Too good to resist...

Ahh, these stories are just too good to pass up...

• I went to the fortune teller, to have my fortune read... oh, VDB, where next dude?? The Belgian was released by Team Mitsubishi-Jartazi last week. He has ridden very little this season, and most recently had been named as a customer of gang drug dealers. If the 33 year-old is unable to come back on his bike, he may have a new career as a fortune teller. In the TV show, which was filmed before Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège, he accurately predicted that Alejandro Valverde would win the race. According to sportwereld.be, he had also predicted the winners in the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Stijn Devolder), Paris-Roubaix (Tom Boonen) and the Amstel Gold Race (Damiano Cunego), missing only on Milano-Sanremo, where he picked Filippo Pozzato instead of Fabian Cancellara.
• Can't buy me love... Sunday was the deadline for Rabobank and Michael Rasmussen to settle their differences, following the Dutch team throwing out the Danish rider of its team during last year's Tour de France.
• It's a question of credibility? Sure is! "It is a question of credibility," Maertens continued. "We are working already since October last year on a new team. By accepting Vino in the team, we would have to start all over again. We proved already this season – unfortunately some organisers don't see it – that our team works super professionally and clean. We want to keep that." Astana has not been invited this season to any races sponsored by the ASO, including the Tour de France.

It would be cruel to suggest that VDB will not find yet another team to disappoint, however someone must be cruel to be kind at some point, surely? And Rasmussen is holding out for more money, one presumes. One can only hope he has a strong case. Finally there's Vino, in the wings, waiting to come back. I doubt it.

Leukemans confirmed

He's tried another excuse and failed, and must be running out of ideas, surely? Which is not to say he won't appeal again... The disciplinary committee of the Vlaamse Gemeenschap (Flemish Community) on Tuesday upheld Björn Leukemans' two-year suspension for testosterone usage, rejecting his appeal of the sentence handed down in January. The Belgian rider had argued that a team doctor prescribed a substance which caused the positive test and therefore he was not responsible. Leukemans can further appeal the suspension to the Council of the State.

Not guilty but here's some cash

No, I don't understand either. CN reports: The Bonn, Germany, prosecutors have closed their investigation of Jan Ullrich, agreeing with him to make a "six-digit" payment to community institutions and to the public treasury. The investigation looked into charges that the former cycling star had cheated his employer T-Mobile, particularly through a connection with Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes. The amount of the payment was not disclosed but reckoned to be 250,000 euro. Ullrich did not admit to any guilt, and is not considered, under German law, to have been found guilty.

Apparently there is still doping-related evidence to examine, but in this particular instance Jan is cleared but agreed to make an undisclosed payment anyway. I'm sure the truth will out one day...

BALCO links and Jan to strike a deal?

The BALCO underbelly is still exposed... and athletes are still suffering the consequences of their poor decisions.Former American track sprinter Tammy Thomas was found guilty of lying to a grand jury investigating the so-called BALCO scandal on Friday. Thomas was the first of several athletes to go on trial in connection to the illegal steroid ring operated by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). Thomas was found guilty on three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice, but was acquitted of two counts of perjury.

And there is speculation that Jan Ullrich may be about to spill the beans:Jan Ullrich has indicated that he has reached an agreement with German investigators, and has agreed to let Swiss authorities turn over to German investigators documents taken when his house was searched in September 2006. According to the Swiss newspaper, St. Galler Tagblatt, various documents and other information has remained in the office of the Berziksamt Kreuzlingen, while Ullrich's attorney's contested their turnover to the Germans. Hans-Ruedi Graf, head public prosecutor for the Canton of Thurgau, told the newspaper that the material, including electronic data, would be turned over next week.

I doubt it. But you never know.

Remember how great VDB was?

Of course it's just a set of initials on a drug-dealer's client list, but they are such evocative letters: VDB. At one stage a few years back those letters meant a rising star, born from greatness, destined to win. And then a series of calamities struck VDB, from doping offences to poor form, to breakdowns in his personal life. A career that began with bright hope soon decayed into soap opera. Well he's had a few comebacks and shown some promise, but now another allegation: cocaine.

Can this be happening? Frank Vandenbroucke has been placed on the "inactive list" by his team Mitsubishi-Jartazi, after the Belgian rider was linked to a cocaine investigation. "After mutual consideration between the management of the Mitsubishi-Jartazi cycling team, the sponsors of the team, Frank Vandenbroucke and Paul De Geyter, manager and representative of Frank Vandenbroucke, it was agreed to place the named rider on the inactive list. This is in anticipation of further and clearer information on a possible judicial study of this person," the team announced on its website. The Belgian media reported on Wednesday that Vandenbroucke's name had arisen as a customer in an investigation of gang drug dealers. "VDB" is alleged to have purchased a small amount of cocaine for his personal use earlier this year.