Ryder Hesjedal

Eric Ryder Hesjedal (born December 9, 1980) is a Canadian retired professional racing cyclist who competed in mountain biking and road racing between 1998 and 2016.

With that feat, he became the first Canadian to win a Vuelta stage and the first Canadian individual winner of a Grand Tour stage since Steve Bauer in the 1988 Tour de France.

However, he abandoned later and did not take the start of the eighteenth stage.

Hesjedal went on to finish fifth in the overall classification of the race, the highest Canadian finish in the race in 22 years, when Bauer finished fourth in the 1988 Tour de France.

Hesjedal went on to say of his result:

"Ryder Hesjedal"

Hesjedal won a silver medal at the 1998 Junior, 2001 Under-23, and Elite world championship in mountain biking.

Hesjedal began his career competing as a mountain bike cyclist, with initial success as a two-time world champion in the mountain bike relay event in both 2001 and 2002.

He won silver as an individual at the 2003 world mountain biking championships and competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics for Canada in the mountain bike category.

At those games, Hesjedal was on his way to an Olympic medal and likely a gold medal before a sharp rock cut and flattened his tire, ending that Olympic dream.

As a result of both the early success and disappointments in his career, this allowed him to make the full-time switch to road cycling.

He turned professional with in 2004 after several years with the continental team.

A climber and time trialist, he was selected by for the 2005 Giro d'Italia and helped Paolo Savoldelli win, although failing to complete the course himself.

After 2005 he joined the Swiss team,, where he began to build some of his best results, finishing fourth in the 2006 Volta a Catalunya and second in the 2006 Canadian National Time Trial Championships.

Later that season he rode the Vuelta a España, although he dropped out near the end to concentrate on the UCI Road World Championships in Salzburg.

He achieved only modest results; the end of the Phonak team led him to for 2007.

For 2008 he joined and helped Christian Vande Velde to fourth in the Tour de France.

Hesjedal was the only Canadian to compete in the Tour de France in both 2008 and 2009 – the first Canadian to ride in the race in more than 10 years.

In 2009 Hesjedal competed in the Vuelta a España.

He finished second of the mountainous tenth stage behind Simon Gerrans, registering the same time as the victor.

He did not miss his chance days later on stage 12 however, when he detached himself from the favourites' group on the final climb to the Alto de Velefique.

He joined the lone escapee David García Dapena and tried to shake him off, but García resisted.

Hesjedal outsprinted his rival near the line to take the victory.

At the end of the 2009 season, Hesjedal was selected as Canadian cyclist of the decade and male Canadian cyclist of the year.

The honour was given to him from Canadian Cyclist and the results came from an online poll.

He was also named male international cyclist of the year of 2009 from Cycling BC.

In March, Hesjedal grabbed a good result at the Montepaschi Strade Bianche, an Italian race run partly on dirt roads.

He finished fifth, 19 seconds behind the victor, Maxim Iglinsky of, and said that he was happy with his performance.

In April, Hesjedal earned a place on the podium in one of the Ardennes classics, the Amstel Gold Race, which ran through the Dutch hills for 257 km. In the final kilometre, he attempted to follow the acceleration produced by Philippe Gilbert on the steep Cauberg, but had to settle for second place, two seconds behind Gilbert.

Hesjedal rode the Tour of California and finished fifth overall, grabbing a victory on the eighth stage in the process, as he out-sprinted his breakaway companions Chris Horner, George Hincapie and Carlos Barredo.

With that operation he helped secure the overall win of Michael Rogers since Hesjedal appropriated the 10 seconds bonus awarded to stage winners, making sure none of Rogers' rivals could claim it since Rogers had a very narrow lead in the general classification.

During the Tour de France, Hesjedal finished 4th in the third stage, which featured some cobbled sections, after leading by himself for much of the race until being caught in the last 6 km. He was awarded the most combative rider on the day and thus wore red numbers for the fourth stage.

On July 22, Hesjedal again finished fourth, this time on stage 17 on the famed slopes of the Col du Tourmalet.

Having previously finished in fifth place at the 2010 Tour de France, Hesjedal won his first and only Grand Tour at the 2012 Giro d'Italia, the first Grand Tour win by a Canadian.

Other major wins include two stages at the Vuelta a España, the first such stage wins by a Canadian.

Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen asserted in his autobiography that he taught Hesjedal how to take erythropoietin (EPO).

Hesjedal later admitted that this doping allegation was "the truth" and that he "chose the wrong path".

Hesjedal has not served a ban as a result of his confession to USADA, and has publicly expressed a desire to be honest and transparent.

Hesjedal had a quieter 2011 year, with a few near wins.

VeloNews reported in 2014 that "The 33-year-old Canadian, however, stopped short of explaining what drugs he took, and when".