Rasmussen - AP

GOURETTE, France (AP)

Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen of Denmark was removed from the race, said a spokesman for the Danish rider's Rabobank team yesterday.

"Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating (the team's) internal rules," spokesman Jacob Bergsma told The Associated Press by phone. The 33-year-old rider had looked set to win the race which ends on Sunday in Paris.

The Dane had also been battling doping suspicions because he skipped drug tests before the Tour start.

Rasmussen had won yesterday's 16th stage of the Tour. He crossed the finish alone after the 218.5-kilometre (135.8-mile) ride from Orthez to Gourette-Col d'Aubisque, the toughest ride in the Pyrenees this year.

Before the start, dozens of riders had staged a silent protest against the continuing doping scandals in their sport.

Meanwhile another tour de France rider - Italian Cristian Moreni - failed a doping test and was led away by police at the end of yesterday's 16th stage.

"He accepted his wrongdoing and did not ask for a B-sample," said Eric Boyer, manager of Moreni's Cofidis team.

Athletes who are caught doping are entitled to ask for follow-up tests to confirm - and in rare cases deny - the results of the initial 'A' sample. Police were seen leading Moreni away from the Cofidis team bus. It was unclear where they were taking him.

Dropped coverage

The French sports newspaper L'Equipe said on its website that Moreni tested positive for testosterone after stage 11 of the Tour last Thursday.

One of Switzerland's biggest newspapers has stopped writing about the Tour because of the recent doping scandals surrounding riders.

The daily Tages Anzeiger said on its website yesterday it will no longer report on the Tour stages and will limit its coverage to results and doping stories. The newspaper has a circulation of about 231,000, reaching an estimated 550,000 readers.

The move comes a day after Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov and his Astana team were disqualified because he tested positive for a banned blood transfusion.

Two German public TV channels - ZDF and ARD - last week dropped their coverage of the Tour as a protest after German cycling officials announced that T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz tested positive for high levels of testosterone.