Feature

Author of the week: Tyler Hamilton

For Lance Armstrong’s former teammate, it all began with a little testosterone pill, a “red egg,” from a team doctor in 1997.

For Tyler Hamilton, Lance Armstrong’s former teammate on the U.S. Postal Service cycling team, it all began with a little testosterone pill, a “red egg,” from a team doctor in 1997, said Nathaniel Vinton in the New York Daily News. Where it ends, for both men, is yet to be determined. In a new book, The Secret Race, Hamilton tells an ugly story about doping in his sport, complete with blood bags in his fridge and a motorcyclist trailing his Tour de France team carrying performance-enhancing drugs in a thermos. And then there’s Lance. From the beginning, Hamilton says, Armstrong was as competitive about doping as he was about every other aspect of cycling. Armstrong didn’t just work the system, Hamilton writes; “Lance was the system.”

Armstrong’s take-no-prisoners approach is the reason Hamilton was caught by surprise at his teammate’s recent decision to quit fighting the drug allegations, said Bonnie D. Ford in ESPN.com. But he doesn’t think Armstrong will sit quietly for long. “I’ve never seen Lance throw in the towel before,” he says. “The day he puts up the white flag is the day he dies.” Though Hamilton is prepared for an assault on his reputation—he was stripped of his 2004 Olympic cycling gold for doping—he says it’s past time for cycling to come clean. “Before we move forward, we have to address the past,” he says. “It’s been addressed to a point, but people only wanted to go so far. The whole truth needs to be told. Cycling needs to be weeded out from the top.”

Recommended

War under the sea
A nuclear-powered U.S. Navy submarine
Briefing

War under the sea

Xi Jinping tells national security team to prepare for 'worst-case scenario'
Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Chinese Troubles

Xi Jinping tells national security team to prepare for 'worst-case scenario'

Putin blames Kyiv for 'terrorist' drone attack as war comes home to Moscow
Moscow apartment damaged by drone
Hitting close to home

Putin blames Kyiv for 'terrorist' drone attack as war comes home to Moscow

One step closer to net zero?
a solar panel.
Briefing

One step closer to net zero?

Most Popular

Air New Zealand to weigh international passengers as part of safety survey
An Air New Zealand plane takes off from Sydney, Australia.
Step on the Scale

Air New Zealand to weigh international passengers as part of safety survey

Thousands flock to Missouri to see body of nun who died in 2019
People wait in line to see the exhumed body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster.
drawing a crowd

Thousands flock to Missouri to see body of nun who died in 2019

Biden's reelection calculus
President Joe Biden
Briefing

Biden's reelection calculus