Canada’s top cycling star, Ryder Hesjedal, has admitted to mistakes after he was accused of using banned drugs by former Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen. It was claimed by Rasmussen in his new book Yellow Fever that he taught Hesjedal how to take EPO.
2. Canada’s top cycling star, Ryder Hesjedal, has admitted to
mistakes after he was accused of using banned drugs by
former Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen. It was claimed
by Rasmussen in his new book Yellow Fever that he taught
Hesjedal how to take EPO.
Rasmussen, in his newly released autobiography, disclosed
that he taught Hesjedal and two other Canadian mountain
bikers, Seamus McGrath and Chris Sheppard, how to use
erythropoietin when they stayed at his house for two
weeks in August of 2003. The Danish cyclist claims that all
achieved great results after they left his place.
3. A champion rider who switched from mountain bike racing to road racing
after the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Hesjedal finished second at the 2003 world
mountain biking championships. He was on the verge of winning gold at the
2004 Olympics in Athens had he not suffered a punctured tire in the
mountain biking category, claims Rasmussen. Hesjedal won the Giro d’Italia
in 2012 and won the Lionel Conacher Award as The Canadian Press male
athlete of the year for the achievement.
The 32-year-old Victoria native Hesjedal said he accepts responsibility for
those mistakes and remarked he will always be sorry. He went on to add that
he was open and honest about his past when contacted by anti-doping
authorities more than a year ago. Hesjedal's management team said the cyclist
would not speak to the media as an investigation is ongoing.
Hesjedal won’t be punished as the World Anti-Doping Code has an eight-year
statute of limitations, the CCES said.