By Susan Westemeyer
Christian Müller was summarily dismissed by Team Skil-Shimano last week, but he is not taking it lying down. "I will get the UCI and BDR (German cycling federation - ed.) involved, and if we can't reach an agreement, then I will look at judicial steps. I am not receiving any more salary and am standing there like a fool. A summary dismissal destroys your reputation, who would give me a contract now?"
The Dutch Professional Continental Team announced that it had terminated its contract with Muller because of "the rider's conduct and attitude as part of the Skil-Shimano cycling team, which are harmful to the team's interests and potentially to Skil-Shimano's reputation."
The 25-year-old said that small misunderstandings had been blown out of proportion, such as a delayed medical examination and a claim that he had trained too little on the first day after dropping out of the Brixia Tour. Another problem that the team cited was his non-start at the Deutschland Tour.
"I rode the Hainleite out of form and was perfectly awful," he told Radsportnews.net. "Then I told by Directeur Sportif, 'In this condition I don't need to ride the Deutschland Tour. Take someone else and let me train for further races.' A few days later they said 'ok'. That was the last that I heard from the team. And then I got the dismissal, which said that I didn't ride the Deutschland Tour."
