The bickering hardly helped a sport reeling from a succession of doping scandals -- from the Operation Puerto investigation into blood doping that led to Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso being kicked off last year's race, to last year's winner Floyd Landis' positive doping test after winning stage 17.
The announcement of Patrik Sinkewitz's positive test for testosterone came on July 18 -- the test was done on June 8. The Danish cycling federation announced on July 19 it had sacked Rasmussen for missing tests when it had known about it weeks ago.
"We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable," Prudhomme said on Wednesday.
It appeared nothing would stop Rasmussen from reaching Paris in the yellow jersey. He told a news conference on Tuesday he'd called UCI's anti-doping manager Anne Gripper on April 2. The next day he was informed Gripper was not in office at the time. Rasmussen shrugged and said it was someone else.
Speaking shortly after winning Wednesday's stage, Rasmussen complained of victimization.
"Both the peloton and the public, they're just taking their frustration out on me now," Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen said he was in Mexico in June, but a former rider, Davide Cassani, said he'd seen him in Italy.
"There was, in his behavior, an evident intent to cheat," Clerc said.
Rasmussen subsequently admitted he was in Italy, then told the opposite to the Danish tabloid B.T.
"This is totally cuckoo," he was quoted as saying on Thursday. "I was not in Italy. Not at all."
The International Cycling Union (UCI) on Thursday confirmed that pre-Tour de France favorite Alexandre Vinokourov has tested positive for blood doping.
An "A" sample taken from the Astana team rider after his victory in the race's time trial on the 13th stage revealed the presence of "two distinct blood populations."
That suggested Vinokourov had injected the blood from a compatible donor to boost his performance in the race against the clock.
A statement from the UCI said: "The UCI confirmed today that an adverse analytical finding for Alexandre Vinokourov was reported by the WADA-accredited laboratory in Paris yesterday [on Wednesday]. Under normal circumstances, the UCI does not comment on individual cases during the results management process."
UCI chief Pat McQuaid added: "However, now that the party concerned has made public statements, it is now appropriate to clarify the situation."
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