March 7, 2025 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton rocked the world of professional cycling—and exposed the doping culture surrounding the sport and its most iconic rider, Lance Armstrong. As one of the world’s top-ranked cyclists—and a member of Lance Armstrong’s inner circle, Hamilton has quite an amazing story and is here to share it with us.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Former Olympic gold
medalist Tyler Hamilton rocked the world of professional cycling and
exposed the doping culture surrounding the sport and its most
iconic writer, Lance Armstrong. Is one of the world's top
rank cyclists and a member of Lance Armstrong's Inner Circle.
(00:32):
Hamilton has quite an amazing story of his own, and
he is here to share it with us.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
My name's Tyler Hamilton. I live here in Missoula, Montana.
Grew up in Marbletote, Massachusetts. Great family, older brother, older sister,
loved the outdoors and loved to spend time out in nature. First,
it was my love for skiing that kind of got
me excited at being outdoors. Him a ski racer. After
(01:03):
an accident with the University of Colorado's ski team, I
broke my back and then started my cycling career kind
of by accident.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It happened fast. I was a bit of a late
bloomer in cycling.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
But you know, I've always had like a high pain threshold,
and I think I was born with it.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I don't know. My parents are tough.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
My grandparents were tough and so I think that was
the biggest asset that I had as a bike racer,
just you know that never give up mentality and just
you know, don't listen to the pain. Growing up in
Marble At, Massachusetts in the seventies was pretty awesome. I
was born in seventy one. Yeah, I mean, my parents
(01:42):
didn't really put many demands on my brother or sister
at all, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I mean They're like just trying to.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Do well in school and working hard, and they liked
just competing in sports if we were interested in it.
But whether or not we were successful in sports, it
didn't matter.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
It didn't matter, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
The most important thing for them was, you know, being honest,
being a good sport.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And just being you know, transparent.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
My dad said, if we did have a family chrish,
it would probably be you know, honesty, and uh yeah,
I got in trouble here and there, but it was
I got in a lot of trouble when I was dishonest, a.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Lot of trouble.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It was really exciting to get my first pro contract.
I signed it in what the fall of nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It was the original Postal team.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
It was under a different title sponsor then but it
was the original US Postal team and it was under
the sponsor of Montgomery Bell. The next year, nineteen ninety six,
it became the US Postal Team. I thought I had
no business, you know, racing professionally, but obviously people believed
in me, and I got a call from Tom Weisl,
(02:51):
the head of Montgomery Securities.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And the leader of the team.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, he offered me a contract was I think it
was thirty thousand dollars back then. And at the time
when he made the phone call, I was painting my
neighbor's house to make extra money to just make ends meet,
and I thought it was just gonna be you know,
one year, maybe two years of doing this and then
had finish up college and get a real job and
do the nine to five thing. But next thing I know,
(03:15):
I'm on the start line in the Toitter France, which
I thought was way beyond anything that I.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Could possibly do.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Fast forward two years from there, we're trying to win
the Twitter France and that was That was with Lance Armstrong.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
That was in ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
But yeah, I mean we were kind of the bad
news bears of cycling in the early years ninety seven
ninety eight, even ninety nine when Lance won. You know,
we were on a small budget team. Most teams have
big bus, big shiny buses. We had like two rented
little campers. It stuffed all nine riders into both of
those and staff members and one again in two thousand
(03:51):
and one, again in two thousand and one, and with Lance,
and then at that point I was I felt like
I could see myself in the same role. I could
look back three years in the look ahead three years
and see myself doing the same exact thing, which is
being like a domestique, a workhorse for Lance in the tour.
So it wasn't a bad thing, but I was sure
that if I stayed in that role, I would definitely
(04:13):
regret it someday and regret the chance of going off
and maybe trying for myself seeing.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
What I could do.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
The doping and the sport of cycling.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
I mean, I remember hearing about it back in probably
like nineteen ninety four when I was on the US
national team and then first year pro in nineteen ninety five.
I remember hearing a little bit about it, but every
once in a while you read like a small blurb
and it was like doping was happening over in Europe.
You know, it wasn't happening stateside. But I didn't really
(04:43):
realize it until I got to the highest ranks in
nineteen ninety seven, when we did the Tour de France
for the first time, and that's kind of when I
kind of gave into it. A team doctor came into
my room for your a few months into the season.
We just finished a really difficult five or six day
(05:03):
stage race in southern Spain. I was just like a
starfish on the bed, laying on the bed, and the
team doctor walked in and told me like how proud
he was of me, but that I had started taking
care of my body, and you know, that's when I happened.
He was wearing this flyfishing vest and pulled out a
little red egg egg shaped capsule and he told me
(05:25):
what it was, and he told me that it was
a testosterone and then what I needed to do. Yeah,
so that's how it started. I didn't want to be
I didn't want to participate in any of that, but
I feel like at that level that was it was
either say yes to it, and at that point I
knew a lot of my teammates were open It was
(05:46):
a hard decision, but I made the decision really quick,
and then I thought about the consequences of it, like
almost daily. It was also like he was inviting me
into onto like the A team basically, you know, it
was like the team within the team. Before that, I
felt like I was on the B team, just trying
to prove myself. And then all of a sudden, I
think the team saw that that I was talented enough,
(06:07):
they believed in me enough, saw that I was hungry enough,
and that's when I kind of got it, invited onto
the whatever you could call it. We didn't have an
A and B team, but hypothetical A team, and that
was a couple of months away from riding in my
first tour to France, and so that's you know, I
was like, Okay, I'm being invited onto this team. I
(06:27):
need to even though I know it's wrong, I need.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
To take this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So started with the red egg testosterone and then I
don't know if a month later, my first injection of EPO,
which raises your red blood cell count.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
But you really wouldn't feel it. You really wouldn't feel anything.
It was just a small little prick under your skin.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Then, but if you did it consistently, you know, a
few times a week over three four weeks, eventually you'd
feel a little bit of a difference. You know, going
up hill felt a little bit more off the while
riding a little bit faster at the same heart rate.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
And yeah, you could feel the difference.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It made it.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I mean, out of all the things I did, that
was the biggest game changer.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
EPO.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yeah, I mean within cycling, it was a bit of
an arms race. I mean, doping was prevalent. I mean
at first I didn't really know how prevalent it was,
and then I quickly realized that it wasn't just myself
and a few of my teammates on Postal, it was
every team was doing it.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
It was rampant, and you.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Know, riders are changing teams on a yearly basis. Directors
changed teams, team doctors changed teams, so like in general,
the secrets were out, you know, when I first started
doping in nineteen ninety seven, I mean, the teams would
travel with it to the races, divvy it up to riders,
and then send them a home with it in a
little like care package.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
So it was very open.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Wild West days that they weren't worried about getting caught,
you know, and then things came like kind of cracking down.
While in the ninety eight season, that's when they had
the Festina affair.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
They caught it French team.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I think it was at the Belgian border crossing over
and it was one of the staff members had a
car load of performance in Hanston drugs.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Last night, Jean Marie LeBlanc, the director general of the
Tour de France, issued a statement saying that Team Festina,
the number one team in the world, has been removed
from this year's tour. Now this comes on the heels
of an admission by the lawyer for Bruno Roussel, the
team manager, that there was a doping plan in place
for the use of performance enhancing drugs under strict medical supervision.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
And that's when Rogers went to jail. People became a
lot more secretive. People just seemed like they just became
a lot more worried. The EPO test came out and
the team doctors quickly figured out how to eat it
and how to still take EPO without getting caught, and
that meant kind of smaller type doses and maybe a
(08:59):
little bit more casistently.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, and then under the.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Scan it goes through your body, clears through your body quicker.
It was, oh, now in the vein instead of under
the skin. Yeah, all these little tricks I didn't like.
Most cycles wouldn't know this, But like all the doctors knew,
and they they knew how to beat the test, so
like before you even thought about it that there was
handing you a cheet sheet basically.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And you're listening to tyl Or Hamilton tell a heck
of a story about his life in cycling, his family,
and so much more, including how doping came to be
and how it became just all a part of cycling life.
I love what he said about his parents and their motto,
the family crest be honest. I got in the most
(09:40):
trouble when I wasn't honest. More of Tyler Hamilton's story
his book The Secret Race Inside the hidden world of
the Tour de France, Doping cover ups and winning at
all costs.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
The story continues here on our American.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Stories, and we continue with our American stories and former
Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton's story.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
There were a few times during my career when yeah,
I knew I wasn't clear to take a test, and
when they had anti doping out of competition at anti
doping tests like that's when things became a lot more difficult.
One time, I remember I was back home in my
hometown of Marblehead and got my wife and I at
(10:42):
the time, got a knock on the door. It was
a pretty loud knock and it.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Sounded like the knock you didn't want to hear.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So instead of opening that door, we just hit the deck,
stayed low and stay quiet, and basically avoided a test.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
You were able to get at the time.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I think you were able to have two miss tests
before you got in trouble. Being a teammate with lamps
was was of I mean, I would say it was
a challenge. You know, he was he was a boss.
He was the unofficial boss of the team, you know.
I mean even he was high, he was had more
power than even our director for sure. So yeah, I
(11:20):
mean that came with consequences. It was just like he
was the boss and he laughed at his jokes. He
didn't you know, you didn't never talk to over him,
and you try to sympathize with him when he was
having a bad day.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Or when things weren't going great.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
And it was it was stressful because you kind of
always had to be in your toes and when you
weren't and you maybe were like in his eyes, a
little bit disrespectful or weren't paying enough attention.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
And yeah, things happen sometimes and wasn't always the funnest,
but yeah, but he also brought a lot of energy
to the team. He had tons of energy, for sure.
He was always making up, you know, funny sayings and
calm he called, like to call a lot of people out,
you know, with the exception of himself maybe, but he
called a lot of people out. And you know, sometimes
(12:07):
I was fun, but a lot of times it wasn't,
you know, just bullying. And you know, if a rider
went too fast, it was all not normal pandermal.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
As they would say, not normal, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
But but yeah, well, I mean we were we were
all routing too fast at times. Eventually my career, yeah,
I believe it was in two thousand and two, two
thousand and three, I worked with a doctor by the
name of Ufe Nana Fuentes. We called him Ufe. He
was basically blood oping doctor. He h extract blood, store
it for you like a lot of other cyclists and athletes,
(12:40):
and then reinfuse it back into you when your when
your body was depleted.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
So we'd usually.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Text back and forth. Rarely, rarely, wo we talked to
each other on the phone, but we definitely spoken code
a lot. So you know, to get give a blood bag,
you're going to give a present. Sometimes I have a
present to give to you. I'd maybe say that in
a text message. And and I do remember this one
time I texted him like, heyfe, I need to give
you a bike, meaning a bag of blood basically, and
(13:10):
he took that, literally took that and said, oh so great,
I need a new bike. And yeah, I kind of
got myself into a little bit of a pigeonhole. But
you know what, I had an extra training bike. I
think I believe it was a Curbello and yeah, that
made its way to hoofed me on a Fontes. After that,
I didn't promise him anything else. Didn't want to say
(13:30):
I'm going to give you a car. So yeah, I mean,
I've had all sorts of problems with my teeth due
to me grinding down grinding them down during my career,
during painful moments. The first big accident I had where
I started grinding severely was in the two thousand and
two Cheered Italia, bombing down a descent and the pins
(13:53):
on my cassette on the back wheel snapped off. And
it's basically the same effect as like breaking your chain,
so sprinting out of a corner, and that happened, and
I went flying over my handlebars, laying on my shoulder,
and I didn't find out till the day after the
race ended, you know, two and a half weeks later,
that I'd broke basically the top of my arm, in
my in my shoulder socket. So yeah, I spent the
(14:16):
rest of the race in a ton of pain. Whether
it was riding, whether I was on my bike or
off the bike, or even sleeping, I was grinding my
teeth constantly, grinding, grinding, grinding. The same thing happened the
next year in the two thousand and three toward France,
I crashed on stage one and a mass crashed and
broke my collarbone. Continued in the race, did the same thing,
ground my teeth the whole way. I finished fourth overall
(14:38):
and on a stage that off season, I went to
see the dentist and yeah, then I got it to
have my whole mouth reconstructed, all caps on every tooth.
So it's been a process. And actually in about an
hour I got to go to the dentist to get
a new cap replacement.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
So sometimes people say was it worth it to keep going?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
You know, I got a lot of a lot of
people praised me for keeping keeping going in the Tour
de France and three, and it seemed like I got
a lot of attention back in the United States, and uh,
and I didn't really realize until I got back to
my hometown of Marble At Massachusetts, and uh, they'd like
a huge parade for me, and a couple thousand people
(15:19):
came out and they gave me the key.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
To the town.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
You know, from the outside it looked really glamorous and
you know, how lucky for me. But you know, on
the inside, I was really struggling. And there I was
having a smile and you know, speak in front of
you know, thousands of people there in my hometown. And
probably a month later, I was diagnosed with depression. At
the hot really at that peak of my career, so
(15:44):
I had this relationship with this deviant doctor Ufimana Fuente
is he.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
It was the two thousand and four to France. You know,
he text back and forth, arranged the meeting where he's
going to drop off a bloodbed and I want to
infuse you know, a bag of my blood that i'd
you know, given to him maybe a month or two before.
And they came to my hotel room. I got the
infused blood infusion, and then probably about an hour later,
(16:13):
I started feeling kind of hot, feverish, and I went
to the bathroom and I went to I looked down
and my yeurn was was like black like filled with
the dead red blood blood cells. So, uh, that was
kind of a scary moment for me. You know, I
(16:35):
didn't know, I didn't know what was I figured right away, like,
oh it was they gave me a my blood bag
had gone bad. It probably had gotten too warm or
had it been affected, and you know, the blood cells
had died and then it was reinfused into me.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
So it was uh.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I mean, I was lucky I didn't die really and
I continue on the race, but it was it was
definitely an eye opening moment, like you know that the
system we were in was certainly not perfect. You know,
another time I was after I basically gave it by
a bag of blood. I was rushing out of the
Madrid airport where Ufiano Wentz lived and I was heading
(17:11):
back to my home in Gerona, Spain, and I was
really rushed to catch a flight, and I donated a
bag of blood.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
It's a big needle that they put in and.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Then you know, I quickly held pressure on my arm
for a few seconds, but then I had to go.
I had to go and catch my flight, and so
I ran out to the street, was hailing a cab
with one arm, and then I looked down and saw
the arm that I had just you know, given the
blood like it was. My sleeve was completely red, so
you know, the hole from the extraction needle had been closed.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
But there I was, you know, like you know, on
a busy street in Madrid.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
You know, in one hand, I'm like holding a cell
phone with like code names and numbers, the other hands
covered in blood. And you know, it was another moment
where I'm like, what am I doing? This is crazy?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
This is crazy, And you're listening to tyl Or Hamilton
tell one heck of a story The Secret race, inside
the hidden world of the Tour de France.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Doping cover ups and winning at all costs.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
It's available at Amazon, and all the usual suspects, and
my goodness, the life of living with these anti doping tests,
the regimes that got set up, the protocols, the daily
practices that knock on the door at home with his
wife where he just ducked for cover, and of course
what it was like to work for someone who would
drive you to this the way Lance Armstrong did and
(18:40):
the way everybody did. Frankly, can't blame Lance for the
anti doping machine. You can blame the industry itself. And
then of course that recirculation of his own blood and
calling the bags bikes.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
He had secret code.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Words and then blood infusions, and it's so bizarre, so bizarre,
and one day he wakes up and he's wondering, how
did I get into this? By the way, it's happened
all of us at some point in our life, more
than likely something you didn't want to do you ended
up doing. When we come back, more of the story
of Tyler Hamilton, former Olympic gold medalist here on our
(19:20):
American Stories, and we continue with our American stories and
(19:41):
former Olympic gold medalist and teammate of Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
So let's see two thousand and four.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
September two thousand and four, I was in the middle
of the Tour of Spain, another three week they called
Grand Tour, and had a positive doping test. My life
quickly spiraled a you know, down downward very fast, and
you know.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Kicked off the team, really did.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Cycer World turned that back to me, and yeah, I
went through you know, went through divorce, went through just hard, hard,
hard times. You know, the heavy blanket I was. I
felt a got a heavy blank out on me almost
at all times. Yeah, tried to make a comeback and
I was, you know, my name was now black. I
wasn't welcome back to the peloton. Most teams didn't want me.
(20:37):
Riders who I know that doped, you know, wouldn't even
talk to me. What got me out of the doldrums
was was telling the truth and that that was like
day one of like my new life. I was received
a subpoena to come in and answer questions about the
(20:59):
US Supposed Service Cycling team and Liance Armstrong in front
of a federal grand jury in Los Angeles that was
in I.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Believe twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Very few people knew the truth and there was in
front of I don't know twelve jury members and I
stood there for like seven hours and told the truth.
And when I got out of that court room, I
knew from that moment on, like the truth was my
way forward. So it felt so good to tell the truth,
you know, from the very beginning to the very end.
(21:30):
And that's kind of where it started for me.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Like when I.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Exited that court, I walked outside and I felt like
I just shed like one hundred pounds, one hundred pounds
backpack gone. Just felt free, not completely free. I knew there,
I knew there was a lot of work to be done,
but I was like, all right, this was you know,
day one and the rest of my life. So yeah,
(21:55):
what it was this twenty eleven, It was in the
middle of this federal investigation. They were investigated the US
Postal Service cycling team and they're also investigating Lance. Armstrong
was living in Boulder, Colorado at the time, and uh
I was invited to do a charity event up in Aspen.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
So my Uh, my colleague Jim.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Capra and I drove up there together and on our
way up, I do remember him like, hey, I'm gonna
just cause he knew Lance lived up there and there
was a big federal investigation going on and we didn't
need to cross paths. So he, I think he googled
what where Lance was and turns out he was on
a on a charity ride on the East coast. So
(22:37):
it's great, Okay, we're you know, smooth sailing. So that
night we're uh out at dinner with a group of people,
maybe twelve people.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I got up to use the restroom I had, and
I had to walk through like a dimly lit bar area.
So on my return from the restroom, just out of nowhere,
like a hand just reaches out and stops to me
in my tracks and I look over and boom, there's
Lance Armstrong, nostrils flaring. You know, you can only flare
(23:08):
your nostrils really if you're angry.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
It's hard to do it.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Just fake it.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
So I knew he was pissed.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
He got right in my face, he had his little
posse around him, and yeah, he told me he was
gonna make my life a living hell and both in
the courtroom and out of the courtroom.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So you know, that's called witness intimidation. You know, I
told him, hey, let's go speak outside.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
One on one instead of you know, let's leave your
posse here, or let me go grab some of my
friends and keep you know, make this even, but he
didn't want anything to do with it. Asked him also
go to like a quiet room to speak.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
He didn't want to do that either, but he just
kind of chastised me in front of his his his gang.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
So yeah, I mean I straight away had to let
let the veteral investigators know, and you know, but you know,
unfortunately the videotape in the restaurant cash can actually get
deleted or it was broken.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Somehow, so none of that, none of that really went anywhere.
But yeah, it was that was the truth. That's what happened.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
You know, I'm sure today Lance, but he found out
from the owner of the restaurant that I was there,
and like he came, he flew back from the East
Coast and came straight in and you know, approached me.
So you know, I'm sure today he regrets that. I
would think so, But yeah, that wasn't one of his
best days.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Yeah, it was a weird time. I was living in
Boulder then, and I mean I baseball bats at every doorway.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
People had their eyes on me and then and that
was and that was confirmed by the FBI soon there after,
I got an invitation to speak with sixty Minutes and
that was you know, everything I said to the in
front of the grand jury was sealed.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
So the only way, like about that information would go
to the public is if the case.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Continued, and I knew most likely it was going to
get shut down just to either like who they were investigating.
You know, there's a lot of power there, and it
did get shut down, but I knew the truth. I
had to be open and honest. So still the public didn't.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Know the truth. And so yeah, I chose to chose
to speak to sixty.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Minutes, and they gave me like a double sake segment,
so like almost forty minutes worth. But that was really
my first time telling the whole truth, or the part
of the truth to the you know, to the world
or anyone who's listening. That's the first time my parents
kind of heard the whole truth.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I gave him a warning the day before it aired
on sixty minutes. That was the first time I told
my parents the truth. So yeah, I got sat my
parents down, my brother and my sister, and yeah, I
told him pretty much, look the whole truth, from the
very beginning to the very end.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
It was it was brutal.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
You know, that was one of the most difficult things
I've ever done.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
So but yeah, they forgave me, and they you know,
they understand you have, people make mistakes, and you know,
my dad tells me today that he's.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
More proud of me. You know what I've done off
the bike and on the bike. That still wasn't enough.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
It was you know, with commercials and all that, it's
like maybe thirty thirty five minutes of the truth, but
there's a lot of a lot of the truth that
I still hadn't told.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
So that's when I decided to write a book.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
So I got a I luckily had a great co
writer by the name of Dan Coyle, and we spent
almost two and a half years writing a book together.
One of the hardest things I've ever done, about like
one of the proudest, you know, I'm really proud of
doing that. And it was almost like therapy really So yeah,
the Secret Race, I wrote a book and back in
twenty twelve one award Sports Sports Book Awards.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And yeah it was.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Yeah, I was very surprising man. Straight away.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
There was so much forgiveness, almost too much, because I
went from being the black sheep to like, maybe praise
a little bit too much.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
So I didn't. I struggled with that too.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Which is kind of weird if you think about it,
but it felt I just fellow a lot lighter and
I and I did feel really bad for Lance. I know,
he ate a lot of deep, dark secrets. I knew
he was going to fight to the very end of
you know, keep those secrets from not coming out. And yeah,
I felt sympathy for him. He was he was backed
up into a real deep hole, you know, or to
(27:16):
the edge of the cliff, and it was like either
tell the truth or or jump. And I'm glad he
told the truth. You know, what he did on Oprah,
I thought was great. You know, not everyone loved it,
but I thought those first like ten questions, the first
the yes no questions on OPRAH when he admitted to
his ped use, like, I thought that was great, and
(27:36):
you know, that's all sure people wanted to hear more details,
and we didn't get a lot of that, but you know,
the big questions were he answered. And you know, he
dope for a lot of his a lot of his career,
you know, like a lot of us so and I
honestly think I'm sure he's a better person today because
of it all. Yeah, I'm certain of life's changed a
(27:59):
lot for me. And I'm newly married again, got married
in December. Two step beautiful step children and then my
own I have my own son about eight months ago.
So it's been it's been a really great experience. I
love being a dad and a stepdad. Let's see, I
worked for a money manager down in Boulder, Colorado, so
(28:20):
I love helping people and you know, helping people manage
some money in a better way. So you get a
lot of positive feedback and it makes you feel good.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
My wife knows, she knows about my past, obviously, and
you know I've told our two.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Step children, the ten he's one's ten and one's eight.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
You know, they know my past. Our little guy who's
eight months. You know, maybe a few more years for that,
but people need to hear the story.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Like how.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Things get a little blurry when you set your mind
on a goal and like, but don't get off track.
And I got off track, and it's you got to
be honest about it, and you got to tell the
younger generation to make sure that you know they don't
make a mistake.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
That you did.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to
Tyler Hamilton his book The Secret Race Inside the hidden
world of the Tour de France, doping cover ups and
Winning at all costs. Go to Amazon by the usual
suspects and pick up the book.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
And there he was.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
On that day of that positive doping test. My life
spiraled down fast, kicked off the team, divorced. I felt
like I had a heavy blanket on me. And then
came that day where he told the truth, The truth
was my way forward. It felt like I had shed
a hundred pound backpack. And then I can just picture
(29:45):
that meeting with Lance Armstrong and the fury he had
is this one person was going to blow the cover
on everything. And now of course Tyler's married, he's a
money manager, and just admitting that life can get blurry
when you set a goal.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I got off track. Boy, that's any of us.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
The story of Tyler Hamilton, the story of the pursuit
of success, and of course the excesses we can commit
when doing that.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Here on our American stories.
