Did anyone check this out at the CBS site? In addition to the complete transcript of the interview as it appeared on TV, Scott Pelley talks a little about doing the interview, including some clips that did not make the show. Of great interest to me was that Tyler said that during relatively quiet moments in races, when the peloton was relaxed and engaging in “chit-chat”, riders used to trade doping information with each other, including substances, procedures, and ways to avoid getting caught. No one, he said, wanted to see another rider get caught (hmm, tell that to Iban Mayo) and maybe go to jail.
So not only did members of a particular team know that other members were doing it, and maybe even saw them do it and helped each other do it, but if Tyler is to be believed, riders had access to information about doping of riders on other teams. This very definitely is not what even fairly forthcoming caught dopers have been willing to admit to.
I think this is of interest also because it adds to the picture Tyler portrays of doping being a communal process. Lance, according to Tyler, used pretty much the same substances and procedures as others in the peloton. Even his work with Ferrari, it turns out, was not the exclusive arrangement many here have long claimed it was. On the aired program itself, Tyler says he worked with Ferrari for a year, and that the doctor gave him a schedule for taking EPO. So while it’s still an open question whether Lance had a superior program to others, nothing Tyler says supports that.
Finally, one other interesting thing about the interview that hasn’t been remarked on. Tyler, like Floyd, while admitting to a long history of doping, denied that he actually doped for the race where he tested positive, in this case the Olympics. He did say that his positive (A sample) might have resulted from “residual performance enhancement”. This would be consistent with homologous blood doping, since the HBT can pick up transfusions that occurred weeks or months earlier. Yet elsewhere in the interview, Tyler says he did autologous or self-transfusions, beginning in 2000 (I found this early date interesting, too, because it indicates that even before the current urine test for EPO was developed, riders were worried about being positive for this substance). He never addresses whether he ever transfused someone else’s blood. This could be consistent with the theory that his HBT positive resulted in a mixup of blood bags, which would also explain the very low level of foreign antigens in both his positive tests (Olympics and Vuelta).
The problem, though, is that different foreign antigens were found in the two tests. So there would have to be two separate mixups, involving a different second rider each time. One wonders if riders could really be that careless in removing, storing and re-infusing blood.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20064874-10391709.html
The clip is about 7 minutes long. Pelley also notes how Tyler tried throughout the interview to emphasize that it wasn't just about LA, but the whole sport.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram