Rasmussen Cleared To Start 12th Stage Of Tour de France

Friday, July 20th 2007, 7:39 am

By: News On 6

MONTPELLIER, France (AP) _ Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen led the peleton on the 12th stage of the race Friday, a day after being kicked off the Danish national team for violating drug-testing rules.

Race director Christian Prudhomme said Rasmussen could start the 178.5-kilometer (110.9-mile) trek from Montpellier to Castres, even though the rider is no longer eligible to represent Denmark at international races because he failed to report his whereabouts for drug-testing purposes.

International rules require cyclists to keep officials informed of their whereabouts during training for possible doping tests. The decision means that Rasmussen will miss the World Championships in Germany in September, and possibly the Olympics in Beijing next year.

But Prudhomme said the information available so far did not merit disqualifying Rasmussen from the Tour, where riders compete for commercial teams and not their countries. Rasmussen rides for the Rabobank team.

``In the absence of further elements, Rasmussen will take the start for today's stage,'' Prudhomme said at a morning briefing.

Rasmussen is 2 minutes, 35 seconds ahead of second-place Alejandro Valverde and 2:39 in front of Iban Mayo.

Rasmussen acknowledged making an ``administrative error'' in failing to report his whereabouts to anti-doping officials.

``I was informed of this at the Danish championship 2 1/2 weeks ago, so it's no news,'' he said before the start of Friday's stage. ``It might be a surprise that it comes out right now. ``I'm very calm and very relaxed ... It's a minor deal.''

Rasmussen said he was tested out of competition in June, and the results were negative.

``I have no positive doping tests, and that's it,'' he said.

Meanwhile, Alexandre Vinokourov's knees may have healed just in time for him to launch a surprise comeback at the Tour.

``I asked my teammates to attack because I felt good,'' Vinokourov said after Thursday's 11th stage. ``It's clear that I got my morale back today.''

Vinokourov was in such pain during Tuesday's final Alpine stage that he wiped tears away when speaking to French television. And, after struggling through Wednesday's 10th stage, he'd felt he could not take much more.

``If you ask my teammates, they will tell you I was inches away from abandoning (Wednesday),'' Vinokourov said. ``The osteopath worked on my knees last night until midnight, especially the left one which was quite blocked.''

Robert Hunter won a close sprint Thursday to give South Africa its first ever stage win.