Rasmussen scores a win in Dutch court
A day after he received a suspension from Monaco’s Cycling Federation, former Rabobank star Michael Rasmussen earned something of a victory when a Dutch court ruled that his former team owed him more than $1 million.
Rasmussen, who lost his license for two years on Tuesday for lying about his whereabouts in the lead-up to the 2007 Tour de France, won a partial victory in a wrongful dismissal suit he filed against Rabobank for kicking him out of the race and firing him within days.
The 34-year-old Danish rider had instituted proceedings for unlawful dismissal against his former team sponsor, demanding damages of 5.5 million euros. On Wednesday, a judge in Utrecht ruled that while Rabobank had been entitled to dismiss Rasmussen from the team, it had failed to follow procedures in doing so.
The team, sponsored by Holland’s largest bank, opted to fire Rasmussen immediately, an option Dutch law says can only be used in extreme and urgent circumstances. The judge noted that there was ample evidence to suggest that the team knew of Rasmussen’s deception well in advance of the Tour de France and should have exercised the option of keeping him off of the team’s roster.
As a result, the court found that Rasmussen was entitled to two months of salary and the 400,000 euro bonus he would have received had he won the Tour, a total award of 665,000 euro ($1.1 million).
On Tuesday, cycling's world governing body UCI announced Rasmussen had been banned for two years by the Monaco cycling federation (FMC), where he had been licensed as a professional.
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