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Rasmussen calls ex-boss 'mad,' denies being in Italy
Michael Rasmussen has reacted angrily to being kicked out of the Tour de France and sacked by his team after allegedly lying about his whereabouts during a missed random dope test.
Rabobank dramatically split with Rasmussen after the Danish rider had consolidated his race lead with victory in Wednesday's 16th stage.
The Dutch team justified its action by saying Rasmussen had lied when he said he'd been in Mexico rather than Italy for one of the four dope tests he failed to show up for in the past 18 months.
But, in an interview with Danish newspaper B.T. Rasmussen questioned his team manager Theo de Rooy's decision to drop him.
"It's the work of a desperate man who is at the end of his nerves," Rasmussen told the paper's website. "My boss is mad. I wasn't in Italy, no way. That's the story of one man (former cyclist and now an Italian television presenter Davide Cassani) who thinks he saw me. But there's not the slightest proof."
Rasmussen was dropped after Cassani claimed on Italian television station RAI that he'd seen the cyclist in June in the Italian Dolomites at a time when he'd told his team he was preparing for the Tour de France in Mexico.
De Rooy said he dropped Rasmussen because “he lied to me, that is the chief reason."
On the verge of tears, Rasmussen told the paper that the scandal had left him "broken and destroyed" and with nowhere left to turn.
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