The Union Cycliste Internationale must shake its head in desperation at times, cry, and then hide under its proverbial desk.
After reeling from arguably the greatest doping scandal of all time one would think it unfathomable for a rider or team to try to cheat the system once again, correct?
Potentially.
During Stage 12 of the Vuelta a España Canadian-born Ryder Hesjedal, who races for ProTeam Garmin-Sharp fell, cornering during a descent.
While on the ground Hesjedal’s bike slipped from underneath him and appears to move unassisted by the rider, immediately triggering claims that the rider was using a motor, or engine, to assist during the difficult race.
While there is no definitive evidence to indicate or implement Hesjedal and his team as cheating, allegations are beginning to gain traction, and the UCI has indicated that they will investigate the incident further.
This could be potentially devastating for Hesjedal, who already has a dark past.
In October, 2013 – following allegations in Michael Rasmussen’s biography ‘Yellow Fever’ the Canadian conceded that he had been involved in doping earlier in his career, describing the incident as “my part in the dark past of the sport”.
In a recent interview Hesjedal argued his case, stating that the allegations are ‘kind of ridiculous’ and ‘funny’.
Most likely though, this is incident can be explained as the perception bias of a sporting community and administrative body hell-bent of presenting themselves as honest.
Hopefully, however, for Hesjedal and his team sanity prevails.
This would be one of the more audacious cheating attempts, not just in cycling, but in the history of sport – akin to Michael Phelps swimming the 100m Freestyle in see-through flippers.
Rather, the uncharacteristic movement of Hesjedal’s bike can also be explained by simple laws of physics and the relationship between mass, acceleration and aspect – as one astute Twitterer exposed.
@Vaughters Why did @ryder_hesjedal's bike "magically" accel.? A motor? Nope, sadly it's just a basic law of #physics. pic.twitter.com/Ugi0lDqNKs
— Eric Gregg (@EricGregg300) September 5, 2014
This consequent paranoia coupled with the Canadian’s history of doping however, could very well leave Hesjedal in hot water, again.
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