Doping’s cost to Canadian cycling

I was thinking of writing a blog this week about the current disaster that is the job market for cyclists and its causes, and then Rasmussen’s allegations against Ryder popped up Wednesday. And then Ryder’s confession.

At the moment the job market for male cyclists is terrible. Several major international and U.S. teams have folded, leaving a large block of riders jobless. I’ve spoken with a few cyclists who have said that they’ve never seen the job market so terrible. That’s saying a lot since contract time is never easy and without stress. You can see the impact on the riders with the constant retirement announcements, especially from top riders in the sport. There’s also Thomas De Gendt, who finished third in the 2012 Giro, but took an 80 per cent cut in pay for the 2014 season. There’s Sammy Sanchez, whose Euskatel team has folded. In the near future, we will have an idea of the poor job market’s impact on Canada’s top male cyclists, such as the riders from the former SpiderTech who were supported in their 2013 teams the outfit that closed shop at the end of 2012.

There are several reasons that the cycling teams are folding this year: the economy in Europe, sponsorship decisions and consolidation. But one looming reason is the doping culture that cycling embraced and condoned throughout the past two decades. Now the constant positive tests, allegations and revelations have created an atmosphere of great uncertainty. Why would a large global corporation, the type missing in the sponsorship make-up of the some major cycling teams, invest in an environment so fraught with risk?

Elements within the cycling community created this situation. Each time a top rider tests positive, or is revealed to have doped, the cycling community suffers. And yet each time that happens, in general, the rider is welcomed back into the fold. Valverde, Pelizotti, Basso, Rebellin—the list is a long one. The doper is not ostracized.

When Ryder won the 2012 Giro, there was celebration in the Canadian cycling community. At a fundraising gala, a video of Ryder at the Giro played on the screens over and over. And yet we all knew that there was a strong likelihood that Ryder’s name was going to come up in the course of the USADA investigation of Armstrong. Rumours had been swirling for years about the clique of mountain bikers out on the West Coast. At the time, I wouldn’t have said that we shouldn’t celebrate the victory at the Giro. After all, Ryder had not tested positive. But I would have said that the celebrations should be muted, particularly among those who knew the likelihood of future revelations.

Ryder is the star Canadian cyclist of this generation. Whether or not he is still doping is irrelevant. These revelations from Rasmussen will only serve to damage the likelihood of a new Canadian professional team coming together to support our riders. It will be the next generation of young cyclists that pays the price for the failings of their heroes.