2007 Tour De France: Michael Rasmussen

Just how exciting is Ras? I would venture to say that he is exciting as a 6-inch nail. Ras comes from Denmark, just like Bjarne Riis, and just how exciting is Riis? I think that Danish girls and Danish biscuits are more exciting than both. But there is an excitement in the life of Ras, for how would he marry a Mexican if he was a bore?

Michael Rasmussen was born June 1, 1974. He is 5 ft 9 in and has a racing weight of 130lbs!!! Ras started out as a mountainbiker and turned pro in 1995. He would go on to win the 1999 World MTB Championships and 2 years later, while racing as a MTbr, rode as a “stagiare” or a trainee for team CSC. The following year, Ras raced on the road full time before moving on to RABOBANK where he still is today.

Ras has won 2 KOM jerseys and in 2005, he was in 3rd overall going into the penultimate TT. While people were not giving him a chance to hold on to his 3rd place against the powerful Jan Ullrich, he didn’t help matters when he crashed twice, changed bikes twice and changed wheels twice and crashing to 7th.

Ras is the ultimate weight-weenie. His bike, the venerable COLNAGO, has only one water bottle mount. He removes stickers that he believes would only add weight.  He constantly pesters his mechanics to trim down the weight of his bike.

While Ras maybe on his way to becoming the second Dane (after Riis) to win the Tour, he hasn’t won the hearts of the fans. He is dour and he rarely smiles. He is also not that close to his teammates, especially after getting a permission to train alone and focus his season on the Tour.

These days, Ras is in a doping controversy after failing to report his whereabouts twice (a third would be considered as a positive) to the WADA and after an ex-friend said that Ras had asked him to transport a box of shoes that contained blood products from the US to Italy.

Winning the Tour will not wash away the allegations of drug use. In fact, it will only increase the feeding frenzy that he has invited into his house. Also, there is no sense of excitement around his team considering that RABOBANK has finally got a rider capable of winning the Tour. Instead, there is a pall of gloom around it. In the bigger picture, it would be better that Ras not win this year, since his reputation might simply spoil the yellow jersey.

BTW, Ras’s nickname chicken, is not based on his spindly legs but on a Danish children’s TV show Bamses Billedbog, about a bear and a chicken. A large team mechanic was nicknamed Bear, and so Rasmussen was dubbed Chicken. (thanks to WIKIPEDIA!)