October 30/13 15:12 pm - Cycling Canada Responds to Rasmussen Doping Allegations - UPDATED

Posted by Editoress on 10/30/13
 

Earlier today, we, along with much of the cycling media worldwide as well as Canadian media, reported on allegations made by sanctioned Danish rider Michael Rasmussen in the Danish press from his upcoming book, Yellow Fever [see Daily News- Rasmussen Suggests Canadian MTBers Hesjedal, McGrath & Sheppard Doped]

Cycling Canada, our national federation, has released a response:

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.

Cycling Canada sent out the following release after Hesjedal's admission:

Like many Canadian cycling fans, we were shocked and saddened to learn that Ryder Hesjedal was involved in doping over a decade ago.

To his credit, he has been open and honest with the anti-doping authorities that investigate such matters in a confidential fashion as we learned today through his statement and the subsequent statement of Travis Tygart, CEO of USADA.

We continue to urge any athletes that have information about doping in the sport to come forward to the CCES to help with the ongoing fight against doping.