Rasmussen poised to reveal new team

Michael Rasmussen met with the CDC-Cavaliere team today and said afterwards that the situation between them has been resolved, making him free to compete elsewhere.

It had previously insisted otherwise, claiming that he had signed a contact with him and was thus obliged to race for the squad in 2010. Rasmussen said that the agreement he put his name to was only a pre-contract and that he intended to compete for another, as yet-unannounced team.

"It was a positive meeting where there was goodwill on both sides,” he said today, according to TV2 Sport. “The two parties have commenced the liquidation of the cooperation that has never existed. The two parties' lawyers must speak together on Monday."

Rasmussen recently returned after a two-year ban from competition, incurred after he lied about his whereabouts prior to the 2007 Tour de France. The Danish rider looked poised to win the event but was then withdrawn from the race days from the finish in Paris by his former Rabobank team.

He has said that he intends to ride a Grand Tour in 2010. The identity of that team is coming soon, according to Rasmussen, 35.

"It is entirely up to my new team to announce that the agreement has fallen into place,” he said. “It will come in a press release and, in my opinion, it can’t come fast enough.”

Rasmussen and Alexander Vinokourov, who was also ejected from the 2007 Tour, are currently awaiting a CAS ruling. They are contesting the UCI’s insistence that they must pay a year’s salary as an additional penalty and, in the meantime, were allowed to race.

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