With Michael Rasmussen out of the sport's premier event for lying to his team about his whereabouts before the Tour, the remaining riders set off on today's stage 17 without a rider wearing the leader's yellow jersey.

The 117-mile route from Pau to Castelsarrasin led the Tour from the Pyrenees, heading north toward Paris. While Spain's Alberto Contador of Discovery Channel moved into the race lead, he did not don the leader's yellow jersey.

The last time there was no yellow jersey was in 1991, when race leader Rolf Sorensen crashed and was too injured to continue, the Tour's Web site said.

Meanwhile, it seemed questionable whether anyone was still interested in the outcome. Some French newspapers today declared the Tour dead and said it should be stopped after the bombshell announcement last night that Rasmussen's team was sending the Dane home.

Team spokesman Jacob Bergsma said Rasmussen's withdrawal was ordered by their sponsor, Rabobank. It was linked to "incorrect" information that Rasmussen gave to the team's sports director concerning his whereabouts last month. Rasmussen missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28, saying he was in Mexico. But a former rider, Davide Cassani, said he had seen Rasmussen in Italy in mid-June.

Tour director Christian Prudhomme described today the withdrawal of Rasmussen as "the best news of the week." Rasmussen had been the leader since July 15.

"My career is ruined," he told Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.

"I have no idea what I should do or where I will go," he said. "This is an enormous blow for me, and also for all the guys from the Rabo team. They're devastated."

Behind Contador in second place is Australia's Cadel Evans, who rides for Predictor-Lotto. U.S. rider Levi Leipheimer, also with Discovery, moved up to third.

Today's field was reduced to 142 riders. The Cofidis squad also withdrew yesterday after rider Cristian Moreni failed a doping test,

Only once before in the 104-year-old Tour has the race leader been expelled. In 1978, Belgian rider Michel Pollentier, trying to evade doping controls after winning a stage at the Alpe d'Huez in the Alps, was caught with an intricate tube-and-container system that contained urine that was not his, Tour historian Jean-Paul Brouchon said.

Rasmussen also told Danish tabloid B.T. that "I am done, I am in tears."

"This is too crazy. I do not get it. This is totally cuckoo," he was quoted as saying.

He denied Cassani's claims that he had been in Italy, saying: "I was not in Italy. Not at all. This is the story about a man who claims he recognized me."

There was a mixture of anger, disappointment and hope that things might get better among riders and fans who turned out to watch stage 17.

"It goes on, and on, and on and on," said Roland Duyvis, a 32-year-old vacationer from the Netherlands. "It is really the fault of the cyclists. I don't know what's going on in this sport anymore."

"It's a real soap opera, isn't it? It's not over yet," added British rider David Millar of the Saunier-Duval team, who himself served a two-year doping ban.

As Rasmussen had crept toward what would have been his first Tour victory, race directors repeatedly said he never should have been allowed to take the start on July 7 in London.

Patrice Clerc, president of the company that runs the Tour, ASO, said today that Rasmussen's behavior showed "an evident intent to cheat," according to the Tour's Web site.

Prudhomme said Rasmussen's departure had made the doping-tainted race more credible and suggested that the organizers may be more discerning about whom they allow to take part.

"We will no longer confer our trust on people who do not deserve it," he said.

After the Tour's upbeat start in London, when throngs of spectators lined streets to watch, bad news — nearly all of it related to doping — quickly dominated.

German rider Patrick Sinkewitz crashed into a spectator and was then revealed to have failed a drug test in training before the Tour. Star Alexandre Vinokourov was sent home after testing positive for a banned blood transfusion. Yesterday, when Rasmussen won stage 16, Cofidis confirmed Moreni's failed a doping test. Police detained him and searched the hotel where the team was staying.