Translated material
Fried chicken
The owner of the leading yellow jersey is expelled from the Tour de France
A noticeably thinned Tour de France peloton headed into the 17th, flat stage without the cyclist wearing the yellow jersey of the leader of the general classification in its ranks. By decision of the Great Loop Directorate, after the main favorite for the final victory, the Dane Michael Rasmussen, nicknamed Chicken, who defends the colors of the Dutch Rabobank, was expelled from the race, the yellow tights were abandoned for a day. The coveted jersey was tried on on Thursday evening by Spaniard Alberto Contador, who competes for the American cycling group Discovery Channel.The sad story of Astana captain Alexander Vinokurov, who was convicted of blood transfusion (a prohibited method of enhancing the body’s capabilities through the transfusion of oxygen-enriched blood of one’s own or someone else’s) had not yet had time in the world of cycling to discuss and chew to the smallest detail, when two new scandals broke out within a few hours of each other . First, immediately after the finish of the 16th stage, news came that an increased level of testosterone was discovered in the body of the Italian Christian Moreni. The sample was taken a few days ago at the Tour de France. The rider was shocked, depressed and even refused the “B” sample analysis required in such cases.
The whole piquancy of the situation was that before the start of the stage, Moreni’s team “Cofidis” was among several teams that staged a protest against the use of doping by cyclists - the riders started a couple of minutes later than the other participants. The bosses of Cofidis, having found themselves in a stupid situation, decided to withdraw the team from the race, and yesterday no one from this cycling group started.
Late in the evening, a scandal erupted around Rasmussen, who demonstrated superhuman capabilities at the finish of the stage on Wednesday. On the last kilometer of the climb, the Dane looked unusually fresh and, dancing on the pedals, brought his closest competitor for the lead in the overall race standings, Contador, by half a minute. One of the French analysts, having compared the performance of Rasmussen and other riders who won mountain awards on the summit of Aubisque, concluded that the Dane showed a record speed here and spent at least a minute and a half less on the climb than his predecessors on five occasions in the late 1990s - - early 2000s.
The reason for the expulsion of the Chicken, who especially justified this nickname in the yellow jersey, was not doping. The Dane suffered for deception. Having received a critical number of warnings (four) from the International Cycling Union (UCI) even before the start of the Tour for failing to provide information about the training location to emissaries of anti-doping services wishing to conduct out-of-competition control, Rasmussen cruelly screwed up with a banal lie. Moreover, the exposure of the ex-leader of the “Big Loop” became possible thanks to the vigilance of a commentator on the Italian TV channel RAI, former cycling pro David Cassani. In an interview with colleagues from Dutch television, he said that he saw the Dane training in the Dolomites in Italy on June 13 and 14. Meanwhile, Chicken officially declared his presence at the training camp in Mexico from June 4 to June 26.
According to Rabobank press officer Jakob Bergsma, the team's sports director Theo de Ruy, having learned about the forgery, decided to remove Rasmussen from the team. But it’s hard to believe that Rabobank didn’t know where one of the main riders of the cycling stable was in the midst of preparations for the Tour. It seems that de Rooij considered it unnecessary to wait for a similar verdict from the organizers of the “Big Loop” and seemed to keep a good face on a bad game.
The wish of the head of the USI, Patrick McQuaid, has come true, who has already openly said on several occasions that he does not want the dishonest Rasmussen to win in the most prestigious race of the international calendar. The Cycling Federation and the National Olympic Committee of Denmark wisely distanced themselves from the scandal; a few days ago they excluded Rasmussen from the national team to participate in the autumn World Championships.
The team meeting at Rabobank lasted until late at night, and the Dane’s teammates went to the start of the stage on Thursday clearly sleep-deprived. At the beginning of the race our Denis Menshov left the race. The tormented peloton allowed the quartet of participants to gain a 10-minute lead. The best among them in the final showdown was the Italian Daniele Bennati (“Lampre”). In the overall standings, Tour leader Contador has a 1-minute head start. 53 sec. in front of Australian Cadel Evans (Lotto).