Last November the Vogelzang committee presented their report after an internal press conference during a press conference in Utrecht, Netherlands.

A few days before the Vogelzang press conference Michael Rasmussen admitted to have lied to the public but insisted that the Rabobank team knew about his whereabouts.  

The report shows that Rasmussen's claim that the Rabobank team knew about his real whereabouts, was at least partly true. In the documentary "Timebomb Michael Rasmussen" former teammate Max van Heeswijk claims that the riders knew where Rasmussen was. Van Heeswijk said: "The riders already knew early July where the Dane was staying." Van Heeswijk said that a rider of Rabobank who was on the Rabobank roster during last years Tour de France told him so, but 'Mad Max' did not want to say the name of the rider who gave him the information.

On July 25, 2007 former professional rider Davide Cassani, who now works as a commentator for Italian TV station RAI, said that he saw Rasmussen training in Italy. In his whereabouts form Rasmussen had  filled out that he would be in Mexico at that time. In the documentary "Timebomb Rasmussen", Rasmussen meets David Cassani at the Garda lake in Italy. In the film Davide Cassaini said to Rasmussen: I felt like I was the one who stabbed you in the back." But Rasmussen did not blame Cassani at all: "I know very well who has sent me home." Cassani continued by saying: "I cried on the evening you where sent home." Rasmussen answered: "I was desperate as well."

In a preview press release about the documentary its stated that Michael Boogerd "does not blame Michael Rasmussen anything." Not even after Rabobank distanced from its former climber Rasmussen. According to our sources Michael Rasmussen was also present at Boogerd's retirement party in October 2007.

For sponsor Rabobank the catastrophic year was over after the presentation of the Vogelzang report and the new management structure of Rabobank's professional cycling team. The question is if the sponsor itself isn't responsible  for the chaos during last years Tour de France.

According to the makers of the documentary about the Rasmussen case The Vogelzang report is very clear about the negligence and the naitivity of Theo de Rooij and Erik Breukink because they shouldn't have allowed Rasmussen to start at last years Tour de France. But the sponsor played along although the members of the board and Rabo jurist Knijf already knew that Rasmussen had lied about his whereabouts, the sponsor was standing firmly behind the Danish climber at the Rasmussen press conference At July 24, 2007.

In an interview which was made in August 2007, Michael Rasmussen told Cyclingheroes: "I am a clean rider - I don't want to have any doubt about that"

The documentary film "Tijdbom Rasmussen" (in English: "Timebomb Rasmussen") will be aired on Nederland 2 (TV 2) at Ferbuary 3, 9.45 pm (CET, Berlin time). In the days after that you can watch the documentary on the internet at http://zembla.vara.nl/Afleveringen.1972.0.html.

Some of the Zembla documentaries are online with English subtitles at http://zembla.vara.nl/About_Zembla_English.2828.0.html. We don't know yet if the Rasmussen documentary will be availble with English subtitles as well. The English versions usually take about 10 days before they are online.