COL D'AUBISQUE (France), July 26: Tour de France overall leader Michael Rasmussen was dramatically sacked by his team Rabobank on Wednesday.

The Dane did not start Thursday's 17th stage after his team said the rider had lied about his training whereabouts in June.

“He has violated the team's rules,” a spokesman said.

Fellow team members gathered late on Wednesday to decide whether to continue the Tour but the meeting broke up without any statement.

Meanwhile, witnesses reported seeing police raiding the hotel of the Rabobank team in Pau, the start of Thursday's stage.

Rasmussen's dismissal is the latest and possibly biggest hammer-blow to the Tour's credibility following hard on the heels of positive dope tests on pre-race favourite Alexander Vinokourov and Italy's Cristian Moreni.

Rasmussen, 33, had already received two warnings from the UCI for failing to provide the sport's governing body with his personal schedule.

UCI president Pat McQuaid said: “I wonder why they did not make the decision when they had all the information in June. However, it is a zero tolerance policy and I can only applaud it.”

Rabobank director Theo de Rooy was quoted on Dutch TV as saying: “Several times he said where he was training and it proved to be wrong. The management of the team received that information several times and today we received new information.” The team said the Dane had told them he was in Mexico when he had in fact been in Italy.

Rabobank said late on Wednesday: “Rabobank is shocked and enormously disappointed that Rasmussen has lied about his whereabouts.”—Reuters