Tour de France champion Alberto Contador has said that he has no objections to Bjarne Riis signing controversial rider Michael Rasmussen to the Saxo Bank Sungard squad for 2011. The Spaniard was commenting on the negotiations between the former Tour King of the Mountains winner and Riis, and said that he believes his former rival has suffered enough.
“With regard to Michael Rasmussen, he is a rider who I think has paid for the situation he was previously in,” he told TV2 Sport, referring to the 36 year old’s suspension for lying about his whereabouts during the 2007 season.
“He is a rider who has already achieved a lot. But in this context, it is Riis who must make the decision.”
Contador has firsthand experience of racing with Rasmussen, as the two battled for the leader’s yellow jersey in the 2007 Tour de France. They were clearly the strongest in the mountains that year, but while Contador was able to win the fourteenth stage to Plateau-de-Beille, he wasn’t able to gain time on the race leader. Rasmussen then underlined his grip on the jersey when he won the Col d’Aubisque stage three days later.
However he was removed from the race by his then-Rabobank team as media pressure was growing on it to take action. He had claimed to have been in Mexico before the Tour but was actually training secretly in Italy, thus making it impossible for surprise anti-doping tests to be carried out.
Rasmussen was handed a two year ban and returned to racing on July 27 last year. He competed earlier this season with the Miche Silver Cross squad but was then sidelined due to glandular fever. While this disrupted his planned programme, he did receive some good news in July when the watch designer Christina Hembo said that her company Christina Design London would personally sponsor him.
“Whether it was right or not that he was kicked out of the 2007 Tour De France - I think not - then it's certainly no doubt that the suspension against him is now a closed chapter,” she said in a statement issued at the time. “Thus, Michael has just as much right as everyone else to race in both Kjellerup [the first venue for their new jersey to be displayed] and indeed the Tour de France. Documented doped cyclists as Vinokourov and Basso may race there, Michael may not. I do not understand that.
“If I could give a hand and help Michael back on the international scene, it will give me great pleasure,” she stated.
Riis met Hembo in recent days and said that he is thinking about whether or not to bring the Dane on board. “We’ve talked about things, and I am considering it like I consider when I get other requests from riders who want in on the team.”
One thing going for Rasmussen is the fact that Riis has said that he wants to reinforce the notion that he has a Danish squad. Jakob Fuglsand and Matti Breschel, two of the best-known riders from that country, confirmed this week that they were leaving the Saxo Bank team at the end of the year, and so he is keen to sign more strong Danish riders.
Another benefit is that Hembo is thought likely to cover the costs of his contract, and so Riis wouldn’t have to change his budget to get extra climbing support for Contador.
Riders will meet this week:
Contador and Rasmussen will compete for the first time since that Col d’Aubisque stage in 2007 when they line out in a 65 kilometre street race on Friday evening. It is taking place in Herning in Denmark, the town from which Bjarne Riis comes. While the course is pan flat and so is a far remove from their previous battleground, the course organiser Joachim Andersen expects that the two big names will be a huge boost. He expects 50 to 60 thousand spectators, double the usual figure.
“Michael Rasmussen signed up last week, and interest is not diminished when Alberto Contador announced he would take part,” he told TV2 Sport. “We all know the two riders’ history.”
Contador had been thought to have stopped racing for the season, but he’s willing to make the trip and dig deep once again. Of course, he’s going to be paid handsomely for doing the race.
“There’s no doubt that a man who has won the Tour de France three times knows well what his market value is,” Andersen said. “This is only made possible because four local sponsors insisted that Contador would be there.”
The fact that the two will be in the same place means that there is a perfect photo opportunity beckoning if Riis finalises plans by then and is willing to take the Dane back on board. Rasmussen previously competed with the team for one season, riding in the CSC Tiscali colours in 2002.