ITALY: CYCLING - Dismissed Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen has not returned to his house in Northern Italy, where his business partner criticize decison to eject him from race

Disgraced cyclist Michael Rasmussen has apparently not returned to his house in Northern Italy after he was was dramatically dismissed from this year's Tour de France. rasmussen held the yellow jersey until he was dismissed by his Rabobank team and ejected from the race, which ends in Paris on Sunday (July 29). Rasmussen was sacked by Rabobank on Wednesday after the Dutch team said he had lied about his training whereabouts in June when he should have been available for drug testing. Rabobank said Rasmussen told them he was training in Mexico in June while he was actually in Italy and therefore decided to kick him out. Rasmussen denies being in Italy. The Danish rider has been living for years near Lake Garda, where he also owns a bike shop in partnership with Paolo Bergamini, who spoke against the way Rasmussen had been treated. "The day before they did a press conference with Theo de Rooy (Rasmussen's manager) and the lawyer to defend him then all of sudden they abandoned him, they sent him home as if he was a stranger," said Bergamini on Thursday (June 26). "Maybe they needed a bigger story to bring attention to the Tour de France; we all feel deeply sorry for him, we are his friends." Rasmussen's dismissal was the latest blow to the Tour's credibility, coming soon after the announcement of positive dope tests on pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov and Italy's Cristian Moreni. Vinokourov's Astana team and Moreni's Cofidis have both pulled out of the race.

ITN Source | July 27, 2007

Tags:. .july. .returned. .feel. .drug. .wednesday