Tyler Hamilton's heavy doping program revealed

there is no mystery why so many cyclist over the last several years have died in their sleep. its not from being exhausted.

For a related perspective on Hamilton see:

http://www.teamfsx.com/Home/tabid/351/EntryID/163/Default.aspx

This comes from an XC skiing pro team website.

Thank you. Funniest response of the day. I needed a good laugh.

tyler hamilton's dog 'Tugboat' wrote:

Please don't drag me into this f**cking mess. All my life I was Tyler's faithful four-legged companion and later his inspiration in death,so who better to swear on?

BTW,I still believe in him and I'd swear on a stack of Milk Bones that Tyler's blood is as clean and pure as Boulder glacier water and not as dirty as the Charles River.

Leave me out of this, you damn dog. I'm a lot cleaner than I used to be--no thanks to you pissing in me.

It will be interesting to see if this does indeed spread beyond cycling in its scope. Unfortunately if you think track and field is clean, then you haven't been around the sport very long. Jos Hermens was dirty as an athlete, and i would bet that some of his athletes he manages are dirty now.

maybe these athletes take a drug that allows them to live a lie and believe in that lie?

All rules, at some point, are seemingly arbitrary. We require them, though, to gain some order and clarity for our interactions with one another. Simply put, chaos looms without them.

Diet supplements, new training methods, whatever may seem analogous to certain drugs, to some, but we have to draw the line or else turn sport into a search for that magic pill. It becomes a contest among biochemists rather than athletes.

So, we make rules and say these things are allowed and all else is not. Then everyone who wants to play agrees, signs a statement, takes an oath. It's that simple. If you don't want to play by the rules that the society, league, or governing body chooses you are free to form your own organization and sanction your own competitions.

I know tyler hamiliton tested positive for a blood infusion from another donor, which is really stupid on his part if he is guilty. I wasn't sure if he ever test postive for "EPO, anabolics, growth hormone"? Even with the masking agents, it would still be difficult to hide.

Also, the IGF-1 doping sounds fishy since they are really just starting clinical trials and an unknown Spanish doctor getting his hands on the stuff seems a little far fetched.

Boulderunner wrote:

My cycling friends tell me that in Europe its not the "moral issue" that it is in America. Apparently a lot of people view it as part of the sport. This has not been the impression Ive had from European newspapers, but from the friends of mine who have raced in Europe, thats what Ive heard.

Perhaps they're talking about the athletes they were associating with, or they are making excuses for their own abuse by saying "when in Rome..."

But I can tell you for sure that the European media, fans, and general public do not condone doping. Or, I should say, there are fewer people in Europe who condone it than in the US. After all, it's basically accepted in baseball. Sure fans will use it as an excuse to boo the other team's guys but they don't really care about the sport being clean. Hell, we all know steroid abuse is rampant at our own gym so why should we be so outraged at elite athletes doing the same.

But when you look at the treatment the cheaters get in the media over there, you almost feel bad for the athletes. I witnessed part of a studio audience walk out of a live TV program when Johan Museeuw came on to give expert analysis on a race, I believe Paris-Roubaix. The producers were clearly surprised by that reaction.

I can't speak to the situation in Spain or Italy, but certainly compared to Northern Europe, Americans are way too soft on doping.

lucius larry wrote:

there is no mystery why so many cyclist over the last several years have died in their sleep. its not from being exhausted.

Wasn't that happening 10-15 years ago, before they figured out the correct doses and combinations of drugs. I haven't heard about any such deaths in recent years.

IGF-1 is mentioned heavily in the book 'Positive' by Australian discus thrower Werner Reiterer. A great read if you can get your hands on it.

Its such a copout to say things like 'Where is the line?'. I think it's pretty easy to tell where the line is, and vitamins can clearly be distinguished from a syringe filled with EPO. There are a list of banned substances- these things are obviously on the wrong side of the line. Homologous and non-homologous blood transfusions- wrong side of the line. Substances very similar to existing banned substances with the molecules switched around a little bit- wrong side of the line. We're not talking about people having 3 cups of coffee and having too much caffeine, this is systematic doping by cheats. It is nothing like reading someone else's notes or cheating on a test, although I wouldn't do that either and wouldn't defend someone who did.

But he gets to keep his gold medal:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/27/AR2006062700976.html

1st 2 paragraphs for those without washpost free memberships:

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- American cyclist Tyler Hamilton will keep his gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected an appeal Tuesday by the Russian Olympic Committee to strip Hamilton of his time-trial gold medal due to a doping controversy and give it to silver medalist Vyacheslav Ekimov.

