How many times do you have to pass a drug test? Michael Rasmussen has been removed from the race he was leading when he passed 17 drug tests in 14 days. Passing tests during the race should supercede missing 2 tests in the off-season when there was no race. And how dumb was the Danish Nat’l Comm. that they couldn’t find him. I’m sure they have his address, & Denmark isn’t that big of a damn country.
Also when Alexandre Vinkourov was kicked out for doping, why did his whole team have to leave? Why should the rest suffer for his mistakes? He had a teammate in 5th, w/ a shot at winning, who’s SOL now, & he wasn’t even involved.
I realize drugs are serious, but this sh*t is getting ridiculous in the opposite direction.
On another topic: Also, how come Italy, France, Spain, & other European countries are putting people in jail for drugs the last couple of years. I thought Europe was supposed to be liberal enough to allow drug use. I thought they’d be like the Netherlands or something. Not that I support liberal drug laws, but I thought all Europeans were all equally liberal.
fwiw, Rasmussen didn’t get kicked by the Tour for failing a test. He got kicked off his team for failing to follow team protocol on 2 different occasions for missing periodic drug tests, and failing to report where he was (a 3rd such incident is considered an automatic positive which is probably why it didn’t happen)… this combined with when he did tell the team where he was on a trip, he lied to his team (said he was visiting his wife’s family in mexico, when he was actually in italy reportedly meeting with a shady doctor). thats the part that broke team protocol. Lance has said that its nothing out of the ordinary and that every cyclist reports his locations to his team when they are not there for training.
as far as going too far in the Astana/Vino case of kicking the whole team. No idea there. that said Vino should get a lifetime ban from the sport (his minimum punishment is 4 years, which at his age might be as good as a lifetime ban).
Is the tour going too far? probably not. cycling has been, you might say, ravaged with doping scandles in recent years hitting both big name cyclists and nobodies. if the cyclists aren’t going to take responsibility, and continue to try to break the rules, the pressure has to be put as well somewhere else, and the teams are the next step up the ladder. even with the recent scandels, at least their testing policy is catching people coughmlbbarrybondscough*, and when they do catch someone its a penalty that actually means something.
Astana and Cofidis both voluntarily withdrew their teams after their cyclists failed drug tests. They weren’t kicked off.
He was removed by his team because he violated their rules. He skipped 4 drug tests in a row, albeit for 2 different organizations. If he would have skipped 3 for 1 organization or another, they would have removed him. The team did the right thing by firing him. If he violates both team and international rules, they have a responsibility to sanction him. If you break a MAJOR rule at your company, like grab a coworker’s boob, what happens? You get fired. Same thing here, basically.