Rasmussen is a nasty little man...

...but I think we already knew that, didn't we?

He's the one they sometimes refer to as "the chicken", not because he is as skinny as a dead plucked chicken, and looks a bit like one, but (according to Wikipedia) because it was a nickname he was given during his early career. Like we cared.

He has a significant doping history, he's been banned, sacked, and sent home in disgrace a few times, and in the last year or two he's been trying to get back into cycling via a Continental team, then by trying to get into management, but he's been thwarted at every turn.

He's just released another book, in which he "outed" Ryder Hesjedal for doping over ten years ago.

What a git!

OK, I'm very disappointed in Hesjedal, and there won't be any more jokes about Mechanic Hesjedal etc, but for heaven's sake, it was ten years ago, Ryder can't be punished for it now, but he can be - and has been - shamed in front of everyone.  And what does this Rasmussen person get from it? A smug feeling of having dropped someone else in it, while getting lots of publicity for his book.

I think that's pretty despicable.

Laughably, though, it has backfired horribly, as not many people turned up to Rasmussen's book signing event in Denmark last week. How many, you ask? Have a guess. Couple of hundred? Nope. Couple of dozen? Nope. Just three. Three!  Bet the book-shop owner was mortified... and I certainly hope that Rasmussen was humiliated and laughed out of the shop by the crowd of media who turned up to film the event.

And as for Hesjedal.. well, ok it was a long time ago, he's very sorry, won't do it again, blah blah blah, but I would have thought more of him if he'd come clean about it while other members of Garmin-Sharp - Zabriskie, Danielson and Vande Velde - have been admitting it, helping the authorities with info, and taking their 6-month bans.

How can Hesjedal have sat there, watching his team-mates confess and be punished, and say nothing, knowing that he was as guilty as they were? OK, they were specifically being investigated by USADA as part of the Postal scandal, and Hesjedal is neither American (he's Canadian) nor a former Postal rider, but still, don't you think that that would have been the time to speak up, and get it over and done with?

I suppose, going back to the Rasmussen creature, that maybe this round of revelations might scare any other long-time-since dopers into coming out and saying it now, rather than skulking on in fear of exposure.  Would it scare you into confessing, if you'd been getting away with it for ten years or more? Is it better to have everyone confess and get it over with, or would another round of mass confession be even worse for cycling?