Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen has been sacked by his team, Rabobank, and removed from the Tour. Apparently pressure from the board of directors led to his dismissal, which is not at all unexpected, given that the race director suggested the Dane was a cheat, and fans booed him on his way to a stage win today. This leaves Alberto Contador in the yellow, Cadel Evans in second, and American Levi Leipheimer in third. I suppose this is better than Rasmussen winning and then failing a doping control like our friend Floyd Landis. Discovery Channel (who sponsors both Contador and Leipheimer) is rather subdued over the events, as no one ever wants to inherit a win in such circumstances. Unless Contador really has a bad ride during Saturday’s time trial, or Leipheimer a spectacular, I don’t see anything changing between now and Paris.

Oh, and a Confidis rider, Cristian Moreni, failed a doping control for unusually high levels of testosterone. Ironically, Moreni was part of a riders’ demostration before the start of today’s stage protesting the rampant use of drugs in the peleton. Oops.

Tarik Saleh has a fine post up regarding the Vino doping scandal, by the way.

Posted on 25 July 2007