which prevented the Danish Anti- Doping Agency (ADD) from making a doping control at his domicile on 6 April 2007; He was too late in transmitting information relating to his new whereabouts in June 2007; He voluntarily transmitted erroneous whereabouts information which prevented the ADD from making a doping control on 21 June 2007".
