Yes, the man has come clean. Well, as much as he could, I suppose, in his present situation. There are those that will never believe him, or believe in him, again.
But, I believe in him more now than perhaps I ever have.
He recently sent a letter out to folks taking ownership of the many falsehoods he’s trotted out over the years, and completely admitted to doping. As one might expect, it’s already shown up on the internet.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have made a fair bit of sport of the man. (See www.ibelievetyler.com.) Yeah. Kicking a man while he’s down is just too easy. So, I owe it to him, at minimum, to be clear in that I am impressed with his testimony to the grand jury, the letter he wrote, and the interview he gave. It took guts to do what he did. And, I respect him for it.
Dear Everybody,
I hope this finds you all doing well.
First of all, sorry for sending this out as a group letter. If there was any way I could come visit each of you individually, I would. I hope we are together soon.
There’s no easy way to say this, so let me just say it plain: on Sunday night you’ll see me on “60 Minutes” making a confession that’s overdue. Long overdue.
During my cycling career, I knowingly broke the rules. I used performance-enhancing drugs. I lied about it, over and over. Worst of all, I hurt people I care about. And while there are reasons for what I did — reasons I hope you’ll understand better after watching — it doesn’t excuse the fact that I did it all, and there’s no way on earth to undo it.
The question most people ask is, why now? There are two reasons. The first has to do with the federal investigation into cycling. Last summer, I received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury. Until that moment I walked into the courtroom, I hadn’t told a soul. My testimony went on for six hours. For me, it was like the Hoover dam breaking. I opened up; I told the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And I felt a sense of relief I’d never felt before — all the secrets, all the weight I’d been carrying around for years suddenly lifted. I saw that, for me personally, this was the way forward.
The second reason has to do with the sport I love. In order to truly reform, cycling needs to change, and change drastically, starting from the top. Now that I’m working as a coach, I see young people entering the sport with hopes of making it to the top. I believe that no one coming into the sport should have to face the difficult choices I had to make. And before the sport can move forward, it has to face the truth.
This hasn’t been easy, not by a long shot. But I want to let you know that I’m doing well. The coaching business is more fun and fulfilling than I’d ever imagined, and Tanker and I are loving our Boulder life. I recently turned 40, and my friends threw the best 80’s themed surprise party in the history of the world (hey, most of you were there!). Life is good.
Again, I just want to say I’m sorry, and that I hope you can forgive me. What matters to me most are my family and friends. I’m deeply grateful for all your support and love through the years, and I’m looking forward to spending time with all of you again, hopefully soon. My Mom and Dad always told me that the truth would set me free. I never knew how right they were.
Sincerely,
Tyler Hamilton
Source: http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/05/news/tyler-hamiltons-confession-letter_174652.
The letter also appeared on Cycingnews: Tyler Hamilton’s letter of confession.
The original CBS story is here: Ex-Teammate: I saw Lance Armstrong use EPO. Velonews has a piece up on the interview here: Tyler Hamilton tells 60 Minutes he saw Armstrong inject EPO. Another good article at Science of Sport: Tyler Hamilton: Confessor and witness. Video embedded below:
And so it goes…
Like the way George parses the words. Of course he never talked to 60 Minutes. 60 Minutes doesn’t claim he did. CBS claims he told the Feds.
You know, it just feels so good, like a giant weight has been lifted off your shoulders when you can finally admit to doping and finger your ex-teammates in an attempt to bring them down with you.
And Contador is just crushing the competition right now. Have ya’ll been watching him just kill those guys? He isn’t even in top form yet!!! Can’t wait to see what comes of the Tour this year.
Please allow me to call bullshit on the whole, “since they all doped, I’m not really seeing the big deal” argument. What crap. Sure, the podium was juiced, but what about guys like Voeckler and the post-Festina Moreau? The caliber of riders who could hang with the best most of the time, and occasionally win, but lacked the juice to do it every single day. There’s a whole lot of evidence that a lot of very good riders didn’t dope, and paid the price for their honesty decency. Did Lance steal a jersey from Ullrich? No. Did he steal one from Tommy V? Fuckin’ A.
People,
breath easy. it’s 17:10 & all is good.
Had a great time in my garage & my vegetable patch.
If the **RAPTURE** is going to happen, it’s not happening today.
Damn it, back to working out my taxes.
I believe George…
And Yeah,
BGW, thanks for your concern, no one here gave a shit
And thus St George slayeth the dragon.
Good to see your still around Hurben. Now that the rapture has passed us all by, let’s have Tool give the final word.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCEeAn6_QJo
@philly: They guys that really got screwed were the ones forced out of the sport for not getting on the program.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/05/news/scott-mercier-former-postal-rider-says-hamiltons-charges-ring-true_174876
Did anyone catch this on the ToC coverage yesterday? Phil and Paul talked about Tyler’s confession, but failed to mention the little part about their boy LA. Curious to see how they will handle Georges confession.
as i’ve heard big jonny say in the past…”and the dynamite goes BOOM”…
Looks like Tyler wasn’t lying, because he’s getting backed up by the testimony given by Hincapie within the grand jury. And here’s the thing. Nobody is going to lie to a grand jury, because if you do, off to Federal Pound Me In The Ass Prison for you, and guys like George and Tyler? Ain’t gonna do well in the slammer.
That being said, is anyone surprised?
Lance can talk about passing all the tests he wants to, even though he failed a few, but those were dismissed or ignored. Lots of other folks passed testing too, and then came out and said they doped. Quite a bit they doped. Look at Millar, Landis, Tyler, and so on and so forth. The names just keep rolling Basso. Virenque, Pantani, those guys never tested positive either, but is there any doubt they all doped? Hell no.
Lance, I hear your empire crashing down.
im not even going to read the 62 responses.
seriously… fuck that.
IMHO, too little, too late but he should focus on what HE did, and not try to implicate others at this point. It just looks like sour grapes because he got caught.
What’s interesting is if the feds investigate Lance for this because he was sponsored by Postal, which is an arm of the US Gov’t, thereby using federal funds to break international law…
Now THAT would be interesting…
but again, it’s the rapture and I’m drinkin.
I say Alberto should just say, fuck it, and win all three grand tours this year. If he has enough of a time gap, say eight hours, can he sit out the final stage?
…there’s evidence that ***the rapture*** actually occurred but it turns out only three people were truly righteous enough to be drawn up to heaven…
…everybody else who expected to go, didn’t & why was that ???…hypocrites…each & every last one of those self righteous, “…praise be to god…”, bible quoting, disingenuous motherfuckers were hypocrites…
…no place in heaven for ’em…
…& the zombies, the undead ???…gonna walk the earth & feast on the flesh of the living ???…turns out they just didn’t give a damn…
…next – it’s the mayan calender in 2012…another “***end of the world***’ deal…
For the first time ever, I am prepared to say “I Believe Tyler.” Now if I could just get hold of some of those old buttons and t-shirts, I could make a killing.
The professional entertainers continue to entertain the shit out of us huh? Remember, ultimately it’s all in the name of good entertainment. Those that really want to entertain, know what they have to do to be the best among the entertainers. They also know they will be more rewarded for being more entertaining. Keep up the good work boys, it’s all very entertaining!