When do we forgive dopers?

What do the names Michael Barry, Geneviève Jeanson, Ryder Hesjedal, Seamus McGrath, Chris Sheppard, and Clara Hughes have in common? They are some of Canada’s best riders in history, but who also were either caught or confessed to using illegal doping products.

In 2012, as part of the USADA investigation into the US Postal Service probe, Barry confessed to using several doping products during his career, such as Erythropoietin (EPO) and Testosterone. Hesjedal, McGrath and Sheppard would also confess to using EPO, although Sheppard would claim to only have done the illegal drug “once.” Jeanson would confess to doping after a long period of time where she was under the UCI microscope for possible doping. Hughes would test positive for ephedrine after the 1994 world championships, and her positive test was far less egregious than the aforementioned riders, and would serve a three month sentence in the off-season.

Michael Barry on ‘unethical’ abuse of legal medication at Team Sky

There is an immediate reaction by many fans of sport to quickly judge those who have doped. Cheaters. Liars. Just bad people. But is this true? Jeanson, who was given drugs by her abusive coach, Andre Aubut, as a teenager, is hardly the same as Barry or Hesjedal, who were older and succumbed to the pressure of racing at the WorldTour level. That being said. Both Barry and Hesjedal made the choice at a time when blood boosters were rampant at the highest level. Systematic doping meant that if you didn’t get on the drug bus, you’d be shot off the back.

Mountain biker Seamus McGrath confesses to doping

Jan Ullrich, the German who won the Tour and was one of Lance Armstrong’s biggest rivals, grew up in the East German system, winning the amateur world championships and quickly finding himself on Team Telekom, where systematic doping was rife. After his career finished, he suffered with addiction and mental illness after he was rejected by the cycling world.

Geneviève Jeanson: my EPO test was the best thing that ever happened to me

The majority of people reading this, (and the guy writing it) never raced at the WorldTour level, so we never had to make the choice to dope or not. Winnings were never robbed from us, titles were never stolen. That being said, there are those who are vocal about doping whose careers were adversely affected. Olympian Geoff Kabush has been outspoken about how riders like Hesjedal or McGrath had an unfair advantage on him, and he has every right to be angry about that. Furthermore, the money or fame that a doper accrued can carry on til their post-race career. Successful clothing lines, podcasts, bike companies–they can all be assisted by a rider’s success who cheated to get ahead.

I lived through a period of the sport where a lot of doping occurred and it had a massive impact on my career as well as a lot of my friends. It really pisses me off when people say everyone was doing it and it just levelled the playing field.

— Geoff Kabush (@GeoffKabush) September 5, 2019

For years, Lyne Bessette was public about her disdain for Jeanson’s doping. After almost two decades, however, the two made up. Once Bessette learned about the manipulation and abuse that Jeanson endured from her coach, she understood there was much more to her using dope than she knew.

Geneviève Jeanson and Lyne Bessette have ended their decades-long feud

Full disclosure, I am good friends with some of these riders I’ve listed, so it’s easier for me to humanize them. I grew up with Barry, and was teammates and roommates with him on many projects and races. As a junior, he was a phenom. We would race junior races in the morning (and he would most likely win) and then do the category one races in the afternoon. For a most juniors like me, it was a victory just to finish with the big boys. Barry would often win the elite races at 16. Of course, all of the riders who make it to the WorldTour are super-talents like him. Barry would later say that he never liked having to make the choice he never thought he would make. “After being encouraged by the team, pressured to perform and pushed to my physical limits I crossed a line I promised myself and others I would not: I doped. It was a decision I deeply regret. It caused me sleepless nights, took the fun out of cycling and racing, and tainted the success I achieved at the time. This was not how I wanted to live or race.”

That being said, he didn’t need to make that choice. He could have said no to doping. come back to the states and raced for a domestic pro team and continued to be a professional cyclist, but clean. But there he was, at the pinnacle of the sport in Europe and it was either make a deal with the devil and achieve your boyhood dreams, or not.

Jeanson received a two-year suspension, and Barry a six-month suspension, but they retired anyway. Jeanson is back racing gravel, and Barry does some local races, but they are both not racing at the level as the old days. At the end of the day, anyone who doped began as someone who loved their bike. They just took a very different path at some point.

Is doping still around in cycling at the WorldTour level? There have been raids and rumours recently, and now and again a rider is caught, but it doesn’t seem to be like it was 20 years ago, but of course, no one really knows but the professionals themselves. If you take a look at the website Dopeology.org you’ll see that many, many teams at the WorldTour level have someone, either a former rider or staff member. who can be tied to a dope scandal in the past. That doesn’t indict them of anything, it’s very possible people have grown and changed their ways. But after having served their time, they returned to the cycling world and continue to work there.

Like everyone else in Canada, I was disappointed when I heard the news that Barry had doped, but I wasn’t surprised. Over the years, as whispers of EPO abuse circulated, everyone knew someone who knew someone who doped. You’d hear more and more rumours about doping in Europe. I often wonder, if I were as good as Barry, would I have doped? As time goes on, I think it’s easy just to say “nope! I’m not a cheater!” but at the same time, I don’t think many of us can answer that, as we were never there.