Rasmussen thrown off Tour de France

The Tour de France was tonight dealt a potentially fatal blow when race leader Michael Rasmussen was sensationally kicked out of the race by his own Rabobank team. The team had learnt that Rasmussen lied to them over where and what he was up to during the month of June when he missed an anti-doping check. He had claimed to have been in Mexico but was in truth in Italy.