Michael Rasmussen

Michael Rasmussen

Personal information
Full name	Michael Rasmussen
Nickname	Kyllingen fra Tølløse (The Chicken from Tølløse)
Date of birth	June 1, 1974 (1974-06-01) (age 35)
Country	Denmark
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Weight	59 kg (130 lb/9.3 st)
Team information
Discipline	Road (formerly MTB)
Role	Rider
Rider type	Climbing specialist
Amateur team(s)
–1992 1993–1994 2001	Holbæk Cykle Ring Wheeler (MTB) CSC-Tiscali (stagiaire)
Professional team(s)
1995–1996 1997–1998 1999 2000–2001 2001 2002 2003–2007	Scott International (MTB) Trek-Volkswagen (MTB) Gary Fisher (MTB) Haro-Lee (MTB) Dungarees (MTB) CSC-Tiscali Rabobank
Major wins
Tour de France, 4 stages, King of the Mountains (2005, 2006) Vuelta a España, 1 stage World Mountain Bike Championship 1999 (Cross-country)
Infobox last updated on:
July 27, 2007

Michael Rasmussen (born June 1 1974 in Tølløse) is a Danish professional road bicycle racer who last rode for the Dutch team Rabobank.^[1] Specializing in climbing, Rasmussen has shown a propensity for attempting spectacular wins in mountain stages in which he breaks away from the peloton early and rides alone for most of the stage.

Michael Rasmussen is known for his care for detail when considering weight. He is known for peeling off unnecessary stickers from his bike, not wearing the Livestrong wristband which has become common among many Tour de France riders, due to the additional grams. He only carries one water bottle holder and his Colnago Extreme-C bike weighed 6.81 kg, only 10 g more than the minimum limit.^[2]

His nickname in Danish is Kyllingen (English: The Chicken), originating from his period as a mountain biker when teammates were watching the Danish children's TV show, Bamses Billedbog, about a bear and a chicken. A large team mechanic was nicknamed Bear, and so Rasmussen was dubbed The Chicken.^[3]

In the 2007 Tour de France, Rasmussen, while in the yellow jersey, had his contract terminated by the Rabobank team and was removed from the Tour.^[4] The team cited internal code violations.^[1] Since then, Rasmussen has been without a team. Apart from some criteriums, he has not entered any race, but still is training as of June 2008.

Biography

Rasmussen began his career as a mountain biker, and he won the Mountain Bike World Championships in 1999 before becoming a stagiaire with the professional cycling team CSC-Tiscali in 2001. There he secured a one-year contract for 2002, and following a string of good results in August and September, including his first professional win, he switched from CSC-Tiscali to Rabobank in 2003. After being sacked by Rabobank in the 2007 Tour de France, Rasmussen got a contract offer from Acqua & Sapone-Caffè Mokambo. The team's manager then decided that the move would be too expensive and thus Rasmussen is still looking for a team.

Tour de France history

2004

His first Tour de France was in 2004, in which he failed to get any stage wins but was third in the mountain classification, which was won by Richard Virenque. Rasmussen then agreed with his team that he could train alone and focus on the Tour de France for 2005.

2005

Michael Rasmussen wearing the polka dot jersey on the individual time trial (stage 20) of the 2005 Tour de France, sporting bruises from the first of two falls.

At the 2005 Tour de France his training paid off when he took the polka dot jersey on stage eight. The next day he won stage nine after riding alone for three-quarters of the course; he had broken away after 3km and stayed clear to the finish 168km later. He led over the first category 1 climb, the Ballon d'Alsace. In the penultimate stage (Stage 20), an individual time trial, he lost his third place after a fall at 4km, then two bike changes, two wheel changes and a crash into a ditch. After his first fall, he lost confidence and his ability to descend at speed, said by Rabobank's sports director Erik Breukink. Rasmussen finished 77th that day and dropped from 3rd to 7th on the GC. However he needed only to finish the final stage the next day to assure his status as King of the Mountains.

Rasmussen rode the next day partially alone, saying he needed to clear his mind after the day before.^[5] After becoming king of the mountains, Rasmussen wore not only the polka dot jersey, but polka dot helmet, shorts, gloves, and socks. For the final stage, he rode a polka dot bike made by Ernesto Colnago, founder of the Colnago company.^[6]

2006

Michael Rasmussen in the polka dot jersey in the 2006 Tour de France

In the 2006 Tour de France, he finished well overall but he wasn't team leader; that honour went to the Russian, Denis Menchov. Rasmussen won the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey for the second year and claimed stage 16 in the process. On Stage 16 he broke away after 4km and took the Souvenir Henri Desgrange, awarded to the first across the summit of the highest mountain in each year's tour, on the Col du Galibier (2645 m), winning 5000 euros. He led over all the climbs and won stage 16 by more than a minute on Carlos Sastre of Team CSC. In Paris he claimed the final polka dot jersey of the tour while holding his newly born child, who was in a polka-dot shirt and cap.

