January 4, 2024 • 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
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 Marblett, Massachusetts. Great family, older brother, older sister.
Loved the outdoors and love to spend time out in nature. First,
it was my love for skiing that kind of got
me excited at being outdoors.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Him a ski racer.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
After an accident with the University of Colorado's ski team,
I broke my back and then started my cycling career
kind of by accident. It happened fast. I was a
bit of a late bloomer in cycling. But you know,
I've always had like a high pain threshold, and I
think I was born with it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
My parents are tough, 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 marblo At, Massachusetts in the seventies was
pretty awesome. I was born in seventy one. Yeah, I mean,
(01:42):
my parents didn't really put many demands on my brother
sister at all, you know. I mean they're like just
trying to do well in school and working hard, and
they liked us competing in sports if we were interested
in it. But whether or not we were successful in sports,
it didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (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, and just being you know, transparent.
My dad said, if we did have a family crest,
who 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.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Was dishonest, a 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.
It was the original Postal team. It was under a
different title sponsor then, but it was the original US
Postal Team and it was under the sponsor of Montgomery Fell.
The next year, nineteen ninety six, it became the US
(02:39):
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, the head of Montgomery
Securities and the leader of the team. Yeah, he offered
me a contract. I think it was thirty thousand dollars
back then. And at the time when he made the
(03:00):
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 I'd finish up
college and get a real job and do the nine
to five thing. But next thing I know, I'm on
the start line in the Twitter France, which I thought
was way beyond anything that I could possibly do. Fast
(03:22):
forward two years from there, we're trying to win the
Twitter France and that was That was with Lance Armstrong.
Speaker 2 (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 with stuff, 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 year in the look ahead three years
and see myself doing the same exact thing, which was
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 what I could do,
you know.
Speaker 2 (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 testosterone,
and then what I needed to do.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, so that's how it started.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
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 opening.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It was a hard decision.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
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, they believed in
(06:08):
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 need to even
(06:28):
though I know it's wrong, I need to take this opportunity.
So I started with the red egg testosterone and then
I don't know, a month later, my first injection of EPO,
which raises your red blood cell count. But you really
wouldn't feel it. You really wouldn't feel anything. It was
just a small little prick under your skin. Then, but
(06:49):
if you did it consistently, you know, a few times
a week over three four weeks.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Eventually you'd feel a little.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Bit of a difference, you know, going up hill, felt
a little bit more comfortable, riding a little bit faster
at the same heart rate, 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 2 (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. It was rampant, and you know,
riders are changing teams on a yearly basis. Directors changed teams,
(07:36):
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 and a little
like care package. So it was very open wild West
days that they weren't worried about getting caught, you know,
(07:57):
and then things came like kind of cracking down. In
the ninety eight season, that's when they had the Festina affair.
They caught it French team, I think it was at
the Belgian border crossing over and it was one of
this staff members had a car load of performance in
Hanston drugs.
Speaker 4 (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 2 (08:37):
And that's when riders went to jail.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
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 dosis
and maybe a little bit more consistently.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, and then under the scan, it.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Goes through your body, clears through your body, quicker if
it was, oh, now in the vein instead of under
the skin. Yeah, all these little tricks and didn't like
most cycles wouldn't know this, but like all the doctors knew,
and they they knew how to beat the tests. So
like before you even thought about it, there was handing
you a chee 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. The story continues here on our American stories,
(10:09):
and we continue with our American stories and former Olympic
gold medalist Tyler Hamilton's story. 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.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It was a pretty loud knock.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And it sounded like the knock you didn't want to hear.
So instead of opening that door, we just hit the deck,
stay low and stay quiet, and basically avoided a test.
Speaker 2 (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 he got in trouble. Being a teammate with lamps
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 higher, he was had more power than even.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Our director for sure.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
So yeah, I 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
over him, and you try to sympathize with him when
he was having a bad day or when things weren't going.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Great, and it was, it.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
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. And yeah, things happen sometimes, and
it 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,
(11:57):
you know, funny sayings and tom 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 I was fun, but
a lot of times it wasn't, you know, just bullying.
