Dane asked father to give his blood for homologous blood transfusion
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Denmark's Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) won stage 16 of the 2006 Tour.(Image credit: AFP Photo)
Alberto Contador and Michael Rasmussen on the Port de Pailhères in the 2007 Tour de France(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The controversial Michael Rasmussen pictured at the Tre Valli Varesine(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Michael Rasmussen continues to reveal details about his doping following the publication of his autobiography written with Gul Feber, "Yellow Fever". In an interview with Dutch broadcaster NOS, the Dane reveals more about the use of banned substances at Rabobank ,and how he was almost caught with EPO at the Tour de France.
“One day in 2007 the gendarmerie came to check our bus. We had drugs hidden in the bus, but our bus driver Piet hid the EPO in his underpants,” Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen expresses little if any regret about his years of doping and cheating in his book. In a story about the 2005 Tour de France he tells how a chance to beat Lance Armstrong was taken away from him.
“In 2005 the team refused to let me take a second blood transfusion. My weapon was taken away from me by my own team. The consequence was that I lost a lot of time on my rivals.”
Furthermore he blames the team’s mechanic for ruining his chances of finishing on the podium in 2005. Rasmussen claims the mechanic was drunk on champagne before the penultimate time trial stage. He lost over seven minutes to stage winner Lance Armstrong, slipping from third to seventh overall.
“My rear wheel and handlebars were not fixed properly,” he said.
“I saw our mechanic in a chair sleeping off his champagne hangover. I put my bike against the truck and walked his way. I was three metres from the guy with my fists ready when Erik Dekker pulled me away."
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The Danish climber has revealed he also asked his own father for a homologous blood transfusion in 2004.
Rasmussen claims it was Dr. Geert Leinders who proposed the idea to him. Leinders told Rasmussen he had done the same thing with two brothers and that there was no risk involved. Dutch journalists Steven Derix and Dolf de Groot revealed in their 2013 book Bloedbroeders [Blood Brothers] that Michael Boogerd received blood from his own brother before his Tour de France victory on La Plagne in 2002. Boogerd denies this claim. Rasmussen was unable to use his father’s blood because it was not of the same blood group.
