My letter to Tyler Hamilton

[intern]

Hi there Tyler

 

About five years back I sent you an email saying I thought you were a liar and a cheat. You replied then, asserting your honesty and that you were a victim.

 

I just wanted to follow up on that message with another one. My understanding of the situation in which you and Floyd Landis found yourselves, is that it was fundamentally incompatible with your personal beliefs in right and wrong. I see a commonality of that in Floyd and you.

 

Dealing with it therefore required that you had to fool everyone – yourself included.

 

The point of this message is to tell you that I forgive you. It sounds stupid, and I am not a religious person, but I wanted to tell you that. There must be millions of people like me. Right now, you and Floyd are the only ProTour cyclists I would ever have a beer with. That’s because I have respect for you. You have come clean, you have owned up. It takes a real man todo that – much harder and perhaps less rewarding than winning in the hardest bike races in the world.

 

I respect you, finally. Tyler, you are a man and you can beproud of who you are.

 

Take care,

 

Cheers

D

 

 

 

PS if you are ever in New Zealand, drop me a line. I’d love to have that beer.

Edited May 20, 2011 by intern

[intern]

TH was my hero until the cracks in the system became apparent. When I sent him a stinker when he was raising that 'chimera' defence, he had the decency to reply to my message politely and rationally, although he continued with the porkers. When someone owns up, it makes it all OK, as far as I am concerned.

[TNT1]

You're an odd man, Don. Please post his reply if you ever get one.

[intern]

I am indeed and I will do so.

[nickc]

I really like Tyler Hamilton and like many was disapointed with the way things turned out. I am glad he has confessed and am also left wondering about the allegations about LA. It seems like virtually every member of his ex Postal Team is accusing him of cheating.

[Eldron]

Me - I don't buy the "he's alright if he 'cesses up". He lived the life, earned the salary, bought the houses, owned the cars, savoured the fans and generally lived it large by cheating.

 

To make it fair he should donate all his corrupt earning, cars, houses, etc to charity and start over. THAT is putting things right.

 

Him 'cessing up and keeping all the loot is like a bank robber being let off scott free and allowed to keep the cash - or perhaps a more appropriate example is would be a local politican being found guilty of corruption, let off scott free and allowed to keep all his ill gotten gains. Oh wait - that happend all the time. But none of us are happy about that right? None of us say - that poor Tony Yengeni - he should not have gine to gaol and he should have kept the Merc.

 

This shallow - oh all right I'm sorry - I doped - let's all hug bullsh!t drives me crazy.

[Andyr249]

I agree with Eldron.

 

Using that line of thought (that because he confessed makes it all ok), what about some guy who rapes and murders your wife? He then comes and says to you that he did it. You going to sit down and have a beer with him and tell him it is all ok because he confessed?

[TNT1]

 

 

To make it fair he should donate all his corrupt earning, cars, houses, etc to charity and start over. THAT is putting things right.

 

 

I'll take Haven. Oh, wait, she already left him. Nevermind.

[TNT1]

I really like Tyler Hamilton and like many was disapointed with the way things turned out. I am glad he has confessed and am also left wondering about the allegations about LA. It seems like virtually every member of his ex Postal Team is accusing him of cheating.

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong has denied claims by former team-mate Tyler Hamilton that they took performance-enhancing drugs together.

 

Hamilton has accused seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong of doping while insisting the majority of his fellow riders did likewise.

 

His accusations, aired on CBS programme '60 Minutes', come a year after Floyd Landis, another former Armstrong team-mate, made similar allegations of drug use by Armstrong and the team.

 

In response, Armstrong tweeted: '20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case.'

 

Hamilton won a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games but later failed a drug test.

 

However, he was allowed to keep his medal because problems at a laboratory meant his 'B' sample could not be tested.

 

Months later, he was caught blood doping and served a two-year ban which ended in 2007.

 

Hamilton returned to racing and won the 2008 US road championship, but he retired last spring after admitting he took an antidepressant that contained the banned steroid DHEA. He was officially banned from cycling for eight years.

