Victoria cyclist Ryder Hesjedal has confessed to doping, but for the sake of his reputation and his sport, he has to say more. After excerpts from a book by Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen were published this week, Hesjedal released a statement admitting he had chosen 鈥渢he wrong path.鈥� He didn鈥檛 specify what he did wrong, but it was clearly doping of some kind.
It happened about 10 years ago when he was a mountain-biker, and he said he has been clean for years. To rebuild his reputation and hammer home a lesson to younger athletes, Hesjedal has to be more specific about what he did and why he did it.
The revelation hit the cycling community hard. When Rasmussen鈥檚 allegations first emerged Wednesday morning, Hesjedal鈥檚 friends and supporters were adamant that they had seen no evidence and couldn鈥檛 believe it was true.
But within hours, Hesjedal鈥檚 own words cut the ground from under their feet.
He and his team, Garmin-Sharp, issued statements saying he had confessed a year ago in testimony to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.
The Garmin-Sharp team has been in the forefront of the campaign to clean up cycling鈥檚 tattered reputation. Many of its riders have confessed to doping before they joined the team. They have all committed to racing clean, and it appears that Hesjedal had been clean for years before he won the 2012 Giro d鈥橧talia, one of the most prestigious events in cycling.
The fact that he came forward to the anti-doping officials voluntarily, when no one had cast suspicion on him publicly, is an important point. It places him head and shoulders above those like Lance Armstrong, who lied for years about doping. Armstrong鈥檚 sustained and aggressive campaign against his accusers made his betrayal all the more painful.
Rasmussen said he showed Hesjedal how to use EPO 鈥� blood doping 鈥� in 2003, but did not see him use any banned substances. Hesjedal didn鈥檛 try to sidestep or equivocate when that allegation emerged. He confessed publicly.
However, it is significant that he did not make that public confession of his own accord. He could have gone public after he testified before the anti-doping authorities, but he stayed silent. He could have spoken out when he joined Garmin-Sharp, but he did not.
He could have made a statement on the day he decided to stop doping 10 years ago, but he said nothing.
Some people have noted that his confessions came well after the eight-year statute of limitations on doping, so he avoids punishment. That extended silence is easy to understand, but harder to forgive.
As a rising competitive rider, Hesjedal saw dirty athletes blow past him to win medals and then escape undetected and unpunished. The temptation to find a similar edge must have been almost irresistible.
It was certainly irresistible for Armstrong and a host of other top cyclists 鈥� as it was for track stars, baseball players and athletes in other sports. Cyclists lament that those people are castigated as individuals while the dopers in cycling have for some reason tarred their entire sport.
Only full confessions and commitments to race clean will wipe away the stain. Hesjedal has made the first step in confessing his long-held secret.
It must have been hard for him to carry so heavy a burden on feet of clay.
