Sometimes in watching sports and getting all indignant about this or that, we forget that these are living breathing people we’re talking about, people with feelings, hopes and dreams.

So it is with Michael Rasmussen, who according to the Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf  considered killing himself after being yanked out of the Tour de France in July.

The Associated Press quoted from the Dutch daily in a dispatch Monday. The AP report follows …

Report: Cyclist Michael Rasmussen considered suicide after being ejected from Tour de France

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Michael Rasmussen considered suicide after he was kicked out of the Tour de France for lying about his whereabouts to avoid doping tests.

Rasmussen wore the leader’s yellow jersey and won the 16th stage before being removed from the showcase event on July 25.

“On the other side of the road, trucks kept passing us. It would have been easy to grab the steering wheel,” he told the Dutch daily De Telegraaf in weekend editions. “Then this terrible nightmare would have been over.”

Rasmussen cried while he was driven away from the race, he said. Later, sitting in a hotel room with Rabobank teammate Erik Dekker, Rasmussen said he again thought of taking his life.

“Five hours after I stood on the podium, I was sitting alone. My whole world had collapsed,” Rasmussen said. “Luckily I couldn’t find a rope in the room, otherwise I would not be here now.”

Rasmussen admitted last month he lied to the International Cycling Union about where he was before the Tour de France. He missed random doping tests in May and June, saying he had been in Mexico, but acknowledged he was actually in France and Italy at the time.

An independent report commissioned by the Rabobank team — which fired Rasmussen for lying — said Rasmussen “deliberately provided incorrect whereabouts information on multiple occasions” to avoid doping checks.

Rasmussen, who has not signed for a new team, has denied doping and lying to Rabobank.

–30–