Tyler's Book

[luckyboy]

Being on Postal seemed like a thoroughly miserable experience. Forced to apologise to JB + Lance because he couldn't work when he was forced to go paniagua? Jeez

p212 with Tyler letting rip felt pretty good that someone somewhere has given him a taste of his own medicine.

Has anyone got a link to Hamilton's doping calendar? I'd like to see that again but can't find it. Or was it just Jan's that got on the net?

 

[ChewbaccaD]

Long, long, long time lurker... first time post... cannot resist any longer... raced mountain bikes for years, but became hardcore road in last ten years ... understand the conflicts in the clinic... have some friends in "the business"... back in the dark ages, I had Lance's picture hanging on wall in front of my trainer -- just like riders I rode with every weekend... THANK YOU clinic for the illumination... I'm chiming in finally b/c after hundreds of hours of reading these forums ( and I am a writer/programmer, who knows the difference between spin and substance )... the following quote is the most TRUE thing I've read in a long time -- it's from the very beginning of Tyler's book -- I don't think, as a writer, that this can be fabricated...

"He [Pedro] was always so good at asking that question; he made you feel how much he cared. So I told him the truth. I was wiped out. I could barely make it to the shower. I didn't have anything left. Pedro didn't say anything at first. He just looked at me-- or, to be more accurate, looked into me with those soft, sad brown eyes. Then his hand started rooting around in the fly-fishing vest,and pulled out a brown glass bottle."

I don't even need to read the rest of the book to know what those those brown glass bottles did to the sport.

While the bulk of your post is great, I still have to inform you that you get to fill in a block on the Lance PR Bingo card for that statement...

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Has anyone got a link to Hamilton's doping calendar? I'd like to see that again but can't find it. Or was it just Jan's that got on the net?

Do you mean the Fuentes one?

Extensive doping alleged for Hamilton

One day after the initial report by Danish Politiken, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws has published details of the alleged "doping diary" of Tyler Hamilton, found among the papers of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.

According to the Belgian media, Hamilton's doping practices in 2003, when he won both Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour de Romandie as well as a stage in the Tour de France despite a collarbone fracture, were extensive and cost him a total of 43,040 Euros.

The paper cites information according to which the then-CSC rider used EPO 30 times between December 2002 and February 2003, as well as anabolic steroids. In the beginning of March 2003, Hamilton allegedly used a pregnancy hormone to cover up the traces of the cure. Two blood transfusions are reported to have been administered to his body two days prior to Paris-Nice, where Hamilton won the mountains jersey.

In April, the American is thought to have used growth hormone and insulin to promote muscle growth. After the Tour de Romandie, the paper claims to have evidence that he transfused three bags of blood (a total of 1.35 litres), returned to normal blood levels with the help of EPO, and re-injected two bags of blood six days before the start of the Dauphiné Libéré.

Another growth hormone cure came after the race according to the media, as well as several blood transfusions in the count down to the Tour de France. The information gathered even points at a blood transfusion on the day of the medical control at the start of the Grand Tour, and twice during the race.

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/aug06/aug22news2

This article has some comedy gold

According to the newspaper, the doping activities listed in the diary were so extensive, that a whole team of helpers had to be involved. Bjarne Riis, director of the CSC team, denies knowing anything about it, despite his close and frequent contact with Hamilton. "I would like to remind you that we live in hotels and not in a prison," he is quoted as saying. "When a stage is finished, the riders have their free time. Then they do want they want."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/editions/first-edition-cycling-news-for-august-21-2006

Here is the original http://politiken.dk/sport/ECE162758/csc-stjerne-paa-omfattende-dopingprogram-i-2003/

 

[Granville57]

Has anyone got a link to Hamilton's doping calendar? I'd like to see that again but can't find it. Or was it just Jan's that got on the net?

Sorry if this is redundant, but I think you're referring to this:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_iMcBW_-dQV0/Rk2LB0xLyMI/AAAAAAAAAvQ/LlyV3_tn-BI/s1600-h/haven.jpg

 

[Granville57]

"...Then his hand started rooting around in the fly-fishing vest,and pulled out a brown glass bottle."

