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COPENHAGEN - Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen has been dropped from the Danish national cycling team after receiving several warnings from the International Cycling Union (UCI) and Denmark anti-doping authorities, the Danish Cycling Union (DCU) said today in a statement on its website.
The DCU did not say what the warnings were for, but Danish public television station DR said Rasmussen got them for failing to inform anti-doping authorities of his training whereabouts.
"We've got information from both UCI (international cycling union) and Anti-doping Denmark and we know that he received several warnings," DCU Director Jesper Worre said in an interview on DR.
DR quoted Rasmussen as admitting to receiving only one warning and blaming it on a postal service delay.
"There must be someone at the top who doesn't wish me well. I can't find another explanation," Rasmussen told Danish newspaper Politiken.
He added he had known of the DCU decision for three weeks.
"I tried to give an explanation of what happened, but they wouldn't accept it," he said. "But this is something that should not in the least affect my continued participation in the Tour."
The DCU said Rasmussen will not take part in the world championships or the Beijing Olympics.
It added it took the decision to drop the cyclist on June 21, but did not say why it waited until now to announce it.
"UCI has sent a letter to Rasmussen reproaching him not to have reported about his personal schedule over the last three months," Rabobank manager Theo De Rooij told Reuters.
Under UCI rules, a rider's schedule has to be known by the sport's governing body in order to conduct anti-doping random tests.
- REUTERS