 

His accusations come after he testified before the Los Angeles grand jury investigating Armstrong.

 

Armstrong's spokesman Mark Fabiani released a statement that read: 'Hamilton is actively seeking to make money by writing a book, and now he has completely changed the story he has always told before so that he could get himself on '60 Minutes' and increase his chances with publishers.

 

'But greed and a hunger for publicity cannot change the facts: Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports. He has passed nearly 500 tests over 20 years of competition.'

[Myra]

I agree with Eldron.

 

Using that line of thought (that because he confessed makes it all ok), what about some guy who rapes and murders your wife? He then comes and says to you that he did it. You going to sit down and have a beer with him and tell him it is all ok because he confessed?

 

Its not the same. Doping was (perhaps still is to a lesser extent) part of pro cycling - it was part of the culture and everyone did it.

I'm not saying that what they did was right, certainly not, but the consequences of doping when everyone you are competing with is also doping aren't nearly the same as rape and the loss of a life.

Any way, I don't think Hamilton expects that now that he has confessed it is 'all ok'. He's chosen to fess up and deal with the consequences. That can never be a bad thing.

['Dale]

Some more news about The Truth Shall Set You Free...

 

 

New Delhi - Australia's retiring spin legend Shane Warne on Thursday slammed the hefty fine handed to him during the IPL for a public spat with an official, saying he was paying the price for "telling the truth."

Warne, captain of Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, was Wednesday fined $50,000 for his part in a row with Sanjay Dixit, secretary of Rajasthan Cricket Association, over the choice of wicket for a home game.

 

"Not saddened about what happened at all," Warne told CNN-IBN news channel. "I got fined for telling the truth. The incident was silly, petty and a bit immature. I won't let this spoil my IPL and the experience I've had."

[The Drongo]

Me - I don't buy the "he's alright if he 'cesses up". He lived the life, earned the salary, bought the houses, owned the cars, savoured the fans and generally lived it large by cheating.

 

To make it fair he should donate all his corrupt earning, cars, houses, etc to charity and start over. THAT is putting things right.

 

Him 'cessing up and keeping all the loot is like a bank robber being let off scott free and allowed to keep the cash - or perhaps a more appropriate example is would be a local politican being found guilty of corruption, let off scott free and allowed to keep all his ill gotten gains. Oh wait - that happend all the time. But none of us are happy about that right? None of us say - that poor Tony Yengeni - he should not have gine to gaol and he should have kept the Merc.

 

This shallow - oh all right I'm sorry - I doped - let's all hug bullsh!t drives me crazy.

 

Ahhh.

 

It is all beginning to make sense now...

['Dale]

Cyclingnews contacted Lance Armstrong's attorney who released this statement.

 

"Tyler Hamilton just duped the CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes and Scott Pelley all in one fell swoop. Hamilton is actively seeking to make money by writing a book, and now he has completely changed the story he has always told before so that he could get himself on 60 Minutes and increase his chances with publishers. But greed and a hunger for publicity cannot change the facts: Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports: He has passed nearly 500 tests over twenty years of competition."

[Myra]

In response, Armstrong tweeted: '20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case.'

 

Same old story, every time. More and more people are speaking out and that's all he can say. I suppose that's all he can say, he doesn't have any option but to carry on deceiving. It is really sad.

[Myra]

Cyclingnews contacted Lance Armstrong's attorney who released this statement.

 

"Tyler Hamilton just duped the CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes and Scott Pelley all in one fell swoop. Hamilton is actively seeking to make money by writing a book, and now he has completely changed the story he has always told before so that he could get himself on 60 Minutes and increase his chances with publishers. But greed and a hunger for publicity cannot change the facts: Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports: He has passed nearly 500 tests over twenty years of competition."

 

Yup, everyone wants to make money out of Armstrong. Even years after his heyday, and after he made a fool of himself with his failed comeback, he's such a star people still want a piece of him.

[Tumbleweed]

The last time I felt sorry for Tyler was when he lost Tugboat.