I don't even need to read the rest of the book to know what those those brown glass bottles did to the sport.

I don't see the harm.

 

[thehog]

To the above, this is not the stuff of surveillance. Tapping someone's phone is a straight-up Federal offense. Does it happen? Probably. Pop-ups in an Internet browser as surveillance? No way.

Did surveillance happen in this case? I Don't know. But those things do not support the idea.

You missed the point on the "pop-ups". It wasn't that the hackers were playing a practical joke it was that the hackers google credentials were were merged when "he" broke into Hamilton's GMail account. What that infers is that it was someone from Livestrong as the "robot" ads that appear are based on previous searches/cookies/proxy entries.

You get it now?

 

[luckyboy]

Yeah thanks MJM + Granville.


Just finished the book, damn. What now?

 

[Granville57]

Just finished the book, damn. What now?

Buy one of these. They're all the rage.

 

[silverrocket]

You just gave the best use for his existence and fame I've heard the past years. I mean that, seriously. A freak like him is perhaps safest for the world in the spotlight, at all times. He got way too much privacy for sports' sake.

Yes, but look at all the awful things he did do to other people, in public (eg. ruining careers, threatening, bullying, etc.).

Then look at all the things he got away with for nearly two decades that is only now becoming known to the public.

Then imagine all the things he might have done that nobody will ever know about.

 

[silverrocket]

While the bulk of your post is great, I still have to inform you that you get to fill in a block on the Lance PR Bingo card for that statement...

Your post is a witchhunt. And unconstitutional.

You're clearly just a bitter ex-teamate.

 

[thinkyoursopretty]

now I get how Floyd was framed... that guy in the river, you know, he was sweating PED's and Floyd was upriver...

 

[thinkyoursopretty]

how can one hurt?...

 

[ChewbaccaD]

Your post is a witchhunt. And unconstitutional.

You're clearly just a bitter ex-teamate.

I'm also a bone idle ****, but that only scores points on the Wiggins PR Bingo game...

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

Ha, Tyler's book is totally in my head. Just watching Vuelta stage 20. The commentator says "we're coming up to the climb, after this break we are going to be commercial free so if you need to go get yourself something from the refrigerator now's the time..." my first thought is that he thinks we need some blood before the climb

Edit: This is perhaps my favorite bit from the whole book (spoiler) "One thing's for sure, though: the truth will keep coming out. More former racers will step forward as they get older, as they realize that it does't make sense to keep living a lie. They'll experience how good it feels to honest; they'll realize it's ok to be open and let people look at all the facts, and decide for themselve." That right there is subversive. I LIKE IT!

 

[LauraLyn]

Ha, Tyler's book is totally in my head. . . . . ". . . . More former racers will step forward as they get older, as they realize that it doesn't make sense to keep living a lie. They'll experience how good it feels to honest; they'll realize it's ok to be open and let people look at all the facts, and decide for themselves." . . .

I think this is Tyler's major point in the book. And many of the commentators and interviewers have gotten it wrong by trying to make it appear as motivated by "an outing of Lance."

But how do you explain this quotation from the book:

"You can talk all you want about the Blood Bags and the EPO; you can call me a cheater and a doper until the cows come home. But the fact remains that in a race where everybody had equal opportunity, I played the game and I played it well. I took a chance and I pushed myself as hard as I could, and when the day was over I finished first."

Is Tyler a proponent of "the level playing field" argument, like Museeuw?

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

Is Tyler a proponent of "the level playing field" argument, like Museeuw?

No. He is saying that trying to get yourself the best program was part of the game.

 

[veganrob]

I think this is Tyler's major point in the book. And many of the commentators and interviewers have gotten it wrong by trying to make it appear as motivated by "an outing of Lance."

But how do you explain this quotation from the book:



Is Tyler a proponent of "the level playing field" argument, like Museeuw?

I do not believe he is saying that at all.

 

[Cloxxki]

No. He is saying that trying to get yourself the best program was part of the game.

Or, it's a different level of the game. Few make it to that (medical) level, where the real prizes are divided.

