The Ryder

The news has hardly broken, and already I'm fed up with the hand-wringing reporting.
Apparently Ryder Hesjedal was introduced to EPO doping by Danish cyclist and team-mate Michael Rasmussen.  In 2003.
This is news? Maybe in 2003 it would have been, but in 2013?
Does the fact that he may have doped in 2003, when he was an unknown mountain-biker trying to make the Canadian team, automatically mean we must assume he doped for the Giro d'Italia in 2012?
I'd be astonished if Hesjedal had been able to resist in 2003, when the testing was either non-existent or lax, and literally all competitive cyclists were either doping or not winning, and equally astonished if he hadn't been able to resist in 2012, when everybody suspected the top riders.
In fact, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be talking about this at all today if he hadn't doped in 2003, because almost none of us would know his name now!

(Reminds me of that scene in "The Greatest Story Ever Told", where the louche guy pretending to be the Devil is talking to Max von Sydow, who is pretending to be Jesus of Nazareth. The Devil, from his cave high up the mountain points out all the lands below, and tells Jesus all will be his, if only he changes Teams.
Jesus refuses.
But we all know how that turned out.)

Oct 31: I admire the way Hesjedal got out in front of this story.  The flak-catchers for the Unsavoury Mayor et al could benefit from taking note.
Not that the two cases are in any way comperable.