Hamilton’s book anticipated in la Gazzetta dello Sport article:
“His gardener brought us EPO and Ferrari was God”
Hamilton, ex gregario, tells about Armstrong’s doping: “He didn’t tolerate who rebelled.”
By Massimo Lopez Pegna
New York
Two years of work and 60 interviews with Tyler Hamilton: The Secret Race, co-authored by Daniel Coyle, author also of Lance Armstrong’s War, which hits the book stores today in the USA, is a 287 long page confession. It’s difficult not to believe him, given that it’s a so well detailed recount given by the ex-teammate of Armstrong at US Postal between 1998-2001. In it Hamilton explains how doping in cycling was systematic and certainly not left in the hands of individuals. Now, he says, “I fell liberated and at peace with myself, after years of depression and feeling guilty.”
“The initiation”
“It took me 1000 days, nearly three years, to do doping for the first time. I had seen how the white bags were hung to the wall, but only the strongest riders used them like Hincapie and Ekimov. And when I understood what it meant to race on “bread and water” (cycling jargon for clean) alone, it was even difficult for me to just keep pace with the group. I was desperate , without energy. Doctor Pedro Celaya gave me my first red pill: testosterone. ‘This isn’t doping, it’s for your health,’ he said. I’m not proud of that decision, a could have refused and gone back to finish university. But I didn’t do that. You know that you are breaking the rules, but you’re are convinced it’s not cheating, because everybody’s doing it. That red pill was like getting a promotion. A bit later I was given my first dose of EPO. It was the sign that I was going to ride the Tour de France.”
“Edgar, that is EPO”
“It was 98 when Lance and I began a relationship of trust, to the point where we discussed how much EPO we used and how often. We invented code words to say it: we liked Edgar, for Edgar Allen Poe. Lance was obsessed with a suspicion that other teams were using more advanced methods. He became paranoid when he found out in 2001 that Ullrich went to South Africa, where there had been invented a new synthetic blood: Hemopure.”
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