Tyler Hamilton Comments Re: Doping

This is follow-up from my previous post about alleged doping by Tyler Hamilton. This is from Tyler Hamilton's web site, posting in the last day or so (follow the link or just read below).

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August 2006

Boulder, CO: Many of you who have taken the time to leave messages in my guestbook have noted your frustration with my lack of response to all that has been transpiring within the sport of cycling this summer. I appreciate your patience and have to admit that my own tolerance with my situation and the sport in general is wearing a little thin these days.

I’ve spent the bulk of the summer training, traveling and spending time back on the east coast catching up with family and friends. With the ups and downs of the last two years I haven’t had as much time as I would have hoped to get back to New England. But it’s always good to get home and reconnect with the people I’ve known for my entire life. I’m lucky to have a support network rooted in so much history. Not everyone is so blessed.

I have certainly faced a fair number of fire storms this year for a guy who has been serving a suspension. After getting the verdict in my CAS case in February, one of the first calls I received was from my friends at USA Cycling. While we all were aware that my suspension ended the day after the World Championships Individual Time Trial, the Road Race was scheduled for the next day. We talked about this race being my first race back. So I regrouped and set my sights on returning to cycling in September. That meant training as hard as I ever had.

I knew it was going to be tough to duplicate the leg speed that comes with racing regularly, so I committed to a training schedule that included a lot of motor pacing and group rides. For fun, I also planned on doing a six week training race series in Boulder.

I was thrown my second curve ball of 2006 when I participated in these races – known as the Stazio Criterium series, which are literally lap races around the Boulder Dump. Unglamorous, but useful, local professional riders use the races for spring training. That was until they were told they’d be suspended and fined if they continued to participate in theses events because they were not sanctioned. Excluding a whole group was in conflict with making the races unsanctioned in the first place. The idea had been to make them as inclusive as possible to riders of all abilities. Eventually, it became clear that the real issue was about my participation so I volunteered to stay on the sidelines. After that the threats dissipated and the issue of “sanctioned” or “unsanctioned” went away and the pros returned to the series.

Then, in the early summer, just as I was getting down to the serious business of speaking to teams about a return in September and in 2007, the Operation Puerto scandal broke. Before the now infamous “list” was published it was clear that teams were putting offers on hold and waiting to see what would come of this situation. But I had made some good progress and was looking forward to an offer from a particular team. The exact day that offer arrived, an article in “El Pais” was published featuring accusations directed toward me and Jan Ulrich.

Since that point, I have consulted with lawyers in the United States and Spain and members of USA Cycling to try and obtain information and copies of the documents featured in the article. To date, we have not been successful in gaining any access to this investigation. At this point, I have no more information than the average reader of the cycling press. Having followed the media reports closely, we expected to see documents around the end of the Tour de France. But the timing of their release was obviously misrepresented.

It was sad to see the Tour start under such a cloud, but I was happy to see it end with such an inspiring finish for Floyd Landis. The fallout since has been fairly devastating to watch. The morning the news broke, my wife and I felt physically sick for Floyd. We knew exactly what he was experiencing; the confusion, the terror, the disbelief. We wouldn’t wish any of what we’ve endured over the last two years on anyone, let alone Floyd. We were startled to see the firestorm in the media and how quickly everyone formed such strong opinions with so little information available. For our part, we fully support Floyd. The accusers have had their say, now it’s time to give Floyd the chance to make sense of what is going on around him.

In the meantime, I have been plugging away with training. With the offer from the team I was interested in now on hold, and my possible participation at the World Championships all but doubtful because of the June article, my future is once again unknown. But there have been some high points along the way this summer.

This past weekend I shared a great day with family and friends on Mt. Washington. The Hill Climb is a fund raiser for the Tin Mountain Foundation, and I was happy to participate and support their cause. This mountain is very special to me and my family. My parents met skiing Tuckerman’s Ravine, and I spent my entire childhood looking out at Mt Washington while skiing at Wildcat. I have a lot of memories up there, so visiting the Hill Climb is a lot like going home for me.

The next day I woke up to reports that a Danish newspaper was reanalyzing the documents featured in the “El Pais” article and the uproar from June had risen again. The same story repeated in the Belgian press the following day. And now has been regurgitated in my own local paper here in Colorado.

It’s remarkable to everyone involved with this situation, that the media has been given access to the investigation, while the “accused” have not been afforded the same. It doesn’t make any sense to keep the conversation so one-sided.

I also have to wonder how a system that is so well “coded” that reportedly half of the other cyclists potentially involved can’t be named and no other sports can be implicated – is being portrayed as so lax and obvious when it comes to allegedly identifying some of the biggest names in cycling.

Given all that has been “reported”, many of you have been asking for answers and updates, but the truth is that I don’t have much to share because little has been shared with me.

What I do know is that these allegations are hurtful and false. It is not clear to me who is “translating” and “alleging” these things. I have never even heard of some of the substances listed within these supposed “schedules”.

It is also not clear why some riders have been “cleared” while others are being forced to wait things out. All that does seem clear is that this is not an ordinary investigation.

All of this makes me wonder what it will take to make someone stand up for the riders who represent the heart and soul of cycling. Is there not a lesson in what happened to the Liberty Seguros team? Most of the riders initially implicated from this team have been cleared and Manolo Saiz has not been charged with any crime. Yet, sponsors are lost, names have been tarnished, careers have ended and victories have been taken away. Who will be brave enough to say the riders, the organizers, the sponsors and the fans deserve better? Count me among the first.

I know how it feels to work so hard but feel like you are getting nowhere. I have experienced the incredible happiness of achieving lifetime goals and the sadness of having my accomplishments questioned and opportunities taken away. But at the end of the day that sadness is a motivator, because it can’t help but become anger. People used to always tell me I was too “nice” to really succeed at racing and some would even ask me – “are you angry enough to win?” Well, if I wasn’t before, I certainly am now.

Thanks for reading.