Michael Rasmussen

Michael Rasmussen (born 1 June 1974) is a retired Danish professional cyclist who competed in road racing and mountain biking.

Rasmussen finished 77th that day and dropped from 3rd to 7th on the GC.

However he needed only to finish the final stage the next day to assure his status as King of the Mountains.

Rasmussen rode much of the next day alone, saying he needed to clear his mind after the day before.

After becoming king of the mountains, Rasmussen wore not only the polka dot jersey, but polka dot helmet, shorts, gloves, and socks.

For the final stage, he rode a polka dot bike made by Ernesto Colnago, founder of the Colnago company.

Rasmussen began his career as a mountain biker, and he won the Mountain Bike World Championships in 1999 before becoming a stagiaire with the professional cycling team in 2001.

His most notable victories include four stages of the Tour de France (shared Danish record), one stage of the Vuelta a España and a win on the Italian classic Giro dell'Emilia in 2002.

There he secured a one-year contract for 2002, and following a string of good results in August and September, including his first professional win, he switched from CSC-Tiscali to in 2003.

His first Tour de France was in 2004, in which he failed to get any stage wins but was third in the mountains classification, which was won by Richard Virenque.

He also won the best climber classification in the 2005 and 2006 Tour de France.

Specializing in climbing, Rasmussen showed a propensity for attempting spectacular wins in mountain stages in which he broke away from the peloton early and rode alone for most of the stage.

Michael Rasmussen was known for his care for detail when considering weight.

With a low weight (60 kg) he was usually one of the lightest riders in his class.

Rasmussen then agreed with his team that he could train alone and focus on the Tour de France for 2005.

At the 2005 Tour de France his training paid off when he took the polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification on stage eight.

The next day he won stage nine after riding alone for three-quarters of the course; he had broken away after 3 km and stayed clear to the finish 168 km later.

He led over the first category 1 climb, the Ballon d'Alsace.

In the penultimate stage (Stage 20), an individual time trial, he lost his third place after a fall at 4 km, then two bike changes, two wheel changes and a crash into a ditch.

After his first fall, he lost confidence and his ability to descend at speed, according to Rabobank's sports director Erik Breukink.

In the 2006 Tour de France, he finished well overall but he was not team leader; that honour went to the Russian, Denis Menchov.

Rasmussen won the mountains classification for the second year and claimed stage 16 in the process.

On Stage 16 he broke away after 4 km and took the Souvenir Henri Desgrange on the Col du Galibier (2645 m), winning 5000 euros.

He led over all the climbs and won stage 16 by more than a minute on Carlos Sastre of.

In Paris he wore the polka dot jersey as leader of the mountains classification while holding his newly born child, who was in a polka-dot shirt and cap.

In the 2007 Tour de France, Rasmussen while wearing the yellow jersey and well on his way to winning the Tour, had his contract terminated by his team and was removed from the Tour.

He served a two-year ban from July 2007 to July 2009 for lying about his whereabouts.

After being sacked by Rabobank in the 2007 Tour de France, Rasmussen got a contract offer from.

The team's manager then decided that the move would be too expensive and thus Rasmussen was without contract.

In the 2007 Tour de France he won the 8th stage from Le Grand-Bornand to Tignes, taking the lead in the general classification and the mountains classification.

On 25 July, he held a 3:10 lead on Alberto Contador, who was in second place for the yellow jersey.

With four stages remaining, this made him favourite for the yellow jersey in Paris.

That evening however, he was withdrawn from the race and fired by his team Rabobank for "violating internal rules".

Davide Cassani, an Italian retired professional rider, reported that he had seen Rasmussen in Italy in June 2007, a time when Rasmussen claimed to have been training in Mexico.

The accusations were denied.

Rasmussen was the center of controversy while wearing the yellow jersey in the 2007 Tour de France, when it was announced that he had been suspended from the Danish national cycling team at UCI World Championships and Olympic Games following missed doping controls.

Rasmussen failed to report his whereabouts for a three-week training session in Mexico and was unavailable for testing during that period; for that he received a recorded warning from the UCI.

Counting these missed tests together, the Danish cycling union decided to ban Rasmussen.

Rasmussen said: "I do admit that I've committed an administrative error. I was informed of this at the Danish championship two and a half weeks ago, so it's no news... It might be a surprise that it comes out right now."

At a press conference on 31 January 2013, Rasmussen admitted that he had used performance-enhancing drugs and methods, including EPO, growth hormones, insulin, testosterone, DHEA, IGF-1, Oxyglobin, cortisone and blood doping, for most of his professional career.