"I'm disgusted, disgusted. My career is ruined. I don't know what to do, or where to go," the Dutch Het Algemeen Dagblad newspaper quoted him as saying.

"My boss is mad," he told the Danish newspaper B.T. "It's the work of a desperate man who is at the end of his nerves".

The yellow jersey was restored after Thursday's stage, going to Spaniard Alberto Contador.

While Rasmussen's departure now may have saved greater embarrassment later, it still added another layer of scandal to a Tour already straining to stay on course.

"The death of the Tour" was the unequivocal judgement of the French daily Liberation. Germany's top selling daily Bild said the time had come "to stop this farce."

But for three-time Tour champion, the American rider Greg LeMond, the latest scandal came as no surprise.

But LeMond, who won the Tour in 1986, 1989 and 1990, said that it was unfair to brand Rasmussen a cheat without looking at those around him.

"If Rasmussen got caught, and if you want to be equal, you have to implicate other riders too," LeMond said. "You have a lot of riders against whom there's a lot of evidence and relations to certain doctors. Those riders are getting away with it.

LeMond said he thought the Tour de France would be better served if it didn't name a champion this year.

"I would prefer to see a non Tour de France winner," he said. "It's more symbolic."

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