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Contador v. Rasmussen — deal or not?
Michael Rasmussen may be leading the Tour de France, but he’s not winning any friends in either the peloton or the court of public opinion.
Rasmussen has fallen out of favor with fans, team managers and race officials after claiming he made an "administrative error" — by missing two random UCI doping controls — on March 24, 2006, and June 28, 2007. It later emerged that Rasmussen had also been warned twice by Denmark's anti-doping agency. And on Friday VeloNews.com reported on allegations by a former amateur mountain-bike racer that in 2002 Rasmussen attempted to trick him into bringing bovine hemoglobin from the U.S. into Italy disguised as a pair of shoes.
Rasmussen’s public stock may have slid further following Sunday’s stage, after the Dane appeared to make a deal with Discovery Channel’s Alberto Contador to concede the stage win to the Spaniard for his cooperation in driving the breakaway — only to renege on the agreement and later deny that any deal had been made.
The race leaders were seen speaking and nodding their heads in agreement with 2500 meters to go, and Rasmussen clearly led out Contador in the final kilometer.
But with less than 500 meters remaining, Rasmussen upped the pace, and a surprised Contador struggled to come around to take the win. In the minutes following the stage, Contador initially told Spanish radio that the pair had made an agreement that would benefit them both.
“We spoke about the stage in the last kilometers. I was surprised at how hard Rasmussen went at the end. I was able to come around at the end to win the sprint,” Contador said, adding sarcastically, “So he is really a man of his word.”
Rasmussen brushed off the notion that the discussion between him and Contador before their duel to the finish line was to arrange who would win the stage.
“No, it was definitely not," Rasmussen said. "This is the Tour de France, and there are no gifts here. Contador deserved his win."
Asked about it a second time, Rasmussen said he and Contador shared a common interest to widen the gap on their GC rivals, but that was all.
“Obviously Contador was the one making the race at the end,” Rasmussen said. “I tried to take advantage of that. When we got close to finish we were racing 100 percent to the finish line. This is Plateau de Beille, where riders like Pantani and Armstrong have won before. Both of us wanted to be added to the list of winners.In the end he was in a better position and got me in the last 20 meters.”
Following his Spanish radio interview Contador changed his tone, saying he and Rasmussen had simply wanted to increase the lead on their rivals.
“We still fought for it,” Contador said. “Rasmussen attacked first, then I managed to counter him in the final 200 meters. To win here, at Plateau de Beille, with all the crowds, is just fantastic.”
But Contador contradicted those sentiments in his post-race statement, telling his publicist that he was disappointed in Rasmussen’s finish-line surprise.
“It disappointed me,” Contador said. “He attacked me in the last two kilometers and has demonstrated to me that he is not a man to keep his word.”
