July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Tour de France leader Michael Rasmussen was dropped from the race by his cycling team in a dispute involving missed drug tests, a Tour spokesman said.

Matthieu Desplats, the spokesman, said in an interview that Rasmussen was taken out of the race by the Rabobank team because of questions over the rider's whereabouts when he was unavailable for the doping exams.

Rasmussen, 33, who won today's stage in the Pyrenees, was dropped by Denmark's national team four days ago for not informing anti-doping officials of his whereabouts twice while training this year. He said he made an administrative error and was cleared to race by Tour de France officials.

Rasmussen said at the time he was training in Mexico.

The Danish rider finished today's stage a total of 3 minutes, 10 seconds ahead of Spain's Alberto Contador of the Discovery Channel team.

The Rabobank team hasn't decided whether it will continue in the race tomorrow, team spokesman Jacob Bergsma told Agence France Presse.

The Cofidis team exited the race yesterday after one of its riders failed a doping test. The Astana team dropped out two days ago after its leader, pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov, failed a test for blood doping.

The race ends July 29 in Paris.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Duff in Gourette, France at at aduff4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 25, 2007 18:14 EDT