You know, if a rider went too fast, it was
not normal pandermal as they would say, not normal, you know.
(12:18):
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 Ufi Nana Fuents. We called him Ufe. He
was basically have blood open doctor. He extract blood store
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 2 (12:44):
So we'd usually text back and forth. Rarely, rarely would
we talked.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
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 the 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,
(13:09):
and 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 off one test.
After that, I didn't promise him anything else. Didn't want
(13:30):
to say 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
(13:52):
the pins on my.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Cassette on the back wheel snapped off.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
And it's basically the same effect as like breaking your chain,
so sprinting out of a quarter 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 had broke basically the top of my arm,
in my in my shoulder socket. So yeah, I spent
(14:16):
the rest of the race in a ton of pain.
Whether it was 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 Tour de 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.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I finished fourth overall, and on a stage that off.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Season I went to see the dentist and yeah, that
then I got to have my whole mouth reconstructed, all
caps on every tooth.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So it's been a process. And actually in about an hour,
I got.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
To go to the demos to get a new cap replacement.
So sometimes people say was it worth it to keep going?
You know, I got a lot of 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
(15:12):
back to my hometown of Marvellette, Massachusetts, and uh, they
had like a huge parade for me, and a couple
thousand people came out and they gave me the key
to the town.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
You know, from the outside it looked really clamorous and
you know, how lucky for me.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
But you know, on the inside, I was really struggling.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
And there I was having a like smile and you know,
speak in front of you know, thousands of people there
in my hometown.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And probably a month later, I was.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Diagnosed with depression at the hot really at that peak
of my career. So I had this relationship with this
deviant doctor Ufimana Fuente. Is he Uh, it was the
two thousand and four to de France. You know, he
text back and forth arranged the meeting where He's going
to drop off a blood bag and I'm going to infuse,
(16:01):
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, I
started feeling kind of hot, feverish, and I went to.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
The bathroom and I went to I looked down and
my yurn.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
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 didn't know, I
didn't know what was I figured right away like, oh
it was they gave me my blood bag had gone bad.
It probably had gotten too warm or had it been affected,
(16:45):
and you know, the blood cells had died and then
it was reinfused into me.
Speaker 2 (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, uh, it
was definitely an eye opening moment, like you know that
the system we were in was certainly not perfect.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Another time I was after I basically gave it by
a bag of blood. I was rushing out of the
Madrid airport where ufianof Wentes lived, and I was heading
back to my home in Gerona, Spain, and I was
really rushed to catch a flight, and I donated a
bag of blood. It's a big needle that they put
(17:22):
in and then you know, I quickly held pressure on
my arm.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
For a few seconds, but then I had to go.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
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 is completely red, so you know,
the hole from the extraction needle had been closed.
Speaker 2 (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.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Another moment where I'm like, what am I doing? This
is crazy? This is crazy.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And you're listening to Tyrl or Hamilton tell one heck
of a story. The secret race inside the hidden world
of the Tour de France, doping cover ups and winning
at all costs. 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
(18:32):
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 the way everybody did. Frankly, can't blame
Lance or 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. He had secret
(18:55):
code words and then blood infusions, and it's so bizarre,
so bizarre, and one day he wakes up and he's wondering.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
How did I get into this?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
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 American story, and we continue with
(19:39):
our American stories and former Olympic gold medalist and teammate
of Lance Armstrong Tyler Hamilton. Let's pick up where we
last left off.
Speaker 2 (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 at you know, down downward, very fast, and
you know.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Kicked off the team, really did.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Cycling 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 I 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.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
What got me out.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Of the doldrums was was telling the truth and that
that was like day one of like my new life.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I was received a.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Subpoena to come in and answer questions about the US
still serve as Cycling Team and Liance Armstrong in front
of a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. That was
in I believe twenty ten. 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
(21:18):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
So it felt so good to tell the truth.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
And you know, from the very beginning to the very end.
