Tour De Farce

This is the second time in recent days I've flipped on the replay of that day's stage of the Tour de France, watched a rider post a convincing stage win, and then read online that the rider had been pulled from the competition. This time it was the yellow jersey holder Michael Rasmussen:

GOURETTE, France (AP) - sportsminute Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark has been removed from the race, a devastating blow to cycling's premier event which has been rocked by a series of doping scandals.

"Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating (the team's) internal rules," Rabobank team spokesman Jacob Bergsma told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday.

The expulsion, which Bergsma said was ordered by the Dutch team sponsor, was linked to "incorrect" information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director over his whereabouts last month. Rasmussen missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28.

The 33-year-old rider, who won Wednesday's stage, had looked set to win the race, which ends Sunday in Paris. But Tour officials questioned why he was allowed to take the start on July 7 in London, England.

"We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable," Tour director Christian Prudhomme told the AP.

I wonder if his team officials were planning to overlook the star's problems...until they realized he was in a position to win the whole thing, and at that point everything would probably come out and the team and the Tour would be embarrassed. In any event, once again the sport has been humiliated.