July 22, 2007 – Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) is still in yellow at the 2007 Tour de France, but he’s also still in hot water. Late last week the TdF leader was banned from the Danish national team for failing to report his whereabouts during training and thus being unavailable for unannounced doping tests. The result is that the 33-year-old Dane cannot compete at the 2007 Road Worlds in Stuttgart or at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but it does not stop him from riding for Rabobank at the TdF.

Things got worse for Rasmussen on Friday when former amateur mountain biker, Whitney Richards of Colorado accused him of trying to dupe him into smuggling doping products into Europe in 2002 as reported by ABC. Richards claims that Rasmussen gave him a box of cycling shoes to carry from the USA to Italy that year, but when Richards opened the box, he found 14 IV bags filled with human blood substitute, which he then disposed of.

Richards was quoted as saying that Rasmussen is “not a monster,” but has made some bad decisions and dragged Richards into the mess.

During a news conference at the Tour Rasmussen admitted to knowing Richards, but declined comment on the story. Rabobank spokesman Jacob Bergsma said the team stands behind its rider adding that the alleged incident “”¦happened in 2002 at a time when Michael Rasmussen was not on our team.” Rasmussen joined Rabobank in 2003.

Meanwhile, the positive doping test of TdF rider Patrik Sinkewitz (T-Mobile) during a June training session is still creating a furor in Germany as reported by AFP. Hanging in the balance is the 2007 Road World Championships scheduled to take place in Stuttgart, September 25-30.

The German federal government has frozen some 150,000 Euros of the € 240,000 it promised for the event. While this is only a small portion of the event’s € 5.2 million ($7.54 million CDN) budget, it may set off a domino effect, jeopardizing the € 800,000 that the Bade-Wurttemberg (state) government has promised and the € 2.3 million promised by the Stuttgart municipal government. Without this government money, the Road Worlds cannot continue.