And that's kind of where it started for me. Like
when I exited that court, I walked outside and I
felt like I just shed like one hundred pounds, one
hundred pounds backpack gone.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Just felt free, not completely free.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I knew that I knew there was a lot of
work to be done, but I was like, all right,
this is you know, day one and the rest of
my life. So, yeah, 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
(22:05):
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. So my uh my colleague
Jim Caepra, and I drove.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Up there together and on our way up, I do
remember him like, hey, I'm.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
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 rode on the East coast.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
So it's great, Okay, we're you know, smooth sailing.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
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 me in
my tracks. And I look over and boom, there's Lance Armstrong,
nostrils flaring. You know, you can only flare your nostrils
(23:08):
really if you're angry. It's hard to do it. Just
fake it.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
So I knew he was pissed. He got right in
my face.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
He had this little posse around him, and yeah, he
told me he was going to make my life a
living hell. And both in the courtroom and out of
the courtroom. So you know, that's called witness intimidation.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
You know, I told him, hey, let's go speak.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Outside 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. He
didn't want to do that either, but he just kind
of chastised me in front of this his his gang.
So yeah, I mean I straight away had to let
(23:51):
let the federal investigators know, and you know, but you know,
unfortunately the videotape in the restaurant cash asht get deleted
or it was broken somehow, so none of that, none
of that really went anywhere.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
But yeah, it was that was the truth. That's what happened.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
You know, I'm sure today Lance probably 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.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So you know, I'm sure today he regrets that.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I would think so, But yeah, that wasn't one of
his best days.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, it was a weird time.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
I was living in Boulder then, and I mean I
had baseball bats at every doorway. 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
(24:54):
jury was sealed. So the only way, like without that
information would go to the public is if the case continued.
And I knew most likely it was going to get
shut down just do to 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 know the truth. And so yeah, I chose to
(25:15):
chose to speak to sixty Minutes, and they gave me
like a double sex segment, so like almost forty minutes worth.
And that was really that 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 2 (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.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Parents the truth. So yeah, I got sat my parents down.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
My brother and my sister, and yeah, I told them
pretty much, look the whole truth.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
From the very beginning to the very end.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
It was it was brutal.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
You know, that was one of the most difficult things
I've ever done. 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
more proud of me.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Or what I've done off the light 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. So that's when I decided to
write a book. 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,
(26:27):
about like one of the proudest, you know, I'm really
proud of doing that.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
It was almost like therapy really, So yeah, The Secret.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Race I wrote a book and back in twenty twelve
one award Sports Sports Book Awards, and.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, it was. Yeah, I was very surprising man.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Straight away, 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 2 (26:52):
So I didn't.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
I struggled with that too, which is kind of weird
if you think about it. But it felt I just
fell a lot lighter and I and I did feel
really bad for Lance.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I know he ate a lot of deep, dark secrets.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
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 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
(27:25):
loved it, but I thought those first like ten questions,
the first the yes no questions on OPRAH when he
admitted to.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
His ped use, like, I thought that was great, and
you know that's all.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Of it all.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, I'm certain of life's changed a lot for me.
And I'm newly married again. We got married in December.
Two step beautiful step children and then my own, 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. But see, I worked for a money
(28:18):
manager down in Boulder, Colorado, so 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. My wife knows.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
She knows about my past, obviously, And you know I've
told our two step children, the ten he's one's ten
and one's eight. You know, they they know my past,
our little guy who's eight months in maybe a few
more years for that.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
But people need to hear the story. Like how things
get a little glurry when you set your mind on
a goal. And like, but don't get off track.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
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 2 (29:01):
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 with the usual
suspects and pick up the book. And there he was.
(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
because 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. I got off track, boy,
that's any of us the story of Tyler Hamilton, the
(30:07):
story of the pursuit of success, and of course the
excesses we can commit when doing that. 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
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 Marblett, Massachusetts. Great family, older brother, older sister.
