Alex Rasmussen dismissed days before the World Championships at home – Cycling News
Olympic track silver medallist and four-time World Track Champion Alex Rasmussen has been suspended by HTC Highroad Team as he has missed an anti-doping test. It has also been found out that he has missed the test two times before joining the team and hence
he falls against the team’s code of conduct.
The Danish rider has also lost his chance to participate at the World Championships as the Danish Cycling Federation has also suspended the rider for failing three anti-doping tests in the last 18 months. The rider has already received two warnings from
UCI and Anti Doping Denmark. The 27-year-old joined the HTC Highroad Team in 2011 as he finished second at the 21st stage of Giro d’ Italia 2011 and was first at the Philadelphia International.
The Team’s directeur sportif Rolf Aldag mentioned in a statement that, “The Team was also notified that Rasmussen had missed two tests in 2010 prior to joining HTC-Highroad that had not been previously reported the fact to the team." He continued, "Mr.
Rasmussen missed a test and additionally did not inform the team. These are clear violations of the team's code of conduct. We act on these violations immediately.”
Alex is unlucky to miss the World Championships which is scheduled next week at his home turf as the he was already selected for the mega event. He is currently participating at the Tour of Britain and is at the 86th position after the stage 4
general classifications. Alex is 16 minutes and 3 seconds behind the race leader Lars Boom and is more than likely to leave the race soon.
The first blow to the Danish team came this morning when Matti Breschel ruled himself out of the tour because he broke his fingers while riding at the Vuelta a Espana 2011. The full Danish team for the World Championships has not been announced but Jakob
Fuglsang and Alex Rasmussen were to fill in the gap for Matti Breschel. It seems like the Danish team has to face a tough home tour ahead as they will be riding without the two top class cyclists and it will be interesting to see how the Danish national coach
Lars Bonde handles the squad at such a critical stage.
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