Former HTC-Highroad rider Alex Rasmussen has said he deserves to be banned after missing three doping controls in a period of 18 months.

The Dane was fired by the American team in September and suspended by the Danish Cycling Union after violating whereabouts requirements for a routine drugs test - at which point his team were made aware of two other missed checks.

Rasmussen's case will be heard by the National Sports Federation on November 17, when the 27-year-old, who blames his situation on "stupid mistakes", fully expects to be sanctioned.

“There must be a punishment. But I also think it will be linked to what people have done,” Rasmussen told news agency Ritzau.

“It's annoying when you know that people are doping and get one year and then I will be punished just as hard.

“I don't mind getting a penalty at all, but I think it must be proportionate to what has happened.”

Rasmussen's team-mates are of the same opinion: that he should be suspended, but that his absences were due to “sloppiness and forgetfulness" and nothing more sinister.

“If he is acquitted of carelessness about his whereabouts, why should I sit down and fill out my whereabouts?” said his former track team-mate Rasmus Quaade. "And I say that, although I believe that he hasn't done anything.”

Rasmussen's former Saxo Bank team-mate Jakob Fuglsang said. "It makes no sense that you have to sit down and fill out your whereabouts forms, if someone who hasn't completed them properly can get away with it.

“The problem for many of us - almost all of us - is just to fill them correctly. It is not because we are out to cheat anyone.

"I also think that Alex has to take his punishment if he gets it, and I am also sure that he will do that.”

Eurosport