By Brecht Decaluwé in Brest
After the two recent legal decisions in court about Michael Rasmussen clearly the water around the Rabobank team still hasn't calmed down just yet. The team's PR-representative Luuc Eisinga pointed out that the team was happy with the decision from the judge in Utrecht, The Netherlands. In this case – which handled the dismissal from Rasmussen last year – the Dutch judge decided that Rabobank had the right to fire Rasmussen, but he also decided that they should've done it earlier. That's why Rabobank has to pay Rasmussen 665,000 euro, which is about 10 percent of what Rasmussen's lawyers had asked for.
"The team is happy that the conclusions from the commission 'Vogelzang' were confirmed." This independent investigation commission looked into the Rasmussen case, about his whereabouts and the following dismissal of Rasmussen from the Rabobank team.
"The commission 'Vogelzang' made two conclusions. First of all Rabobank shouldn't have let Rasmussen take the start in the Tour de France, or [it should have] taken him out of the race earlier. Next to that Rabobank had to terminate the contract earlier," Eisinga explained. This lawsuit at a Dutch court is not related to the lawsuit between Rasmussen and the CAS, in which the Danish rider wants to reduce the two year suspension he received from the Monaco cycling federation.
