Former professional cyclist, Michael Rasmussen, has found a new job, working as as a coach and mentor for young addicts and criminals who this summer will be cycling from Denmark to Alpe d’Huez.
After the collapse of the Christina Watches team, Rasmussen was without work. Now, the 40 year old has been employed on a consultancy basis to help the group of disadvantaged young people.
His task will be to ensure that after a few months of training, the group will be able to cycle to France and climb the legendary Alpe d’Huez.
He told Ekstra Bladet, “I’ll teach them the most basic bike skills and to train and eat right. There is no doubt that it will be a great challenge for both them and me. I would still make very high demands on myself, and I will see it as my responsibility to ensure that all participants complete the trip,”
The project’s 18 participants must be between 18 and 30 years old. They will receive professional equipment and then must then start training with Rasmussen. The cycle begins on July 2nd and is scheduled to end on July 16th at the top of Alpe d’Huez.
Rasmussen admitted to extensive doping throughout his career at a press conference almost two years ago. In January 2013, Rasmussen admitted that he had used performance-enhancing drugs and methods, including EPO, growth hormones, insulin, testosterone, DHEA, IGF-1, cortisone and blood doping, for most of his professional career.
He thinks this experience will help, as he says, “One of my strengths is that I have been down at the bottom and have felt completely lost. I came up again, and in the struggle I have acquired some mental skills that I can use for life. I think they can identify with me and my life, because I’ve also been really down. I was ostracized by the subculture I was part of, and they can also feel excluded from society.”
Rasmussen previously wore the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. However, on July 25th 2007, he was pulled out of the race by his Rabobank team. He subsequently served a two-year ban from July 2007 to July 2009 for lying about his whereabouts.
