Another doper: TdF rider Rasmussen (DK) admits doping his entire career

At least Lance was chivalrous enough to forego doping in 2009/10

yeah, Lancie is great guy.

More here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21279737

Rasmussen said that he took testosterone and growth hormones and underwent blood transfusions in an effort to boost his performance.

"I have used doping substances and methods during the period 1998-2010, including EPO, growth hormone, testosterone, DHEA, insulin, IGF-1, cortisone and blood transfusions," he said.

If people can go their entire careers without getting caught like Rasmussen and Lance, it should make you wonder about the T&F athletes. All of them.

this!

UCI should be disbanded and the TdF stopped for 5 years.

In addition to that, one positive test = life time ban.

If they get draconian about the penalties they can clean up the sport over night.

things wont change wrote:

If people can go their entire careers without getting caught like Rasmussen and Lance, it should make you wonder about the T&F athletes. All of them.

I'm pretty sure Rasmussen was caught at one point.

Love this picture of Rasmussen. Epic farmers tan.

http://i.imgur.com/auS835N.jpg

Here he is schooling Contador

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCxvckqzgtw

I'll always respect someone who can climb a mountain like that.

hmmmmmmmmmmmm wrote:

things wont change wrote:

If people can go their entire careers without getting caught like Rasmussen and Lance, it should make you wonder about the T&F athletes. All of them.

I'm pretty sure Rasmussen was caught at one point.

Nope, he never tested positive. Though he was pulled out of the tour due to a failure to report his whereabouts.

things wont change wrote:

If people can go their entire careers without getting caught like Rasmussen and Lance, it should make you wonder about the T&F athletes. All of them.

hmmmmmmmmmmmm wrote:

I'm pretty sure Rasmussen was caught at one point.

Rasmussen had a comfortable lead late in the 2007 TDF when it came out that he had not properly reported his whereabouts to UCI/WADA during a period shortly before the Tour. He was withdrawn from the race by team management and with the concurrence of the team sponsor (Rabobank) and dismissed from the team even though he was almost certainly going to win. To my knowledge he never tested positive or missed a test. You have to give the team management a great deal of respect for "zero tolerance" and this confession further vindicates their action at that time. Ironically, Rasmussen's withdraw handed the 2007 Tour win to Contador who had been implicated in the Operación Puerto affair the previous year.

Glad the chicken finally admitted. Every cycling fan knew he was using, and that it was only a matter of time. He used to be my favorite rider in the tour in '05 when he won king of the mountains. In cycling, especially climbing, weight is of more importance than it is in running, and this guy earned the nickname "the chicken" due to counting out his grains of rice for dinner. Clean up this beautiful sport!!

Is there any indication of why he is admitting now? Did he just feel like he had to get it off his back, was someone else going to out him, etc?

oOooOOoOoO wrote:

Love this picture of Rasmussen. Epic farmers tan.

http://i.imgur.com/auS835N.jpg

That is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in my life.

many of his ex team mates from Rabobank have come clean recently. Peer pressure.

It's just gross what people will do to win! Blood transfusions? Don't these people want to live?

I wonder if Oprah's 4:29 marathon was aided by EPO.

5 bags of blood transfusions (about 2.5 liters I believe), and 100,000 units of EPO, cortisone, and HGH alone in the 07 tour. No wonder his hmct rose 6 points during the race.

NoVan wrote:

Is there any indication of why he is admitting now? Did he just feel like he had to get it off his back, was someone else going to out him, etc?

From one account, "The Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen has admitted to 12 years of doping after making a tell-all deal with anti-doping authorities." It sounds like he was being leaned on by some (presumably the Danish) doping authority and made some sort of deal. Perhaps there was incriminating information from the USADA or other investigation that was passed to them. There will probably be some announcement of "reduced" sanction against him coming out shortly and he's about the age to retire from cycling anyway, so a suspension doesn't mean anything. I think we're going to see a lot of this in the coming months as fall out from the Armstrong case.

things wont change wrote:

If people can go their entire careers without getting caught like Rasmussen and Lance, it should make you wonder about the T&F athletes. All of them.

There seems to be this growing imbalance in our attitudes towards athletes in particular sports. The outrage directed at Lance but not Ray Lewis, Marion but not Barry Bonds, etc.

Maybe it's because this is a running/endurance athlete oriented website and we're biased but why the poster above singles out T&F and not the rest of sport is a testament to 1) the sport of T&F and cycling attempting to clean themselves up and 2) the major Pro sports governing bodies in the World (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, PGA, FIFA, Rugby) cloistering themselves against incrimination.

Rasmussen, Lance, Marion is no more a testament to how dirty T&F and cycling might be but is also a testament on how dirty sport as a whole is. These cheats did it for millions, higher profile pro athletes do it for hundreds of millions.

Sure these are core shaking revelations in our little neck of the woods but the breadth and depth of cheating that is going on in other sports doesn’t even raise an eyebrow in the journalistic community much less their fan base. That is more outrageous than what is going on in T&F/cycling.