Danish cyclist

Michael Rasmussen

told a Dutch newspaper that he considered suicide after he was kicked out of the Tour de France for lying about his whereabouts to avoid doping tests.

Rasmussen, 33, wore the leader's yellow jersey and won the 16th stage before being removed from the race 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 De Telegraaf in weekend editions. "Then this terrible nightmare would have been over."

Rasmussen admitted last month that 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.

The Dutch Rabobank team dismissed Rasmussen.

James Blake

defeated

Dmitry Tursunov

, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, as the United States wrapped up its 4-1 Davis Cup victory over Russia in Portland, Ore.

Igor Andreev

gave the Russians their only win, defeating

Bob Bryan

, 6-3, 7-6 (4). The Americans clinched their first title in 12 years on Saturday.

Frank Lickliter II

shot a 68 and held a 3-shot lead over

Brett Rumford

after five rounds of the PGA qualifying school at Orange County National Golf Center in Winter Garden, Fla.

Jon Rusk

of Yardley Country Club tied for 64th place, 20 strokes behind at 352.

Jane Park

completed a wire-to-wire win at the LPGA's final qualifying school in Daytona Beach, Fla. Park earned medalist honors at 17-under 343. Yesterday, she posted a 3-stroke victory over

Su A Kim

.

Trevor Immelman

, who finished at 16-under 272, won the Nedbank Challenge by 1 stroke over

Justin Rose

at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, South Africa.

England's

Richard Finch

won the New Zealand Open in Queenstown after shooting a 14-under 274 on the Hills course. Finch beat Australians

Steven Bowditch

and

Paul Sheehan

by 3 strokes.

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

(34-0-1, 27 knockouts), the son of the heralded Mexican champion, stopped

Ray Sanchez

(20-2) in the sixth round of a super-welterweight fight Saturday night in Albuquerque, N.M.

FC Barcelona forward

Thierry Henry

is expected to be sidelined another two weeks with a pelvic injury.

AC Milan midfielder

Kaka

of Brazil won the Golden Ball award after helping the Italian club win the Champions League title.

The Temple Basketball Show,

featuring men's coach

Fran Dunphy

and women's coach

Dawn Staley

, will air again this season on WPHT-AM (1210) on Mondays starting tonight at 8:30.

Inside Temple Basketball

, a monthly TV program, will debut on Comcast SportsNet at 8:30 p.m. Jan. 7.

Adam Haley

scored twice as California won its 13th NCAA men's water polo title, 8-6, over top-ranked Southern California at Stanford.