Loved the outdoors and love to spend time out in nature. First,
it was my love for skiing that kind of got
me excited at being outdoors.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Him a ski racer.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
After an accident with the University of Colorado's ski team,
I broke my back and then started my cycling career
kind of by accident. It happened fast. I was a
bit of a late bloomer in cycling. But you know,
I've always had like a high pain threshold, and I
think I was born with it.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
My parents are tough, 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 marblo At, Massachusetts in the seventies was
pretty awesome. I was born in seventy one. Yeah, I mean,
(01:42):
my parents didn't really put many demands on my brother
sister at all, you know. I mean they're like just
trying to do well in school and working hard, and
they liked us competing in sports if we were interested
in it. But whether or not we were successful in sports,
it didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (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, and just being you know, transparent.
My dad said, if we did have a family crest,
who 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.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Was dishonest, a 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.
It was the original Postal team. It was under a
different title sponsor then, but it was the original US
Postal Team and it was under the sponsor of Montgomery Fell.
The next year, nineteen ninety six, it became the US
(02:39):
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, the head of Montgomery
Securities and the leader of the team. Yeah, he offered
me a contract. I think it was thirty thousand dollars
back then. And at the time when he made the
(03:00):
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 I'd finish up
college and get a real job and do the nine
to five thing. But next thing I know, I'm on
the start line in the Twitter France, which I thought
was way beyond anything that I could possibly do. Fast
(03:22):
forward two years from there, we're trying to win the
Twitter France and that was That was with Lance Armstrong.
Speaker 2 (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 with stuff, 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 year in the look ahead three years
and see myself doing the same exact thing, which was
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 what I could do,
you know.
Speaker 2 (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 testosterone,
and then what I needed to do.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, so that's how it started.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
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 opening.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
It was a hard decision.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
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, they believed in
(06:08):
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 need to even
(06:28):
though I know it's wrong, I need to take this opportunity.
So I started with the red egg testosterone and then
I don't know, a month later, my first injection of EPO,
which raises your red blood cell count. But you really
wouldn't feel it. You really wouldn't feel anything. It was
just a small little prick under your skin. Then, but
(06:49):
if you did it consistently, you know, a few times
a week over three four weeks.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Eventually you'd feel a little.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Bit of a difference, you know, going up hill, felt
a little bit more comfortable, riding a little bit faster
at the same heart rate, 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 2 (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. It was rampant, and you know,
riders are changing teams on a yearly basis. Directors changed teams,
(07:36):
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 and a little
like care package. So it was very open wild West
days that they weren't worried about getting caught, you know,
(07:57):
and then things came like kind of cracking down. In
the ninety eight season, that's when they had the Festina affair.
They caught it French team, I think it was at
the Belgian border crossing over and it was one of
this staff members had a car load of performance in
Hanston drugs.
Speaker 4 (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 2 (08:37):
And that's when riders went to jail.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
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 dosis
and maybe a little bit more consistently.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, and then under the scan, it.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Goes through your body, clears through your body, quicker if
it was, oh, now in the vein instead of under
the skin. Yeah, all these little tricks and didn't like
most cycles wouldn't know this, but like all the doctors knew,
and they they knew how to beat the tests. So
like before you even thought about it, there was handing
you a chee 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. The story continues here on our American stories,
(10:09):
and we continue with our American stories and former Olympic
gold medalist Tyler Hamilton's story. 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.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It was a pretty loud knock.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
And it sounded like the knock you didn't want to hear.
So instead of opening that door, we just hit the deck,
stay low and stay quiet, and basically avoided a test.
Speaker 2 (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 he got in trouble. Being a teammate with lamps
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 higher, he was had more power than even.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Our director for sure.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
So yeah, I 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
over him, and you try to sympathize with him when
he was having a bad day or when things weren't going.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Great, and it was, it.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
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. And yeah, things happen sometimes, and
it 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,
(11:57):
you know, funny sayings and tom 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 I was fun, but
a lot of times it wasn't, you know, just bullying.
