All My Love Is Gone

Tornado Tom Boonen did it again in the Tour de France, much thanks to his lead-out man Gert Steegmans on the 12th stage between Montpellier and Castres, a 178.5 km long stage taking them further towards the Pyrenees. Erik Zabel did just not have what it took to beat the Tornado on the stage, even though he had a great seat leading up to the sprint. This win makes the Quickstep-Innergetic the team with the most stage wins in this years Tour de France with 4.

The breakaway that lasted almost to the finish-line was the one of Amets Txurraka and Pierrick Fedrigo, who were caught in the last kilometer, but they did put up a fight all the way, not giving in. A really strong effort. We even saw the only Swede in this years Tour de France leading the Peloton down the hills into Castres, yes, i’m talking about Thomas “Gotland” Lövkvist. A really good rider and hopefully he does well at today’s Time-trial, but more on that tomorrow.

There were a lot of talk about Michael Rasmussen this day, because of doping allegations, who are founded in the fact that he missed a total of 4 random testes, 2 by UCI and 2 by the Danish Cycling Federation. The action by the Danish federation has resulted in that Rasmussen can’t compete for his National team and the World championships and even the Olympics. I think that it’s something really bad happening since, the nomination for the World championships has to be decided by September 1st and the Olympics has to be decided next year, so why take these actions now ?

I think that there is something personal problems between Rasmussen and the Dancish Cycling Federation that is causing this upset.

Christian Prudhomme from Amaury Sport Organisantion, A.S.O in short, made this statement yesterday : “We have learned via the media about the decision of the Danish federation to not select Michael Rasmussen to represent the national team at the world championships and Olympic Games. The Rabobank team manager, Theo de Rooij, told us that Rasmussen had received a warning letter from the UCI for failing to fill in his athlete whereabouts form which related to two missed controls. The letter sent by the UCI said that a third such warning would constitute a positive test.

This situation prompts us to ask a number of questions:
- Why have the federation and the UCI, which had all this information since 29 June, waited until 19 July to announce their decision?
- Why is it so late? And why is it so early…? The selection for the world championships needs to be made in September and, for the Olympics, it’s not made until next year.
- If the letter was received two days before the national championships on 1 July, why did he start this race that was organized by his national federation?
- Is a warning considered a sanction when, according to the Danish federation, Rasmussen is not considered worthy of representing his country at the world championships and Olympic Games?
- Will the UCI sanction all the riders who have received warnings?
Maybe the UCI and the Danish federation have more information to justify their actions. If this is the case, then we ask that they alert us of what they know.
With regard to the Tour, Michael Rasmussen has been tested several times and, according to the UCI which is the governing body, he’s allowed to ride. It’s because of these reasons that Rasmussen was at the start of the 12th stage.”

I think that this only hurt the Tour de France and the credibility of the UCI, but Christian Prudhomme’s statement raises a lot of questions towards UCI and the Danish Cycling Federation, which i think is really good. I think that the UCI has to rethink their procedures and also rethink the course of action it should take when it comes to warning systems and much more. Cause as it is now, it ain’t working too good, it only raises a lot questions, like those made clear by Christian Prudhomme.

Well, i’ll be back tomorrow with my view on the 13th stage of the Tour de France.

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