And we continue with our American stories. Former Olympic gold
medalist Tyler Hamilton rocked the world of professional cycling and
exposed the doping culture surrounding the sport and its most
iconic writer, Lance Armstrong. Is one of the world's top
rank cyclists and a member of Lance Armstrong's Inner Circle.
(00:32):
Hamilton has quite an amazing story of his own, and
he is here to share it with us.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
My name's Tyler Hamilton. I live here in Missoula, Montana.
Grew up in Marbletote, Massachusetts. Great family, older brother, older sister,
loved the outdoors and loved to spend time out in nature. First,
it was my love for skiing that kind of got
me excited at being outdoors. Him a ski racer. After
(01:03):
an accident with the University of Colorado's ski team, I
broke my back and then started my cycling career kind
of by accident.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It happened fast. I was a bit of a late
bloomer in cycling.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
But you know, I've always had like a high pain threshold,
and I think I was born with it.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I don't know. My parents are tough.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
My grandparents were tough and so I think that was
the biggest asset that I had as a bike racer,
just you know that never give up mentality and just
you know, don't listen to the pain. Growing up in
Marble At, Massachusetts in the seventies was pretty awesome. I
was born in seventy one. Yeah, I mean, my parents
(01:42):
didn't really put many demands on my brother or sister
at all, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
I mean They're like just trying to.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Do well in school and working hard, and they liked
just competing in sports if we were interested in it.
But whether or not we were successful in sports, it
didn't matter.
Speaker 4 (01:57):
It didn't matter, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
The most important thing for them was, you know, being honest,
being a good sport.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
And just being you know, transparent.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
My dad said, if we did have a family chrish,
it would probably be you know, honesty, and uh yeah,
I got in trouble here and there, but it was
I got in a lot of trouble when I was dishonest, a.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Lot of trouble.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It was really exciting to get my first pro contract.
I signed it in what the fall of nineteen ninety four.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
It was the original Postal team.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
It was under a different title sponsor then but it
was the original US Postal team and it was under
the sponsor of Montgomery Bell. The next year, nineteen ninety six,
it became the US Postal Team. I thought I had
no business, you know, racing professionally, but obviously people believed
in me, and I got a call from Tom Weisl,
(02:51):
the head of Montgomery Securities.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And the leader of the team.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, he offered me a contract was I think it
was thirty thousand dollars back then. And at the time
when he made the phone call, I was painting my
neighbor's house to make extra money to just make ends meet,
and I thought it was just gonna be you know,
one year, maybe two years of doing this and then
had finish up college and get a real job and
do the nine to five thing. But next thing I know,
(03:15):
I'm on the start line in the Toitter France, which
I thought was way beyond anything that I.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Could possibly do.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Fast forward two years from there, we're trying to win
the Twitter France and that was That was with Lance Armstrong.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
That was in ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
But yeah, I mean we were kind of the bad
news bears of cycling in the early years ninety seven
ninety eight, even ninety nine when Lance won. You know,
we were on a small budget team. Most teams have
big bus, big shiny buses. We had like two rented
little campers. It stuffed all nine riders into both of
those and staff members and one again in two thousand
(03:51):
and one, again in two thousand and one, and with Lance,
and then at that point I was I felt like
I could see myself in the same role. I could
look back three years in the look ahead three years
and see myself doing the same exact thing, which is
being like a domestique, a workhorse for Lance in the tour.
So it wasn't a bad thing, but I was sure
that if I stayed in that role, I would definitely
(04:13):
regret it someday and regret the chance of going off
and maybe trying for myself seeing.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
What I could do.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
The doping and the sport of cycling.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
I mean, I remember hearing about it back in probably
like nineteen ninety four when I was on the US
national team and then first year pro in nineteen ninety five.
I remember hearing a little bit about it, but every
once in a while you read like a small blurb
and it was like doping was happening over in Europe.
You know, it wasn't happening stateside. But I didn't really
(04:43):
realize it until I got to the highest ranks in
nineteen ninety seven, when we did the Tour de France
for the first time, and that's kind of when I
kind of gave into it. A team doctor came into
my room for your a few months into the season.
We just finished a really difficult five or six day
(05:03):
stage race in southern Spain. I was just like a
starfish on the bed, laying on the bed, and the
team doctor walked in and told me like how proud
he was of me, but that I had started taking
care of my body, and you know, that's when I happened.
He was wearing this flyfishing vest and pulled out a
little red egg egg shaped capsule and he told me
(05:25):
what it was, and he told me that it was
a testosterone and then what I needed to do. Yeah,
so that's how it started. I didn't want to be
I didn't want to participate in any of that, but
I feel like at that level that was it was
either say yes to it, and at that point I
knew a lot of my teammates were open It was
(05:46):
a hard decision, but I made the decision really quick,
and then I thought about the consequences of it, like
almost daily. It was also like he was inviting me
into onto like the A team basically, you know, it
was like the team within the team. Before that, I
felt like I was on the B team, just trying
to prove myself. And then all of a sudden, I
think the team saw that that I was talented enough,
(06:07):
they believed in me enough, saw that I was hungry enough,
and that's when I kind of got it, invited onto
the whatever you could call it. We didn't have an
A and B team, but hypothetical A team, and that
was a couple of months away from riding in my
first tour to France, and so that's you know, I
was like, Okay, I'm being invited onto this team. I
(06:27):
need to even though I know it's wrong, I need.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
To take this opportunity.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So started with the red egg testosterone and then I
don't know if a month later, my first injection of EPO,
which raises your red blood cell count.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
But you really wouldn't feel it. You really wouldn't feel anything.
It was just a small little prick under your skin.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Then, but if you did it consistently, you know, a
few times a week over three four weeks, eventually you'd
feel a little bit of a difference. You know, going
up hill felt a little bit more off the while
riding a little bit faster at the same heart rate.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
And yeah, you could feel the difference.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It made it.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I mean, out of all the things I did, that
was the biggest game changer.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
EPO.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yeah, I mean within cycling, it was a bit of
an arms race. I mean, doping was prevalent. I mean
at first I didn't really know how prevalent it was,
and then I quickly realized that it wasn't just myself
and a few of my teammates on Postal, it was
every team was doing it.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
It was rampant, and you.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Know, riders are changing teams on a yearly basis. Directors
changed teams, team doctors changed teams, so like in general,
the secrets were out, you know, when I first started
doping in nineteen ninety seven, I mean, the teams would
travel with it to the races, divvy it up to riders,
and then send them a home with it in a
little like care package.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
So it was very open.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Wild West days that they weren't worried about getting caught,
you know, and then things came like kind of cracking down.