You know, if a rider went too fast, it was
not normal pandermal as they would say, not normal, you know.
(12:18):
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 Ufi Nana Fuents. We called him Ufe. He
was basically have blood open doctor. He extract blood store
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 2 (12:44):
So we'd usually text back and forth. Rarely, rarely would
we talked.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
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 the 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,
(13:09):
and 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 off one test.
After that, I didn't promise him anything else. Didn't want
(13:30):
to say 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
(13:52):
the pins on my.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Cassette on the back wheel snapped off.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
And it's basically the same effect as like breaking your chain,
so sprinting out of a quarter 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 had broke basically the top of my arm,
in my in my shoulder socket. So yeah, I spent
(14:16):
the rest of the race in a ton of pain.
Whether it was 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 Tour de 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.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I finished fourth overall, and on a stage that off.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Season I went to see the dentist and yeah, that
then I got to have my whole mouth reconstructed, all
caps on every tooth.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
So it's been a process. And actually in about an hour,
I got.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
To go to the demos to get a new cap replacement.
So sometimes people say was it worth it to keep going?
You know, I got a lot of 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
(15:12):
back to my hometown of Marvellette, Massachusetts, and uh, they
had like a huge parade for me, and a couple
thousand people came out and they gave me the key
to the town.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
You know, from the outside it looked really clamorous and
you know, how lucky for me.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
But you know, on the inside, I was really struggling.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
And there I was having a like smile and you know,
speak in front of you know, thousands of people there
in my hometown.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
And probably a month later, I was.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Diagnosed with depression at the hot really at that peak
of my career. So I had this relationship with this
deviant doctor Ufimana Fuente. Is he Uh, it was the
two thousand and four to de France. You know, he
text back and forth arranged the meeting where He's going
to drop off a blood bag and I'm going to infuse,
(16:01):
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, I
started feeling kind of hot, feverish, and I went to.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
The bathroom and I went to I looked down and
my yurn.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
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 didn't know, I
didn't know what was I figured right away like, oh
it was they gave me my blood bag had gone bad.
It probably had gotten too warm or had it been affected,
(16:45):
and you know, the blood cells had died and then
it was reinfused into me.
Speaker 2 (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, uh, it
was definitely an eye opening moment, like you know that
the system we were in was certainly not perfect.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Another time I was after I basically gave it by
a bag of blood. I was rushing out of the
Madrid airport where ufianof Wentes lived, and I was heading
back to my home in Gerona, Spain, and I was
really rushed to catch a flight, and I donated a
bag of blood. It's a big needle that they put
(17:22):
in and then you know, I quickly held pressure on
my arm.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
For a few seconds, but then I had to go.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
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 is completely red, so you know,
the hole from the extraction needle had been closed.
Speaker 2 (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.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Another moment where I'm like, what am I doing? This
is crazy? This is crazy.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
And you're listening to Tyrl or Hamilton tell one heck
of a story. The secret race inside the hidden world
of the Tour de France, doping cover ups and winning
at all costs. 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
(18:32):
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 the way everybody did. Frankly, can't blame
Lance or 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. He had secret
(18:55):
code words and then blood infusions, and it's so bizarre,
so bizarre, and one day he wakes up and he's wondering.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
How did I get into this?
Speaker 1 (19:06):
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 American story, and we continue with
(19:39):
our American stories and former Olympic gold medalist and teammate
of Lance Armstrong Tyler Hamilton. Let's pick up where we
last left off.
Speaker 2 (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 at you know, down downward, very fast, and
you know.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Kicked off the team, really did.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Cycling 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 I 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.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
What got me out.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Of the doldrums was was telling the truth and that
that was like day one of like my new life.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I was received a.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Subpoena to come in and answer questions about the US
still serve as Cycling Team and Liance Armstrong in front
of a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. That was
in I believe twenty ten. 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
(21:18):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
So it felt so good to tell the truth.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
And you know, from the very beginning to the very end.
