Wow, catching up on the last couple of days of this thread, and I've gotta say, I'm pleasantly surprised to see the consensus that's formed here. A lot of smart posts (from Ferminal, Hitch, Mas, TFF, blackcat, Hog, etc), and everyone's so downright... reasonable. Not really often in the clinic to you get a reasonable and broad consensus, from those I already named to Python and JimmyFingers and Bennotti and sniper and D-Qued. (maybe I missed 2 pages of deleted insults, but I'm inclined to think not in this case).
Gotta say I agree. I've been convinced that Vaughters is trying to run a program that can win 'clean' (whether that's 'pure' clean or blackcat's more cynical 'clean' is something I'm not qualified to determine, but whatever, same point to me), and I've understood the position he and his riders must be in, in terms of making hard choices that affect them and their friends and former colleagues. So I've been understanding of the careful way in which admissions have been handled. I feel like generally, riders at Garmin have toed a respectable line - it kind of sticks in my craw that many confessors got off with a 6-month vacation when they benefitted for much of their careers from dope, but to me that's acceptable moral collateral damage in the scheme of things.
This Hesjedal thing is different. For VdV, Zabriskie, Danielson, we had the published affidavits outlining when they started, how they got introduced to dope, and when they (say that they) stopped. Whether to believe them on the last point is fine for debate, but we don't get that with Ryder, we just get a deflecting 'I did it awhile ago, oops sorry'. I'm sure that story is out there, and since USADA or the Canadian equivalent didn't feel it necessary to make that public, we as fans naturally have questions.
I think it's fine to have a policy that you should be honest with any ADA that contacts you, but left it unsaid that you don't have to go to them right away. I think it's fine to talk to that ADA and not tell the public for another year until it inevitably comes out (although I think it would have been smarter to come out with it at the same time as everyone else last year, because this is just another fiasco). I think it's fine to craft a confession that's tailored to the broader public, with the manipulative PR points focusing on how it was a long time ago and how it was part of cycling's 'dark path', etc. I understand all those things. But something doesn't add up in the timeline. The teams he rode for before Garmin, the general feeling that there people 'knew' he was charging in that time period, those things need to be addressed. They seem conveniently omitted to avoid a penalty under the SOL.
Real cycling fans are going to be skeptical of that until those dots are connected. If Ryder is telling the truth, then he has nothing to lose by telling the truth about how he came to the decision to stop doping, how he resisted doing so even when it was rife at USPS and Phonak, how he navigated without dope through a pro peloton that hadn't yet called it's 'truce'. Some people wouldn't believe him, but that truth would be at least out there to judge. Right now, not only does no one who knows anything about pro cycling take his extremely limited confession at face value, but the way this is being approached seems remarkably similar in lack of detail and an air of 'hoping that it just goes away' to many laughable doping confessions of the past, from Basso to Zabel to Di Luca. That, I think, is ultimately going to be the most damaging to Garmin and Vaughters' credibility. JV is a smart guy, he worked pretty hard (in various spurts) to gain credibility layer by layer in the cynical clinic, and pretty much everywhere else in pro cycling. He's gotta know that this isn't enough, that him saying he '100%' believes in Hesjedal is just fine, as long as it's followed up by something substantial to let fans know why he believes him. Credibility is enough to make me withhold judgement until I can listen to an explanation, but not enough to make me buy something that seems fishy wholesale.
We're ready to listen, Vaughters. We're ready to listen, Ryder.