While in the ninety eight season, that's when they had
the Festina affair.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
They caught it French team.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
I think it was at the Belgian border crossing over
and it was one of the staff members had a
car load of performance in Hanston drugs.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Last night, Jean Marie LeBlanc, the director general of the
Tour de France, issued a statement saying that Team Festina,
the number one team in the world, has been removed
from this year's tour. Now this comes on the heels
of an admission by the lawyer for Bruno Roussel, the
team manager, that there was a doping plan in place
for the use of performance enhancing drugs under strict medical supervision.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
And that's when Rogers went to jail. People became a
lot more secretive. People just seemed like they just became
a lot more worried. The EPO test came out and
the team doctors quickly figured out how to eat it
and how to still take EPO without getting caught, and
that meant kind of smaller type doses and maybe a
(08:59):
little bit more casistently.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yeah, and then under the.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Scan it goes through your body, clears through your body quicker.
It was, oh, now in the vein instead of under
the skin. Yeah, all these little tricks I didn't like.
Most cycles wouldn't know this, But like all the doctors knew,
and they they knew how to beat the test, so
like before you even thought about it that there was
handing you a cheet sheet basically.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
And you're listening to tyl Or Hamilton tell a heck
of a story about his life in cycling, his family,
and so much more, including how doping came to be
and how it became just all a part of cycling life.
I love what he said about his parents and their motto,
the family crest be honest. I got in the most
(09:40):
trouble when I wasn't honest. More of Tyler Hamilton's story
his book The Secret Race Inside the hidden world of
the Tour de France, Doping cover ups and winning at
all costs.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
The story continues here on our American.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Stories, and we continue with our American stories and former
Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton's story.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
There were a few times during my career when yeah,
I knew I wasn't clear to take a test, and
when they had anti doping out of competition at anti
doping tests like that's when things became a lot more difficult.
One time, I remember I was back home in my
hometown of Marblehead and got my wife and I at
(10:42):
the time, got a knock on the door. It was
a pretty loud knock and it.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
Sounded like the knock you didn't want to hear.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So instead of opening that door, we just hit the deck,
stayed low and stay quiet, and basically avoided a test.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
You were able to get at the time.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I think you were able to have two miss tests
before you got in trouble. Being a teammate with lamps
was was of I mean, I would say it was
a challenge. You know, he was he was a boss.
He was the unofficial boss of the team, you know.
I mean even he was high, he was had more
power than even our director for sure. So yeah, I
(11:20):
mean that came with consequences. It was just like he
was the boss and he laughed at his jokes. He
didn't you know, you didn't never talk to over him,
and you try to sympathize with him when he was
having a bad day.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Or when things weren't going great.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
And it was it was stressful because you kind of
always had to be in your toes and when you
weren't and you maybe were like in his eyes, a
little bit disrespectful or weren't paying enough attention.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
And yeah, things happen sometimes and wasn't always the funnest,
but yeah, but he also brought a lot of energy
to the team. He had tons of energy, for sure.
He was always making up, you know, funny sayings and
calm he called, like to call a lot of people out,
you know, with the exception of himself maybe, but he
called a lot of people out. And you know, sometimes
(12:07):
I was fun, but a lot of times it wasn't,
you know, just bullying. And you know, if a rider
went too fast, it was all not normal pandermal.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
As they would say, not normal, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
But but yeah, well, I mean we were we were
all routing too fast at times. Eventually my career, yeah,
I believe it was in two thousand and two, two
thousand and three, I worked with a doctor by the
name of Ufe Nana Fuentes. We called him Ufe. He
was basically blood oping doctor. He h extract blood, store
it for you like a lot of other cyclists and athletes,
(12:40):
and then reinfuse it back into you when your when
your body was depleted.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
So we'd usually.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Text back and forth. Rarely, rarely, wo we talked to
each other on the phone, but we definitely spoken code
a lot. So you know, to get give a blood bag,
you're going to give a present. Sometimes I have a
present to give to you. I'd maybe say that in
a text message. And and I do remember this one
time I texted him like, heyfe, I need to give
you a bike, meaning a bag of blood basically, and
(13:10):
he took that, literally took that and said, oh so great,
I need a new bike. And yeah, I kind of
got myself into a little bit of a pigeonhole. But
you know what, I had an extra training bike. I
think I believe it was a Curbello and yeah, that
made its way to hoofed me on a Fontes. After that,
I didn't promise him anything else. Didn't want to say
(13:30):
I'm going to give you a car. So yeah, I mean,
I've had all sorts of problems with my teeth due
to me grinding down grinding them down during my career,
during painful moments. The first big accident I had where
I started grinding severely was in the two thousand and
two Cheered Italia, bombing down a descent and the pins
(13:53):
on my cassette on the back wheel snapped off. And
it's basically the same effect as like breaking your chain,
so sprinting out of a corner, and that happened, and
I went flying over my handlebars, laying on my shoulder,
and I didn't find out till the day after the
race ended, you know, two and a half weeks later,
that I'd broke basically the top of my arm, in
my in my shoulder socket. So yeah, I spent the
(14:16):
rest of the race in a ton of pain. Whether
it was riding, whether I was on my bike or
off the bike, or even sleeping, I was grinding my
teeth constantly, grinding, grinding, grinding. The same thing happened the
next year in the two thousand and three toward France,
I crashed on stage one and a mass crashed and
broke my collarbone. Continued in the race, did the same thing,
ground my teeth the whole way. I finished fourth overall
(14:38):
and on a stage that off season, I went to
see the dentist and yeah, then I got it to
have my whole mouth reconstructed, all caps on every tooth.