 

[python]

i found it extremely interesting how tyler was noticing, while still guessing, that by the 2003 other riders doping programs have almost caught up with the secret, ferrari-designed doping procedure armstrong was using.

he confidently states that blood transfusions were still the corner stone of his program. the question was how many blood bags would armstrong use...

curiously, when tyler decided to use 3 bags for the 2003 tdf, as opposed to 2 bags he was using previously, his results improved despite those unfortunate crashes.

he attributes mayo's and ulle's strength relative to armstrong to the same factors.

but he notes armstrong was still considered by the peloton 2 years ahead of everyone in the chemical competition.

 

[Berzin]

Or, it's a different level of the game. Few make it to that (medical) level, where the real prizes are divided.

Even with this being the case, there was an apparent drop-off between having a program administered by Ferrari and everyone else.

Fuentes seemed to have been a quack of major proportions, not labeling the blood bags (hence having some of his clients test for transfusions of someone elses' blood) and not taking care of the bags in question with any sort of competence to the point where Hamilton had gotten sick from transfusing a bag with dead blood cells.

 

[Racelap]

Even with this being the case, there was an apparent drop-off between having a program administered by Ferrari and everyone else.

Fuentes seemed to have been a quack of major proportions, not labeling the blood bags (hence having some of his clients test for transfusions of someone elses' blood) and not taking care of the bags in question with any sort of competence to the point where Hamilton had gotten sick from transfusing a bag with dead blood cells.

When Jaksche described Fuentes as casually popping an anabolic steroid like a breath mint it pretty much confirmed his quackery.

Ferrari appears to be a methodical scientist. Fuentes appears to be a party boy with a medical degree.

Something from early on in the book that caught my interest: Tyler showed Coyle the scars on his arms from the transfusions and said 'We all have them.' Couldn't someone just go and look at Lance's arms? Or Frank Schleck? Or Wiggins? I could see Lance using the excuse that they're from his cancer treatments, but if those scars are so prevalent then not every rider can just explain them away.

 

[workingclasshero]

When Jaksche described Fuentes as casually popping an anabolic steroid like a breath mint it pretty much confirmed his quackery.

Ferrari appears to be a methodical scientist. Fuentes appears to be a party boy with a medical degree.

and with an assistant who's demented. kinell you couldn't make it up

 

[Racelap]

By the way - if I had been in Tyler's shoes, I would have doped as well. Early 20s, on an upstart team that just got smoked by other teams that were obviously doped to the gills. A wink and nod approach by the UCI - all you need is hemotacrit under 50 and you're good to go. Nearly undetectable drugs. The rest of the field was doing it. It's basically either dope or give up your dream. I totally would have done it.

 

[gearmasher]

By the way - if I had been in Tyler's shoes, I would have doped as well. Early 20s, on an upstart team that just got smoked by other teams that were obviously doped to the gills. A wink and nod approach by the UCI - all you need is hemotacrit under 50 and you're good to go. Nearly undetectable drugs. The rest of the field was doing it. It's basically either dope or give up your dream. I totally would have done it.

I totally would not have, but I can totally understand why you would have. Impossible situation to be in for most....very sad.

 

[Raul Ramaya]

Finally finished reading Tyler's book ... am emotionally drained. Holy smokes - what a long ways from Kimmages reluctance to take caffeine or Parker's refusal to take steriods! Still trying to digest everything but one early impression -> I think much of what he wrote will, sadly, be used in Lance's defense because it lends itself to be read as a "level playing field" argument. You already see this starting with LL's comment above.

I really don't think that is what he intended - otherwise he wouldn't have highlighted the difference between Ferrari and Fuentes nor would he have insinuated his and Ulrichs "BB"'s had been tampered with. Still, he was not forceful enough on these points. They are scattered throughout the narrative but never pulled together into a summary clearly distinguishing between Armstrong's actions and those of a "normal" doper.

To me, the distinguishing difference is the extent Armstrong went to interfere with other riders. Plus the symbiotic relationship between the sponsors (Nike, Trek), the UCI, Armstrong and Ferrari to the detriment of the rest of the peloton. That's the real story here and what makes the case so important. Unfortunately reading that from Tyler's book takes some effort...