Never thought people on the other side of the pond would be that interested in cycling.
Apparently Rasmussen was in Italy, instead of Mexico, as he told his team and the UCI (Cycling Federation). He apparently stuck to that story. No wonder he was not available for random doping-testing. There are rules with regards to being available for such testing, and he broke them to the point that the rules would not even have allowed him to start in the Tour, was everything known by the UCI and his team.
It did start quite a debate among the Dutch population (Rabobank is a Dutch team). The sponsor is a big bank, so there may have been additional pressure to remove such a dubious person from the race.
Cobblestones are mostly in Belgium, in one day classics like Gent-Wevegem. That takes a lot of courage, to go at 60 km/h on these roads. It is next to nothing short of madness.
As for the audiences, that is quite common, not only in the Tour but also in other major courses like the Giro and Vuelta. A couple of years ago such an idiot caused the leader of that stage to smack against the asphalt. Luckily he was still able to win that stage.
Apparently EPO is on the increase in athletics as well. And not so long ago there was a huge scandal involving many US athletes, who were possibly shielded by their national athletics federation.
Luckily Petacchi's non-negative test was cleared - he apparently used a bit too much of an anti-asmethic medicine, for which he has dispensation to take it.