So it's been a process. And actually in about an
hour I got to go to the dentist to get
a new cap replacement.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
So sometimes people say was it worth it to keep going?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
You know, I got a lot of a lot of
people praised me for keeping keeping going in the Tour
de France and three, and it seemed like I got
a lot of attention back in the United States, and uh,
and I didn't really realize until I got back to
my hometown of Marble At Massachusetts, and uh, they'd like
a huge parade for me, and a couple thousand people
(15:19):
came out and they gave me the key.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
To the town.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
You know, from the outside it looked really glamorous and
you know, how lucky for me. But you know, on
the inside, I was really struggling. And there I was
having a smile and you know, speak in front of
you know, thousands of people there in my hometown. And
probably a month later, I was diagnosed with depression. At
the hot really at that peak of my career, so
(15:44):
I had this relationship with this deviant doctor Ufimana Fuente
is he.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
It was the two thousand and four to France. You know,
he text back and forth, arranged the meeting where he's
going to drop off a bloodbed and I want to
infuse you know, a bag of my blood that i'd
you know, given to him maybe a month or two before.
And they came to my hotel room. I got the
infused blood infusion, and then probably about an hour later,
(16:13):
I started feeling kind of hot, feverish, and I went
to the bathroom and I went to I looked down
and my yeurn was was like black like filled with
the dead red blood blood cells. So, uh, that was
kind of a scary moment for me. You know, I
(16:35):
didn't know, I didn't know what was I figured right away, like,
oh it was they gave me a my blood bag
had gone bad. It probably had gotten too warm or
had it been affected, and you know, the blood cells
had died and then it was reinfused into me.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
So it was uh.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I mean, I was lucky I didn't die really and
I continue on the race, but it was it was
definitely an eye opening moment, like you know that the
system we were in was certainly not perfect. You know,
another time I was after I basically gave it by
a bag of blood. I was rushing out of the
Madrid airport where Ufiano Wentz lived and I was heading
(17:11):
back to my home in Gerona, Spain, and I was
really rushed to catch a flight, and I donated a
bag of blood.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
It's a big needle that they put in and.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Then you know, I quickly held pressure on my arm
for a few seconds, but then I had to go.
I had to go and catch my flight, and so
I ran out to the street, was hailing a cab
with one arm, and then I looked down and saw
the arm that I had just you know, given the
blood like it was. My sleeve was completely red, so
you know, the hole from the extraction needle had been closed.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
But there I was, you know, like you know, on
a busy street in Madrid.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
You know, in one hand, I'm like holding a cell
phone with like code names and numbers, the other hands
covered in blood. And you know, it was another moment
where I'm like, what am I doing? This is crazy?
Speaker 1 (18:05):
This is crazy, And you're listening to tyl Or Hamilton
tell one heck of a story The Secret race, inside
the hidden world of the Tour de France.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Doping cover ups and winning at all costs.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
It's available at Amazon, and all the usual suspects, and
my goodness, the life of living with these anti doping tests,
the regimes that got set up, the protocols, the daily
practices that knock on the door at home with his
wife where he just ducked for cover, and of course
what it was like to work for someone who would
drive you to this the way Lance Armstrong did and
(18:40):
the way everybody did. Frankly, can't blame Lance for the
anti doping machine. You can blame the industry itself. And
then of course that recirculation of his own blood and
calling the bags bikes.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
He had secret code.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Words and then blood infusions, and it's so bizarre, so bizarre,
and one day he wakes up and he's wondering, how
did I get into this? By the way, it's happened
all of us at some point in our life, more
than likely something you didn't want to do you ended
up doing. When we come back, more of the story
of Tyler Hamilton, former Olympic gold medalist here on our
(19:20):
American Stories, and we continue with our American stories and
(19:41):
former Olympic gold medalist and teammate of Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
So let's see two thousand and four.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
September two thousand and four, I was in the middle
of the Tour of Spain, another three week they called
Grand Tour, and had a positive doping test. My life
quickly spiraled a you know, down downward very fast, and
you know.
Speaker 4 (20:10):
Kicked off the team, really did.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Cycer World turned that back to me, and yeah, I
went through you know, went through divorce, went through just hard, hard,
hard times. You know, the heavy blanket I was. I
felt a got a heavy blank out on me almost
at all times. Yeah, tried to make a comeback and
I was, you know, my name was now black. I
wasn't welcome back to the peloton. Most teams didn't want me.
(20:37):
Riders who I know that doped, you know, wouldn't even
talk to me. What got me out of the doldrums
was was telling the truth and that that was like
day one of like my new life. I was received
a subpoena to come in and answer questions about the
(20:59):
US Supposed Service Cycling team and Liance Armstrong in front
of a federal grand jury in Los Angeles that was
in I.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Believe twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Very few people knew the truth and there was in
front of I don't know twelve jury members and I
stood there for like seven hours and told the truth.
And when I got out of that court room, I
knew from that moment on, like the truth was my
way forward. So it felt so good to tell the truth,
you know, from the very beginning to the very end.
(21:30):
And that's kind of where it started for me.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Like when I.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Exited that court, I walked outside and I felt like
I just shed like one hundred pounds, one hundred pounds
backpack gone. Just felt free, not completely free. I knew there,
I knew there was a lot of work to be done,
but I was like, all right, this was you know,
day one and the rest of my life. So yeah,
(21:55):
what it was this twenty eleven, It was in the
middle of this federal investigation. They were investigated the US
Postal Service cycling team and they're also investigating Lance. Armstrong
was living in Boulder, Colorado at the time, and uh
I was invited to do a charity event up in Aspen.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
So my Uh, my colleague Jim.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Capra and I drove up there together and on our
way up, I do remember him like, hey, I'm gonna
just cause he knew Lance lived up there and there
was a big federal investigation going on and we didn't
need to cross paths. So he, I think he googled
what where Lance was and turns out he was on
a on a charity ride on the East coast. So
(22:37):
it's great, Okay, we're you know, smooth sailing. So that
night we're uh out at dinner with a group of people,
maybe twelve people.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I got up to use the restroom I had, and
I had to walk through like a dimly lit bar area.
