I can't get the link to work, so I'll put in the whole article.
From the Manchester (U.K) Guardian:
Rumsas missing
William Fotheringham
Thursday August 1, 2002
The Guardian
The Tour de France's third-placed rider, Lithuania's Raimondas Rumsas, under suspicion of using banned drugs, turned into the two-wheeled equivalent of Lord Lucan yesterday: no one knew where he was but everyone wanted to know.
The people with the most interest in his whereabouts were the drugs police in Lyon. They had expected Rumsas to turn up in the city yesterday to explain about a massive quantity of drugs, some on the banned list, that was found by customs men in a car driven by his wife Edita, who was stopped at the entrance to the Mont Blanc tunnel on Sunday.
Yesterday, however, the Lithuanian rider looked to have gone AWOL.
Initially it was reported that Rumsas had missed the plane from Italy, where he is based during the season, but later his lawyer revealed that Rumsas is waiting for the full diplomatic might of his tiny Baltic homeland to be thrown behind him. The country's ambassador to France, Asta Skaifgiryte-Liauskiene, is due today in Bonneville in the French Alps, where Mrs Rumsas is in custody after being charged with supplying banned substances.
The lawyer representing Rumsas, Pierre-Louis Piloix, admitted his concern: "I hope Raimondas Rumsas hasn't followed advice other than that we gave him with his Italian lawyer, which was that he should present himself to the Lyon police with the attitude of someone who doesn't fear questions and answers."
Piloix added that he had told Rumsas that "he could suffer the same fate as his wife and be placed in custody."
Meanwhile the French press has cast scorn on Rumsas's explanation that the drugs being conveyed by his wife were intended for his mother-in-law in Lithuania.
"This is clearly not for individual use but intended for a group of cyclists," the daily France-Soir quoted one prosecutor as saying. "If my mother-in-law had taken all this stuff, she might have had a chance to make it to the winners' podium on the Tour de France as well."
__________________
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
Dieser Beitrag wurde 1 mal editiert, zum letzten Mal von tick: 02.08.2002 08:35.