2007

In the 2007 Tour de France he won the 8th stage from Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes, taking the Yellow jersey and polka dot jersey. On July 25, he held a 3:10 lead on Alberto Contador, who was in second place for the yellow jersey. With four stages remaining, this made him favourite for the yellow jersey in Paris.^[7] That evening however, he was withdrawn from the race and fired by his team Rabobank for "violating internal rules". Davide Cassani, an Italian retired professional rider, reported that he had seen Rasmussen in Italy in June 2007, a time when Rasmussen claimed to have been training in Mexico. The accusations were denied. ^[1]

Controversy

Unavailability for doping controls

Rasmussen was the center of controversy while wearing the yellow jersey in the 2007 Tour de France, when it was announced that he had been suspended from the Danish national cycling team at UCI World Championships and Olympic Games following missed doping controls.^[8] Rasmussen failed to report his whereabouts for a three-week training session in Mexico and was unavailable for testing during that period; for that he received a recorded warning from the UCI.^[9] Counting these missed tests together, the Danish cycling union decided to ban Rasmussen. Rasmussen said: "I do admit that I've committed an administrative error. I was informed of this at the Danish championship two and a half weeks ago, so it's no news... It might be a surprise that it comes out right now."^[10] The timing of the announcement led to speculation by Patrice Clerc, chief of the Amaury Sport Organisation, which organises the Tour de France, that the UCI had leaked the news in the middle of the Tour to damage it, as part of a dispute between the two organisations over the running of the UCI ProTour.^[11] This was rejected by the UCI president Pat McQuaid, who said the timing was the choice of the Danish cycling union.

Alleged doping in 2002

According to a multiply-sourced VeloNews^[12] article published on July 20, 2007, mountain bike racer Whitney Richards accused Rasmussen of trying to get him to transport a box, which Rasmussen had told Richards contained his favourite cycling shoes, to his training base in Italy in early 2002. The box turned out to contain packets of Hemopure, a bovine-hemoglobin-based blood substitute which is not currently approved for human use outside South Africa and did not become commercially available there until January 2006, and which might potentially have been used in a doping program. At the time there was no screening test for Hemopure; it is, however, banned by the WADA. Richards said he destroyed the Hemopure, at which Rasmussen is said to have grown angry and said to Richards "Have you any idea how much that shit cost?"^[13]

A second journalist^[14] confirmed that Richards had related the same story to him over two years ago, off the record, and claims that the incident is the one described in the epilogue of journalist David Walsh's recent book From Lance to Landis. Rasmussen had declined to comment on the story, saying only, "I cannot confirm any of that."

On July 23 2007 he was pushed about his reluctance to deny the allegations in an interview on British TV channel ITV4 (also broadcast in a podcast). He denied any such incident and said he hadn't spoken to Richards for five years and was unsure what he had done to cause such allegations.^[15]

Removal from the 2007 Tour

On July 25, 2007, the day Rasmussen won stage 16 and virtually ensured his overall win of the 2007 Tour de France, he was fired from Rabobank and removed from the race.^[1] Previously, an Italian cycling commentator for RAI and former professional road bicycle racer, Davide Cassani, telling a story about Rasmussen's intense preparations for the Tour,^[16] stated he had seen Rasmussen in the Italian Dolomites on 13 June 2007, cycling in the rain. According to the schedule Rasmussen submitted to the UCI, he should have been in Mexico at that time.^[17] When confronted with this accusation, according to initial press reports, Rasmussen admitted the facts to his team leader, which resulted in Rasmussen's removal from the team and the Tour.^[4] Rasmussen himself later first denied that he had admitted any such thing, stating that Rabobank manager Theo de Rooij "was a desperate man on the verge of a nervous breakdown.",^[18][19] but later admitted that he admitted the facts.^[16] Two days later on 27 July Theo de Rooij announced his resignation from his position as team manager.^[20] Rasmussen's in-laws later confirmed to the Danish newspaper BT that he had visited them in Mexico, but that they didn't know where exactly he had been on June 13 and June 14, 2007.^[21] Rabobank backed the decision to withdraw Rasmussen but reconfirmed its commitment as a sponsor in cycling,^[22] at least at the local level. ^[23]

On December 17, 2007, the Dutch law firm BrantjesVeerman confirmed Rasmussen had hired it to fight his dismissal from Rabobank. ^[24]

On July 1 2008 the Monaco Cycling Federation, which holds Rasmussen's racing licence, announced that he was banned from the sport for two years from his exclusion from the Tour de France, i.e. the ban ends on July 25 2009.^[25]

Major results

See also

• List of doping cases in cycling
• Sports in Denmark

References

External links

• Official homepage
• Danish Cycling Union profile
• Michael Rasmussen profile
• Fan and support page where over 55.000 people signed their support
• Michael Rasmussen profile at the Cycling Website
• Official Tour de France results for Michael Rasmussen
• Palmarès at Trap-Friis.dk

Tour de France Meilleur Grimpeur (Polka dot jersey) winners 1933 Trueba · 1934 Vietto · 1935 Vervaecke · 1936 Berrendero · 1937 Vervaecke · 1938 Bartali · 1939 Maes · 1947 Brambilla · 1948 Bartali · 1949 Coppi · 1950 Bobet · 1951 Géminiani · 1952 Coppi · 1953 Loroño · 1954 Bahamontes · 1955–1956 Gaul · 1957 Nencini · 1958–1959 Bahamontes · 1960–1961 Massignan · 1962–1964 Bahamontes · 1965–1967 Jiménez · 1968 González · 1969–1970 Merckx · 1971–1972 Van Impe · 1973 Torres · 1974 Perurena · 1975 Van Impe · 1976 Bellini · 1977 Van Impe · 1978 Martínez · 1979 Battaglin · 1980 Martin · 1981 Van Impe · 1982 Vallet · 1983 Van Impe · 1984 Millar · 1985 Herrera · 1986 Hinault · 1987 Herrera · 1988 Rooks · 1989 Theunisse · 1990 Claveyrolat · 1991–1992 Chiappucci · 1993 Rominger · 1994–1997 Virenque · 1998 Rinero · 1999 Virenque · 2000 Botero · 2001–2002 Jalabert · 2003–2004 Virenque · 2005–2006 Rasmussen · 2007 Soler · 2008 Kohl