Tyler Hamilton was once one of the world’s best-liked and top-ranked cyclists—a fierce competitor renowned among his peers for his uncanny endurance and epic tolerance for pain. In the 2003 Tour de France, he finished fourth despite breaking his collarbone in the early stages—and grinding eleven of his teeth down to the nerves along the way. He started his career with the U.S. Postal Service team in the 1990s and quickly rose to become Lance Armstrong’s most trusted lieutenant, and a member of his inner circle. For the first three of Armstrong’s record seven Tour de France victories, Hamilton was by Armstrong’s side, clearing his way. But just weeks after Hamilton reached his own personal pinnacle—winning the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics—his career came to a sudden, ignominious end: He was found guilty of doping and exiled from the sport.
From the exhilaration of his early, naïve days in the peloton, Hamilton chronicles his ascent to the uppermost reaches of this unforgiving sport. In the mid-1990s, the advent of a powerful new blood-boosting drug called EPO reshaped the world of cycling, and a relentless, win-at-any-cost ethos took root. Its psychological toll would drive many of the sport’s top performers to substance abuse, depression, even suicide. For the first time ever, Hamilton recounts his own battle with clinical depression, speaks frankly about the agonizing choices that go along with the decision to compete at a world-class level, and tells the story of his complicated relationship with Lance Armstrong.
The NY Post grabbed an advance copy, reporting
Hamilton alleges Armstrong and the team took advantage of a French law that barred drug testers from hitting up cyclists for samples from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The cyclists juiced in small amounts, or “microdosed,” at the stroke of 10 p.m. so the drugs would be out of their system eight hours later. This helped them avoid being tested during the period they called “glowtime,” when drugs would still be detectable.
* Armstrong had a mysterious motorcyclist closely following USPS racers along the Tour de France route. The man, nicknamed “Motoman,” carried banned erythropoietin and prepaid cellphones to quietly set up juice drops.
* The drugs were dished out by Armstrong to teammates in white lunch bags after stages of the famous French race.
* The racers had a code words for their little pick-me-ups — “red eggs” (testosterone pills), “Edgar” (erythropoietin) and “oil” (testosterone drops).
Hamilton writes of getting a text from his doctor on a prepaid phone on a Tour de France rest day. It read, “The restaurant is 167 miles away,” meaning he was to get a blood transfusion in hotel Room 167.
The blood transfusions were necessary to cover up banned substances. Hamilton said all the cheating seemed routine and was done without second thought — but the transfusions freaked him out.
Mike Anderson, Armstrong's personal assistant for 2 years, wrote MY LIFE WITH LANCE ARMSTRONG for Outside Magazine. Out this past Friday, Mike writes: “I found a prescription box in the medicine cabinet — to the side of the vanity in the bathroom — that sent everything spiraling."
“I knew what it was. Not exactly at first, but I sensed from my rudimentary knowledge of medicine that this box shouldn’t be in the bathroom of a professional cyclist. The label said Androstenedione.
“I looked it up on a laptop computer Armstrong had given me months before,’’ Anderson says. “I was searching for valid reasons why he would have this substance, a banned steroid. There were none. I put it back and did my best to forget about it.”
An Armstrong rep mocked Anderson’s claim, saying a long-distance bicyclist would not take androstenedione.
“The alleged substance produces the antithesis of an endurance athlete. [It] leads to increased muscle size and strength,” said Armstrong spokesman Mark Fabiani, who called Anderson a “disgruntled former employee.”
Androstenedione, the steroid Mark McGwire claimed was the only one he took, has been banned in the USA. It also has never been shown to do much of anything as far as muscle growth is concerned. It may or may not have an effect on testosterone and estrogen levels.
And then there was the day the World Anti-Doping Agency showed up.
That's a lot of people with a lot of axes to grind...
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