Re: Ex-teammate of Lance Armstrong says he used testosterone, EPO
Armstrong Teammate Describes Doping System
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/s...strongs-teammate-describes-doping-system.html
May 22, 2011
By JULIET MACUR
For top riders on the United States Postal Service squad, the powerhouse American cycling team led by Lance Armstrong, duplicity was simply a part of the game.
Tyler Hamilton, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist and former Postal Service rider, described the team that way in an interview broadcast Sunday on “60 Minutes,” saying it was a life filled with secret code words, clandestine phone lines and furtive conversations. Riders led double lives that revolved around performance-enhancing drug use, while publicly insisting that the team was clean, he said.
The best cyclists received white lunch bags filled with the blood-booster EPO, human growth hormone and testosterone from team doctors, who handed them out as if they contained sandwiches and juice boxes. They were also given little red pills that contained a testosterone oil they squirted beneath their tongues for a performance boost.
And if a rider needed EPO to help adjust his blood values to avoid failing a doping test, Hamilton said, he knew exactly where to turn: to Armstrong, the undisputed team leader and man whose help from other riders was necessary for victory.
“You know, I reached out to Lance Armstrong, you know,” Hamilton said on “60 Minutes,” describing what he did when he needed EPO. “And he helped me out, he helped me out.”
The next day or two, he said, a package arrived with EPO, with Armstrong acknowledging that he had sent it.
“It was an illegal doping product, but he helped out a friend,” said Hamilton, who helped Armstrong win the Tour de France in 1999, 2000 and 2001. “So I want to make it clear that, you know, if the roles were reversed and I had the connection, I would have done the same, same, thing for Lance.”
Still, on the final day of the Tour of California — which was won by the American Chris Horner, Armstrong’s former teammate on the RadioShack squad — another huge crack appeared in Armstrong’s formerly unbreakable facade. The code of silence in cycling that long protected a culture of drug use continued to crumble, with damage done by riders once in Armstrong’s inner circle.
Last year at the Tour of California, Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour title for doping, also came forward with allegations against Armstrong. He admitted to doping and said Armstrong was the kingpin of drug use on the Postal Service team. A year later, it was Hamilton’s turn to come clean.
Armstrong, the seven-time Tour winner and cancer survivor who has never been penalized for doping, has denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs. He said Landis and Hamilton should not be believed because they lack credibility.
But their confessions are doing more than just shedding light on cycling’s underworld. They are helping form the foundation of a federal investigation of Armstrong for crimes related to doping.
Armstrong is under federal investigation for crimes including fraud, conspiracy, drug trafficking and money laundering, said a person briefed on the investigation who is not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
Armstrong’s spokesman, Mark Fabiani, said the latest accusations were fueled by a desire for publicity and greed because Hamilton is writing a book, which he is. Regarding Sunday’s report, Fabiani said in an e-mail, “Throughout this entire process CBS has demonstrated an unpardonable zeal to smear Lance Armstrong.”
Nearly five years ago, the former Postal Service rider Frankie Andreu told The New York Times that he used EPO to help Armstrong win the 1999 Tour. Only one other rider on that Tour team backed up Andreu’s revelations, and that rider did not give his name because he did not want to jeopardize his job in the sport. It took four years for another Postal Service rider to come forward.
“Better late than never, but where was Tyler when Frankie confessed and was out there all on his own?” Betsy Andreu, Frankie’s wife and a longtime critic of Armstrong, said. She added that her husband’s post-competition career in cycling had been affected by his confession in 2006. He lost jobs in cycling, and she and he were subsequently blackballed.
“Honestly, it is a relief that Tyler finally came forward,” Betsy Andreu said. “For a long time, people had so much fear of Lance.”
A grand jury has been investigating Armstrong since last summer, with several government agencies involved. Hamilton, a 40-year-old retired racer, came face-to-face with those investigators last year when they asked him to cooperate with their inquiry. He declined to, the CBS report said, and received a subpoena to testify to the grand jury.
After years of lying about his drug use, Hamilton — who is serving his second doping suspension — was forced to make a choice: tell the truth or face prosecution for perjury.
He decided to tell the truth, he said, and a burden built by years of guilt was lifted. Hamilton, once known as the nicest, most polite guy in the sport, voluntarily surrendered his Olympic gold medal to the United States Anti-Doping Agency last week.
David Howman, the director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, praised Hamilton for confessing, despite how long it took.
“It would be silly to put someone down if they finally decide to confess,” Howman said. “Just because you lied before doesn’t mean you aren’t telling the truth now. It just means you lied previously. It shouldn’t affect the way you are perceived for the rest of your life.”
He said athletes should not be afraid to expose the underbelly of their sports because the drug-testing system has its faults.
“You can’t rely on sample collection and analysis alone because it can be beaten,” he said. “Marion Jones beat the testing system for years, and we know she wasn’t alone.”
Jones never tested positive and vehemently denied ever doping, but in 2008 confessed to doping. She served six months in prison partly for lying to federal investigators about her drug use.
Hamilton, though, will not be prosecuted unless he lied to the grand jury. So he decided to reveal once-sacred secrets.
He said top riders on the Postal Service were given cellphones on which to have conversations about doping. They used the code words “Poe” or “Edgar Allen Poe” for EPO, in case the authorities were listening, he said.
When he received his first lunch bag filled with EPO, Hamilton said it was an honor because he felt as if he was finally good enough to “be with the A-team guys.” On another occasion, he said, he accompanied Armstrong on a private jet to Spain, where he, Armstrong and another teammate had their blood extracted for reinfusion 10 days before the 2000 Tour de France. Before another race, Armstrong dropped liquid testosterone under his tongue, then administered it to Hamilton and another rider, he said.
As Landis did last year, he said he had conversations with Armstrong about a drug test Armstrong is suspected of failing at the 2001 Tour de Suisse.
“I feel bad that I had to go here and do this,” Hamilton said. “But I think at end of the day like I said, long term the sport’s going to be better for it.
He added: “Well, there’s a lot of other cheats and liars out there too who’ve gotten away with it. It’s not just Lance, you know? I mean, with a little luck, I’d still be out there today being a cheat and liar.”
