MICHAEL Rasmussen has been ejected from the Tour de France after being sacked by his Rabobank team.

The Dane had led the race for 10 days, but his spell in the yellow jersey was dogged by controversy, after it was revealed he had missed a series of out-of-competition drug tests.

He was booed at the start of stage 16 to the Col d’Aubisque, which he subsequently won, but was booted off the race on Wednesday evening, when it emerged he had been lying to his team.

Rasmussen had told Rabobank’s management that he was in Mexico at the time of the missed tests, but it emerged he was in fact training in Italy.

Although he tested negative on 14 separate occasions before and during the Tour, the deception was the final straw for his Dutch team, whose spokesman said: "Michael Rasmussen has been sent home for violating the team’s internal rules."

Tour Director Christian Prud’homme said: "We cannot say that Rasmussen cheated, but his flippancy and his lies on his whereabouts had become unbearable."

Earlier on Wednesday Britain’s Bradley Wiggins became part of the Tour’s collateral damage, when his Cofidis team withdrew from the race. His team mate Cristian Moreni tested positive for testosterone use and immediately admitted his guilt.

The team’s management decided to pull out of the Tour, leaving innocent riders like their leader Sylvain Chavanel and Wiggins as the latest victims of a colleague’s treachery.

Wiggins told the Guardian: "I don’t want to continue in the Tour de France anyway, it is not supposed to be like this. It is completely gutting to have to quit the Tour but everyone knows where I stand on doping. I have nothing to hide.

"It’s pure stupidity on the part of Moreni. I don’t know how he can have slipped through the net.

"It makes you think about your future as a professional cyclist. It makes me question the whole thing, but then you think why not continue because I get a lot of pleasure out of it."

Rasmussen’s expulsion does at least breathe new life into a race that had increasingly looked like a foregone conclusion. Spain’s Alberto Contador takes over as race leader 1:57 ahead of Australia’s Cadel Evans, with four stages to go.