TALES FROM THE BROOMWAGON: MON AND TUES

Tales from the Broomwagon

Day 17
Monday
Tarascon - Pau

Just what we needed. A long drive. On deadline day.

Where we stayed: Hotel a l'Hotel, Pau

Day 18
Tuesday
Pau

Some rest day. Where do we start? How about with Michael Rasmussen's press conference in the media centre at the Parc Beaumont in Pau.

The leader of one of the biggest sporting events in the world has spent a week saying: "I won't answer any questions about doping." Today he - or more accurately his entourage - did nothing but. Fifty two minutes and there was not a single question or comment about the Tour de France. Not from the media, not from Rasmussen, not from his Rabobank team manager Theo De Rooy. Rasmussen said very little, only four or five short answers.

He said the Danish Cycling Federation test he missed earlier this year was due to an administrative error. And he said that he was only one day late in supplying details of his whereabouts to the UCI and that that too was an oversight for which he had received a recorded warning, following a written warning. De Rooy pointed out that there are many riders in the peloton with written and recorded warnings for missed out-of-competition tests or supplying details of their movements to the UCI late. He said that Rasmussen's strict confidentiality had been breached simply because he was wearing the yellow jersey.

Rasmussen's eyes were watery and he looked startled. Hardly surprising with the flashbulbs only a few feet away and a disbelieving press corps stacked up in front of him.

So that's alright then. Let's ignore the fact that ASO's two chief people, Patrice Clerc and Christian Prudhomme, regret Rasmussen's presence in the race.

What the Tour de France needs is a leader who is utterly transparent. A French journalist asked if Rasmussen understood why a lot of people don't believe in him. He just looked stunned but had no answer.

An American journalist from the magazine that broke the story about Whitney Richards, mountain biker Rasmussen allegedly asked to transport bovine haemaglobin from the States to Italy five years ago, asked what he made of Mr Richards' allegations.

"I don't know why he'd make something like that up," said Rasmussen.

What? He has just been defamed in possibly the most damaging way, with an allegation that he bought blood doping products and tried to get someone to transport them across international borders in a shoe box for him and all he can say is "I don't know why he'd make something like that up."?

It is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight that Vinokourov's performance in the Albi time trial was not credible but that's exactly how we felt on Saturday night. It just didn't ring true.

Someone placed a hand-written sign under the windscreen wiper of the Astana car. It read: "A Vendre 1 Euro" - "For Sale 1 Euro".

On another team vehicle the phantom note writer left one saying "Borat hates dopers."

"Where did you eat?"

"Ah, that?s the gay restaurant. Where boys go to meet boys and girls go to meet girls."

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Sports journalist Lionel Birnie has written professionally for Sunday Times, Procycling and of course Cycling Weekly. He is also an author, publisher, and co-founder of The Cycling Podcast. His first experience covering the Tour de France came in 1999, and he has presented The Cycling Podcast with Richard Moore and Daniel Friebe since 2013. He founded Peloton Publishing in 2010 and has ghostwritten and published the autobiography of Sean Kelly, as well as a number of other sports icons.