Garmin-Sharp, a team known for giving second chances, is handing one to Ryder Hesjedal. The Victoria cycling star, along with Dan Martin of Ireland, have been chosen to lead Garmin-Sharp’s team in the 2014 Giro d’Italia, which begins Friday.
A lot has changed, of course, for Hesjedal since he won the Giro title for Garmin in 2012 to become the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour event.
The 33-year-old Colwood-raised rider admitted in October to doping in the past, saying he “chose the wrong path.”
Because the incident in question occurred in 2003, it is beyond the eight-year statute of limitations laid down by the World Anti Doping Agency.
The U.S. based Garmin-Sharp team, known for its anti-doping stance, has stood by Hesjedal.
“He co-operated fully and truthfully testified to the USADA [U.S. Anti-Doping Agency] and CCES [Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport]. For this reason, we support him,” said the team in a statement, last fall.
Hesjedal did not address the controversy heading into the 2014 Giro, stressing only the upcoming race.
“Having previously won this race, I couldn’t be more excited to be back,” he said in a statement Wednesday to the Times Colonist, released through his team.
“Especially with the team we have. To take on the GC [individual championship] challenge, along with a rider like Dan [Martin], is something I have been looking forward to since December when the plan was made by the team and we have a great group of guys to help with that goal. To perform at a race as demanding as the Giro takes a lot of hard work. Not only for the riders but for everyone supporting us behind the scenes.”
Many of Hesjedal’s fans are supportive of his fresh start.
“He is an amazing athlete who has been training hard,” said Troy Woodburn, owner of the Trek bike store in Victoria and close friend of Hesjedal. “He has put it [drug controversy] behind him. [It was an era when] everyone did it. This is his life now, and the focus is on stuff he is doing now.”
Hesjedal, sixth in the 2010 Tour de France, touched on that low era in his sport after the controversy broke.
“I sincerely apologize for my part in the dark past of the sport,” the three-time Olympian said last fall. “I look at young [pro] riders and … I’m glad they didn’t have to make the same choices I did.”
Hesjedal added he “stopped what I was doing many years before” joining Garmin-Sharp.
A good measure of whether the Island public has forgiven will come when Hesjedal is expected to lead the Tour de Victoria mass participation ride Aug. 24.
Meanwhile, the 97th Giro starts Friday with the team time trial in Belfast. It concludes with the 21st stage June 1 to Trieste.