So on my return from the restroom, just out of nowhere,
like a hand just reaches out and stops to me
in my tracks and I look over and boom, there's
Lance Armstrong, nostrils flaring. You know, you can only flare
(23:08):
your nostrils really if you're angry.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
It's hard to do it.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Just fake it.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
So I knew he was pissed.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
He got right in my face, he had his little
posse around him, and yeah, he told me he was
gonna make my life a living hell and both in
the courtroom and out of the courtroom.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
So you know, that's called witness intimidation. You know, I
told him, hey, let's go speak outside.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
One on one instead of you know, let's leave your
posse here, or let me go grab some of my
friends and keep you know, make this even, but he
didn't want anything to do with it. Asked him also
go to like a quiet room to speak.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
He didn't want to do that either, but he just
kind of chastised me in front of his his his gang.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
So yeah, I mean I straight away had to let
let the veteral investigators know, and you know, but you know,
unfortunately the videotape in the restaurant cash can actually get
deleted or it was broken.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Somehow, so none of that, none of that really went anywhere.
But yeah, it was that was the truth. That's what happened.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
You know, I'm sure today Lance, but he found out
from the owner of the restaurant that I was there,
and like he came, he flew back from the East
Coast and came straight in and you know, approached me.
So you know, I'm sure today he regrets that. I
would think so, But yeah, that wasn't one of his
best days.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Yeah, it was a weird time. I was living in
Boulder then, and I mean I baseball bats at every doorway.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
People had their eyes on me and then and that
was and that was confirmed by the FBI soon there after,
I got an invitation to speak with sixty Minutes and
that was you know, everything I said to the in
front of the grand jury was sealed.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
So the only way, like about that information would go
to the public is if the case.
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Continued, and I knew most likely it was going to
get shut down just to either like who they were investigating.
You know, there's a lot of power there, and it
did get shut down, but I knew the truth. I
had to be open and honest. So still the public didn't.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Know the truth. And so yeah, I chose to chose
to speak to sixty.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Minutes, and they gave me like a double sake segment,
so like almost forty minutes worth. But that was really
my first time telling the whole truth, or the part
of the truth to the you know, to the world
or anyone who's listening. That's the first time my parents
kind of heard the whole truth.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
I gave him a warning the day before it aired
on sixty minutes. That was the first time I told
my parents the truth. So yeah, I got sat my
parents down, my brother and my sister, and yeah, I
told him pretty much, look the whole truth, from the
very beginning to the very end.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
It was it was brutal.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
You know, that was one of the most difficult things
I've ever done.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
So but yeah, they forgave me, and they you know,
they understand you have, people make mistakes, and you know,
my dad tells me today that he's.
Speaker 4 (25:57):
More proud of me. You know what I've done off
the bike and on the bike. That still wasn't enough.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
It was you know, with commercials and all that, it's
like maybe thirty thirty five minutes of the truth, but
there's a lot of a lot of the truth that
I still hadn't told.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
So that's when I decided to write a book.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
So I got a I luckily had a great co
writer by the name of Dan Coyle, and we spent
almost two and a half years writing a book together.
One of the hardest things I've ever done, about like
one of the proudest, you know, I'm really proud of
doing that. And it was almost like therapy really So yeah,
the Secret Race, I wrote a book and back in
twenty twelve one award Sports Sports Book Awards.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
And yeah it was.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
Yeah, I was very surprising man. Straight away.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
There was so much forgiveness, almost too much, because I
went from being the black sheep to like, maybe praise
a little bit too much.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
So I didn't. I struggled with that too.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
Which is kind of weird if you think about it,
but it felt I just fellow a lot lighter and
I and I did feel really bad for Lance. I know,
he ate a lot of deep, dark secrets. I knew
he was going to fight to the very end of
you know, keep those secrets from not coming out. And yeah,
I felt sympathy for him. He was he was backed
up into a real deep hole, you know, or to
(27:16):
the edge of the cliff, and it was like either
tell the truth or or jump. And I'm glad he
told the truth. You know, what he did on Oprah,
I thought was great. You know, not everyone loved it,
but I thought those first like ten questions, the first
the yes no questions on OPRAH when he admitted to
his ped use, like, I thought that was great, and
(27:36):
you know, that's all sure people wanted to hear more details,
and we didn't get a lot of that, but you know,
the big questions were he answered. And you know, he
dope for a lot of his a lot of his career,
you know, like a lot of us so and I
honestly think I'm sure he's a better person today because
of it all. Yeah, I'm certain of life's changed a
(27:59):
lot for me. And I'm newly married again, got married
in December. Two step beautiful step children and then my
own I have my own son about eight months ago.
So it's been it's been a really great experience. I
love being a dad and a stepdad. Let's see, I
worked for a money manager down in Boulder, Colorado, so
(28:20):
I love helping people and you know, helping people manage
some money in a better way. So you get a
lot of positive feedback and it makes you feel good.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
My wife knows, she knows about my past, obviously, and
you know I've told our two.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Step children, the ten he's one's ten and one's eight.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
You know, they know my past. Our little guy who's
eight months. You know, maybe a few more years for that,
but people need to hear the story.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Like how.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Things get a little blurry when you set your mind
on a goal and like, but don't get off track.
And I got off track, and it's you got to
be honest about it, and you got to tell the
younger generation to make sure that you know they don't
make a mistake.
Speaker 4 (29:00):
That you did.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to
Tyler Hamilton his book The Secret Race Inside the hidden
world of the Tour de France, doping cover ups and
Winning at all costs. Go to Amazon by the usual
suspects and pick up the book.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
And there he was.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
On that day of that positive doping test. My life
spiraled down fast, kicked off the team, divorced. I felt
like I had a heavy blanket on me. And then
came that day where he told the truth, The truth
was my way forward. It felt like I had shed
a hundred pound backpack. And then I can just picture
(29:45):
that meeting with Lance Armstrong and the fury he had
is this one person was going to blow the cover
on everything. And now of course Tyler's married, he's a
money manager, and just admitting that life can get blurry
when you set a goal.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
I got off track. Boy, that's any of us.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
The story of Tyler Hamilton, the story of the pursuit
of success, and of course the excesses we can commit
when doing that.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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