And that's kind of where it started for me. Like
when I exited that court, I walked outside and I
felt like I just shed like one hundred pounds, one
hundred pounds backpack gone.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Just felt free, not completely free.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I knew that I knew there was a lot of
work to be done, but I was like, all right,
this is you know, day one and the rest of
my life. So, yeah, 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
(22:05):
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. So my uh my colleague
Jim Caepra, and I drove.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Up there together and on our way up, I do
remember him like, hey, I'm.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
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 rode on the East coast.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
So it's great, Okay, we're you know, smooth sailing.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
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 me in
my tracks. And I look over and boom, there's Lance Armstrong,
nostrils flaring. You know, you can only flare your nostrils
(23:08):
really if you're angry. It's hard to do it. Just
fake it.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
So I knew he was pissed. He got right in
my face.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
He had this little posse around him, and yeah, he
told me he was going to make my life a
living hell. And both in the courtroom and out of
the courtroom. So you know, that's called witness intimidation.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
You know, I told him, hey, let's go speak.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Outside 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. He
didn't want to do that either, but he just kind
of chastised me in front of this his his gang.
So yeah, I mean I straight away had to let
(23:51):
let the federal investigators know, and you know, but you know,
unfortunately the videotape in the restaurant cash asht get deleted
or it was broken somehow, so none of that, none
of that really went anywhere.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
But yeah, it was that was the truth. That's what happened.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
You know, I'm sure today Lance probably 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.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So you know, I'm sure today he regrets that.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
I would think so, But yeah, that wasn't one of
his best days.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, it was a weird time.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
I was living in Boulder then, and I mean I
had baseball bats at every doorway. 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
(24:54):
jury was sealed. So the only way, like without that
information would go to the public is if the case continued.
And I knew most likely it was going to get
shut down just do to 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 know the truth. And so yeah, I chose to
(25:15):
chose to speak to sixty Minutes, and they gave me
like a double sex segment, so like almost forty minutes worth.
And that was really that 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 2 (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.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Parents the truth. So yeah, I got sat my parents down.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
My brother and my sister, and yeah, I told them
pretty much, look the whole truth.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
From the very beginning to the very end.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
It was it was brutal.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
You know, that was one of the most difficult things
I've ever done. 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
more proud of me.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Or what I've done off the light 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. So that's when I decided to
write a book. 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,
(26:27):
about like one of the proudest, you know, I'm really
proud of doing that.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
It was almost like therapy really, So yeah, The Secret.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Race I wrote a book and back in twenty twelve
one award Sports Sports Book Awards, and.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, it was. Yeah, I was very surprising man.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Straight away, 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 2 (26:52):
So I didn't.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
I struggled with that too, which is kind of weird
if you think about it. But it felt I just
fell a lot lighter and I and I did feel
really bad for Lance.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
I know he ate a lot of deep, dark secrets.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
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 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
(27:25):
loved it, but I thought those first like ten questions,
the first the yes no questions on OPRAH when he
admitted to.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
His ped use, like, I thought that was great, and
you know that's all.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
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.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Of it all.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah, I'm certain of life's changed a lot for me.
And I'm newly married again. We got married in December.
Two step beautiful step children and then my own, 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. But see, I worked for a money
(28:18):
manager down in Boulder, Colorado, so 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. My wife knows.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
She knows about my past, obviously, And you know I've
told our two step children, the ten he's one's ten
and one's eight. You know, they they know my past,
our little guy who's eight months in maybe a few
more years for that.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
But people need to hear the story. Like how things
get a little glurry when you set your mind on
a goal. And like, but don't get off track.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
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 2 (29:01):
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 with the usual
suspects and pick up the book. And there he was.
(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
because 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. I got off track, boy,
that's any of us the story of Tyler Hamilton, the
(30:07):
story of the pursuit of success, and of course the
excesses we can commit when doing that. Here on our
American Stories,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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