July 5, 2008 (Utrecht, Netherlands) — A judge in the Netherlands recently ordered Dutch-based Rabobank to pay Michael Rasmussen roughly 700,000 euros ($1.1 million) in damages for the way the Danish cyclist was fired during the 2007 Tour de France reports Reuters. At the same time, the judge ruled that Rabobank was justified in sacking Rasmussen for lying about his whereabouts prior to the TdF. This comes on the heels of a two-year suspension from professional cycling given to Rasmussen by the Monaco cycling federation.

Rasmussen, now 34, was leading the 2007 TdF with four stages left to race when Rabobank fired him. It had become apparent that the cyclist was in Italy during his training for the Tour but he had told the UCI he was in Mexico. Because the UCI did not know where he was, Rasmussen was not available for out-of-competition doping tests, suggesting the possibility of doping. Rasmussen maintains that he was not doping and was in Italy for unspecified personal reasons. The UCI maintains instead that Rasmussen acted in a premeditated manner to avoid doping tests.

The ordered settlement was calculated as being equal to two months salary for Rasmussen and a contractual bonus of 400,000 euros he likely would have earned for winning the 2007 Tour de France. The judge noted that Rabobank could have known earlier that Rasmussen was not where he claimed to be.

On his website, Rasmussen writes, “First of all I would like to clearly state that I was not in Mexico in June [2007]. I have therefore misinformed both the UCI and the public. It is however important for me to stress that at no point did I lie to the team Rabobank.” On his website Rasmussen posts no comment subsequent to the recent court judgment or two-year ban. Rasmussen has not commented to the media nor did he respond to an enquiry from Pedal.

There were previous allegations of Rasmussen doping made by mountain biker Whitney Richards. Richards says Rasmussen asked him to bring a box supposedly containing cycling shoes to Italy. The box turned out to contain packets of Hemopure, a bovine-hemoglobin-based blood substitute. Hemopure is on WADA’s list of banned substances.

Reuters Story here

Rasmussen’s website here