Posted on 05/22/2011 5:14:49 PM PDT by truthandlife
Lance Armstrong’s former teammate, Tyler Hamilton, says Armstrong and other team leaders encouraged, promoted and took part in a doping program in an effort to win the Tour de France in 1999 and beyond, according to a report aired Sunday night on “60 Minutes.”
Hamilton said he saw Armstrong take performance-enhancing drugs, EPO and testosterone and also saw him receive a banned blood transfusion.
“I feel bad that I had to go here and do this,” Hamilton said. “But I think at end of the day, like I said, long-term, the sport’s going to be better for it.”
In the interview, portions of which were aired Thursday and Friday on “CBS Evening News,” Hamilton revealed other observations about the U.S. Postal team operation:
—Team leaders, including doctors and managers, encouraged and supervised doping;
—Doping was going on inside the U.S. Postal team even before Armstrong joined in 1998;
—Performance-enhancing drugs, including EPO and human growth hormone, were handed out to cyclists in white lunch bags;
—Team members were met at the airport, driven to hotels, told to lie down and give blood that could be transfused back into their bodies at a later date.
Armstrong long has denied doping and has never tested positive.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
What if it’s true?
Let’s face it, Lance had a ‘miraculous’ run when almost all of his competitors were juiced up. So *I think* he was on dope.
I saw a portion of the interview and the guy was acting really shifty when answering the direct questions. His eyes were all over the place.
First, the link has a malware download.
Lance Armstrong likely did use EPO at one point. It was during chemo and radiation treatments, which is why EPO was developed.
As for use during training and competition, I highly doubt it. The reason is his longevity in the sport. Lance has always been an extremely strong athlete, going back to when he was a triathlete while in high school. I saw him at the 1991 Texas State Road Race Championship in San Antonio (Stone Oak area before it got completely built up, and some brutal climbs). Agewise he could have raced in the junior division. Instead he raced in the Category 1/2 (that’s the range from very good amateur to on the verge of signing a pro contract), and shredded the entire field.
Riders who stay consistently strong for a decade or more are likely not on the juice.
Another example of this is Kent Bostick (who can also be a prickly type A++ personality).
Tyler Hamilton retires from cycling after failing second doping test
April 18, 2009
Diane Pucin
Hamilton, who won Olympic gold in 2004, says he took depression medication that contained a banned steroid. He served a two-year suspension after a 2004 test, but has never admitted blood doping.
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/18/sports/sp-tyler-hamilton18
Lance had a ‘miraculous’ run when almost all of his competitors were juiced up. So *I think* he was on dope.
Look at his health history. I would dare say that he would not even consider being on the juice. He has already faced his own mortality before, and has already considered what that stuff could wake up inside of him. And I mean something that could be fatal. With that history, messing with the endocrine system with artificial substances in NOT a good idea. Proper training and good nutritional supplementation may be more work, but has longer lasting results. By good nutritional supplementation, I use Michael Colgan’s “Optimum Sports Nutrition” as an example.
Cyclist Tyler Hamilton has turned in his 2004 Olympic gold medal to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after admitting in a “60 Minutes” interview that he took performance enhancing drugs along with Lance Armstrong, and a second former teammate of Armstrong’s also has come forward to accuse him of doping.
Hamilton’s lawyer, Chris Manderson, tells the Wall Street Journal that the cyclist returned his medal because he didn’t want the controversy to distract from his confession and allegations that he saw the seven-time Tour de France winner dope.
The USADA confirms it has Hamilton’s medal and “will continue to work with the IOC and the USOC as appropriate concerning the final implications of our overall investigation,” according to the Journal.
Snip
George Hincapie, a longtime member of Lance Armstrong’s inner circle, also told federal authorities he saw the seven-time Tour de France winner use performance-enhancing drugs, according to another segment of the “60 Minutes” report that aired Friday night on the “CBS Evening News.”
Hincapie has often been depicted as one of Armstrong’s most loyal teammates and was with him for all seven Tour victories. In an interview last year, Armstrong said Hincapie was “like a brother to me.”
Hincapie is among a number of former Armstrong teammates and employees who have appeared before a federal grand jury in Los Angeles investigating doping in cycling. Hamilton said he testified for six hours before the panel.
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/05/20/teammate-accuses-lance-armstrong-doping/
Now one of the race directors at the Tour of California, Andreu told Pelley he took banned substances because lesser riders he believed were doping were passing him.
“Training alone wasn’t doing it and I think that’s how ... many of the other riders during that era felt, I mean, you kind of didn’t have a choice,” he is quoted as saying.
Andreu’s wife, Betsy, who has said Armstrong discussed taking performance-enhancing drugs as doctors prepared him for cancer treatment in 1996, said she and her husband are working with investigators.
“We are cooperating, and we’ll just tell the truth. And telling the truth has been costly,” she said. “It’s not popular to tell the truth about Lance.”
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/05/20/teammate-accuses-lance-armstrong-doping/
And Hamilton countered Armstrong’s claim of having never failed a drug test, saying that Armstrong told him in a relaxed, “off the cuff” manner that Armstrong had failed a test at the 2001 Tour of Switzerland.
“People took care of it,” Hamilton said. “I don’t know all the exact details but Lance’s people and people from the other side, people I believe from the governing body of the sport, figured out a way for it to go away. I was told this (by) Lance.”
The “60 Minutes” report offered no hard evidence that UCI officials helped Armstrong evade a doping suspension, but cited a Swiss lab director’s statement to the FBI that said a UCI official wanted the matter of a “suspicious” test to go no further and set up a meeting with Armstrong and team officials.
The report also noted Armstrong donated $25,000 and $100,000 to the UCI, which Armstrong said was for anti-doping work.
I saw a portion of the interview and the guy was acting really shifty when answering the direct questions. His eyes were all over the place.
***
I agree bad body langauge
60 Minutes, 05.22.11, Video
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/60_minutes/video/?pid=Y1bXgfRDBk4ELaiUeZdW4F5ZLE23VeIU&vs=homepage&play=true
If, as you say, all the contenders were doping, wouldn't that negate any "unfair advantage" Armstrong might have gained by doping?
SO the story is that Lance Armstrong led an open and active encouragement of doping for an entire team of athletes, most of whom were never top contenders, and who ended up on other teams, and not ONE of those athletes EVER came forward when Lance was later scrutinized, even though it would have helped their current teams and not really hurt them in any serious way?
Before, we were to believe that Lance was doping, but was so good at it, and so secretive, that nobody knew. Now we are to believe that he was so loved or feared that everybody knew and nobody said anything.
Get a positive blood test, and I’ll believe it.
Almost every top rider Armstrong competed against - never mind those who rode at his side during his USPostal days has been tainted by PED use or blood doping.
I just cannot believe everyone believes Armstrong is clean. I am sure when he grand jury comes out, it will be pretty damning.
I mean, you kind of didn’t have a choice,” he is quoted as saying.
You always have a choice. Always.
Like I wondered about the timing of the Mortenson piece, I also wonder about the timing of the Armstrong attack. Perhaps the reason for these "exposes" is to try and show how easy it is to take some “shine” off anyone. When Bill Clinton was under siege for his indiscretions, I recall the media trying to help him out by basically lowering the “ethics” bar and trying to say that "everybody" in Washington had “Bill Clinton” type ethical problems.
If CBS is really trying to bring the "bar" all the way down to Obama’s level I think we will be seeing a lot more of these hit pieces. Stay tuned.
CBS is a renowned liar.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.