In response to Michael Rasmussen’s claims that he taught Ryder Hesjedal how to use EPO 10 years ago, Cycling Canada has hit back with a statement — and it doesn’t necessarily defend Hesjedal and his two former teammates named in Rasmussen’s autobiography, Yellow Fever.
Rasmussen, who got his start in professional cycling by riding for a handful of mountain bike teams from 1995-2001, joined the peloton in 2002 when he signed with CSC-Tiscali. A year after that, the Dane started his five-year stint with Rabobank.
A talented climber, Rasmussen won the mountains classification at the Tour de France in 2005 and 2006. But his use of performance-enhancing drugs stained his career. Rabobank pulled him out of the 2007 Tour de France — while he was in the lead after stage 16 — for missing drug tests before the race began.
In January of this year, Rasmussen publicly admitted to using PEDs from 1998-2010. He retired on the spot.
Rasmussen’s book is due out next week and in it, he says he showed Hesjedal and two of Hesjedal’s then-mountain bike teammates — Seamus McGrath and Chris Sheppard — how to use EPO. Rasmussen claims he never witnessed the riders use the banned blood-booster, but he said their blood levels were almost at the UCI limit after they stayed with him for a month in August 2003 ahead of the UCI world championships.
“Chris Sheppard was 16th at the [2003] world championships, Seamus McGrath was sixth or eighth, before he went out, and Ryder Hesjedal finished second,” Rasmussen writes, according to Danish newspaper Politiken . “Hesjedal would have won Olympic gold [in 2004] if he hadn’t punctured just before the finish.”
Hesjedal, who has ridden for Garmin-Sharp since 2008, won the 2012 Giro d’Italia.
Cycling Canada responded to the accusations later on Wednesday. The full statement:
Cycling Canada is concerned by the allegations made public today related to Michael Rasmussen’s new book Yellow Fever. The allegations towards Chris Sheppard, Seamus McGrath and Ryder Hesjedal dating back to 2003 are another example of why the international federation (International Cycling Union – UCI) needs to come to agreement with WADA on a way to deal with such allegations of historic doping.
The WADA Code has a statute of limitations of eight years. As such, even if these three athletes admitted to these allegations, this information in and of itself, would not result in anti-doping rule violations. We believe that the UCI and WADA should continue to work toward an agreement on an amnesty program that would relate historic cases of doping that are outside the statute of limitations. This type of amnesty could allow cycling to deal with historic cases while learning the scope of the cheating and the methods that were employed to avoid detection.
Since the Lance Armstrong USADA report and findings, Cycling Canada has been working with Canada’s national anti-doping organization, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (CCES), to get to the heart of the use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) in Canadian cycling. The fact that athletes are not willing to speak out about their personal experiences with doping remains a serious stumbling block in this pursuit.
As for the Canadian riders cited in today’s allegations, if they have information they wish to share regarding their experiences in cycling and the issue of doping, it remains our hope that they will come forward should they have information that can assist in the fight against doping.
Cycling Canada has always taken a strong stance against doping and we wish to reiterate that doping has no place in our sport. Those that break the rules will be punished to the fullest extent allowed by the anti-doping regulations.
The post Cycling Canada ‘concerned’ about Hesjedal doping allegations appeared first on VeloNews.com.
via VeloNews.com http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/10/news/cycling-canada-concerned-about-hesjedal-doping-allegations_306627
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