Plenty of mysterious night time cycling deaths in the last 5 seasons. Wild guess about 10 or 12.

A new story, but not really - ask Frank Shorter. Drug cheats need to be punished more heavily for what they've done. I don't think necessarily by longer suspensions, but by taking more from them. They need to know if they're found guilty of doping, they run the risk of losing titles, medals, and money from previousl victories/performances. And the Court of Aribtrations for Sport together with the IOC need to strip medals from drug cheats by eliminating any type of statute of limitations. If that means finding a way to retest samples far into the future or using documentation or admissions of guilt, they should pursue that if they truly want justice in this fight.

And I really support going after drug cheats for fraud. There's no way to deny it's fraud. They are stealing money from other competitors, meet directors, governing bodies (IOC/IAAF/USATF, etc.), and sponsors.

And when it comes to the big sports in the US, if they're really testing effectively, when they do bust someone, they should do what track & field is doing - void their results. How do you do that in a team sport? The team used an ineligible player, so they forfeit any games this player took part in. Again, if the testing was legitimate, this would be an effective technique. Teams would start policing themselves a lot closer after that.

I know tyler hamiliton tested positive for a blood infusion from another donor, which is really stupid on his part if he is guilty. I wasn't sure if he ever test postive for "EPO, anabolics, growth hormone"? Even with the masking agents, it would still be difficult to hide.

Also, the IGF-1 doping sounds fishy since they are really just starting clinical trials and an unknown Spanish doctor getting his hands on the stuff seems a little far fetched.

[quote]I wasn't sure if he ever test postive for "EPO, anabolics, growth hormone"? Even with the masking agents, it would still be difficult to hide.

An intelligent point hidden within all the drivel (it sounds like most of these runners have brain damage from inadequate hydration). No, Tyler has never tested positive for anything other than supposedly having someone else's blood in his system (a test that, according to numerous medical experts, is notoriously unreliable). Which makes this "evidence" -- which consists of doctor's notes, not anything that originated from Tyler Hamilton, look extremely suspicious. And this "fax", which was found in the doctor's effects, not in the possession of Tyler Hamilton or his wife (but the doctor supposedly sent it), implicates his wife in the doping, which would be quite remarkable if it were true. I personally have been arrested for no reason other than the cops didn't like my long hair (it was 1970) and they filed a completely fabricated police report accusing me, among other things, of possessing drugs that I didn't (they explained that they didn't seize the drugs as evidence because there was "insufficient amount for analysis"), so I wouldn't be too quick to leap to any conclusions about Tyler Hamilton.

And to the clown who suggested that Lance doped for 20 years ... how did he manage to pass 150 drug tests? There is absolutely no evidence that he ever doped -- there are only reports in a French newspaper about now-exhausted 7 year old urine samples that anyone could have tampered with or polluted, as these were not treated according to any of the established protocols. And EPO isn't stable in urine past about 2 weeks; tests on 7 year old samples are meaningless.

I witnessed part of a studio audience walk out of a live TV program when Johan Museeuw came on to give expert analysis on a race, I believe Paris-Roubaix.

Ah yes, the race in which he shattered his knee. And yet they cheer Richard Virenque, whom Lance Armstrong accurately described as "the biggest rogue of the last 50 years in terms of doping".

You should have labled your post "broken truth machine." If you can't see through these guys now, you really just want to believe what you want to believe. I guess it must make your life more simple by blindly believing in Tyler's nonsense instead of the science. There is nothing wrong with the test methods used to indict Tyler. These methods are used everyday in hospital for very very important reasons that have nothing to do with sports. Don't go aftr the scientists because your little training buddy got busted. Tyler is only hurting the sport of cyclinging. He needs to be a man and come clean. He really has the stink of lies all over him and I feel sorry for him that he doesn't realize that when his cyclinging days are over, he will just be seen by his neighbors as a lier.

Tyler is a lier. Plain and simple.

Wasn't sure wrote:

I know tyler hamiliton tested positive for a blood infusion from another donor, which is really stupid on his part if he is guilty. I wasn't sure if he ever test postive for "EPO, anabolics, growth hormone"? Even with the masking agents, it would still be difficult to hide.

Also, the IGF-1 doping sounds fishy since they are really just starting clinical trials and an unknown Spanish doctor getting his hands on the stuff seems a little far fetched.

Given the read on his doping plan, Tyler was just plain stupid and greedy.

Double dosing is putting your life at risk. The level of doping that Lance was at was more calculated not the crazy more is better theory.

If Tyler had others following this regime of doping he was putting athletes lives at risk. Maybe a broader investigation is needed beyond Lance.