I must admit to not having read most of the cycling memoirs in the Works. I may eventually but the local public library doesn’t carry any of them and never will so I’ll have to buy them or ask Frank to tote everything he has to Hawaii. I did get off my wallet and buy these two and it was money well spent. David Millar and Tyler Hamilton have produced two excellent cycling books, parallel stories in very general terms and times. The contrast of how two people in similar straits handle the truth and the divergent roads it puts them on is compelling.
Doping in professional cycling is still secretive enough that it is best told from someone all the way on the inside. Journalists will be lied to by cyclists. Federal grand juries do better at getting the truth but we usually don’t hear it. Cyclists who lived the lie and need to unburden themselves make a good conduit. I can’t begin to explain it as well as Tyler or David did; their inner world of professional cycling is nothing we hear much about. In the 1990s it was the wild west where the law was absent. Spanish “doctors”, syringes and mini-centrifuges ruled the day. It’s such a huge subject, too interwoven with passion and pressure, so much grey area. For a person like me who likes to talk about doping in black and white, I’ve learned how institutionalized and insidious it was (past tense, I hope). It’s not so simple. It’s tragic. To feed the young ambitious athlete into a system where there is no choice but to accept the drug system is criminal. When money is at stake and the UCI is complicit, as is team management, those are some criminals.
Racing Through the Dark-by David Millar. I’ll also admit to being a long time admirer of David Millar. He has always been well- spoken and not afraid to confront, two qualities I admire and personally lack, but they make a good writer. Millar is a military brat who found his cycling talent in the 10 mile British time trial club races. He ended up living his dream, riding on the Cofidis team, France’s well- funded but dysfunctional squad. He spent his first few years with Cofidis riding clean, yet watching how others “prepared”.
“In my youthful exuberance, I was telling anybody who would listen that I’d won in De Panne and broken the course record with a hematocrit of only 40 percent. I went to see Casagrande and his roommate, whom I refer to as L’Équipier (the teammate), so that I could show Casagrande the test results.
I stood there, a big grin on my face, expecting Casagrande to congratulate me and say something morale boosting. But he didn’t. After a pause, he handed the results back to me and then turned to speak to his roommate in Italian.
“Perché non é a cinquate?” Casagrande asked L’Équipier, puzzled, Why isn’t he at fifty?
No one talked about doping and no one talked about not doping. Eventually, after VDB self-destructed and Casagrande was busted, Millar became a team leader. And with that mantle came the responsibility to produce results, be a professional. And eventually he was implicated by a teammate, evidence was found, he was out of cycling, deeply in debt, and drinking his way to the bottom.
For some interesting video here is a recent Spanish documentary from the inner ring.
The Secret Race-by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle. Tyler Hamilton and I grew up in the same end of Massachusetts, he went to the same prep school @rob and I dropped out of, so I always felt slightly connected to him. So I was a fan boy and stood by his fantastic excuses for too long.
The whole wretched story of doping in cycling is right here. Tyler Hamilton cheated and lied for so long, it took until 2011 before he could tell his parents the truth. And despite his decade of lying, this book rings true. His reward was getting out from under the lie. I think he would have written the book for free just for the unburdening. He states many times the lightness of being after testimony and though he knows it’s very unlikely, hopes Lance can feel the same lightness that comes from telling the truth. This book is Tyler Hamilton’s story but it is closely linked to part of the Armstrong saga.
Like Millar, Hamilton was unaware of systemic drug use until he had joined the professional ranks. US Postal drugs were at first team- provided and paid for. Once you proved yourself as one of the best riders on the team, as someone who could help Lance win the Tour, you earned the right to use EPO. It is fascinating reading, it’s horrifying, it’s depressing. Most unsettling is Lance Armstrong’s behavior. There are many revelations regarding Armstrong’s psychotic need to win. I’ll share just this one.
Tyler was eased out of US Postal because he was too strong a rider and perceived as a threat to Armstrong. So Tyler left and signed with Phonak in 2004. There was a time trial up Mont Ventoux in the 2004 Dauphiné Libéré weeks before the Tour de France. Tyler beat Lance in the TT. Later during the Tour, Floyd Landis, who was still riding for US Postal rode along side Tyler.
“You need to know something”
I pulled in closer. Floyd’s Mennonite conscience was bothering him.
“Lance called the UCI on you,” he said. “He called Hien, after Ventoux. Said you guys and Mayo were on some new shit, told Hien to get on you. He knew they’d call call you in. He’s been talking shit nonstop. And I think it’s right that you know.”
This little story is amazing for many different reasons and the only good one is Floyd Landis telling it to Tyler. I’m guilty of saying some negative things about Floyd, mostly because he was such an idiot liar. But at a point, when he has nothing to gain and he has lost everything else and he starts telling the truth, he gains back my respect, just like Tyler Hamilton has.
I ended up reading these books one right after the other. As I said before, I recommend them both. David Millar is a better writer. He actually has more demons to battle than Hamilton so his story of redemption is inspiring. Tyler Hamilton’s story is more depraved (in a doping sense) but both books are important. A lot of people in cycling are now admitting to past deeds in very unspecific terms. These two authors are both shining lights into some dark corners and making the inevitability of drug use in cycling more human and understandable. Also, in reading these books back to back, it highlights the contrast in how these two people dealt with their fates.
Both had the bad luck to be nearly singled out as dopers when a large percent of the riders were dopers. Millar realized it was the doping that killed his passion for even riding a bike. He took no joy in his EPO-assisted victories, only a temporary satisfaction that the task at hand was completed. He decided to come clean and to become an advocate for clean racing and changing the corrupt system.
Hamilton could not admit to anyone but his wife (who already knew) that he had been a cheat. His lie was so crushing he couldn’t even see a way out. He then spent all his money and energy protecting the lie for years, for nothing, obviously. It was the threat of perjury in that finally broke open the dam. It’s a cruel lesson to learn; the truth will set you free, even if it takes forever.
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@Marcus I agree... Not a fan of Pharmy but the whole thing is a mess I wish cycling didn't have to be involved with, again.
@ChrisO
*Meh*. I don't really see Rabobank as a Dutch team just like I don't consider Garmin a US team; they are all international these days.
Don't worry, I'll still be rooting for all the Genetically Superior Dutch Riders (I know, that's redundant).
@Leroy
Quoting Andrew Hood, The Weight of Lies, VELO --
"For Armstrong and just about every other racer during the EPO era, doping was simply part of the business of being a pro. You doped. you raced, and if you were good, you won. And if you were really good, you made a lot of money. And if you were Armstrong, you dated celebrities and made $25 million a year. And won seven Tours.
What sets Armstrong apart is that he was in a position of power, influence, and success that he could have used to singlehandedly change the sport. He wasn't just a foot soldier or even a lieutenant. He was the five-start general directing the troops.
Armstrong could have hit the brakes. He might have dared to urge change within the peloton. He could have used his growing power and influence to steer cycling toward a cleaner reality." (end quote)
Leroy he did not try to further the sport. He did the opposite. He consumed the sport for himself.
Rather predictably:
A Texas insurance company is demanding the return of $7.5m (£4.7m) in bonuses from cyclist Lance Armstrong.
SCA Promotions covered a performance bonus paid to the American after he won his sixth Tour de France in 2004
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20029617
@unversio No he simply went along with the established culture... The same can be said of all the other champions. Any one of them could've put the brakes on. What if when Landis comes out, Ullrich supports him? What if Ullrich comes clean after realizing he just can't match Lance? What if Dirty George comes clean instead of riding Lances coattails? EVERYONE went along, sure Armstrong "coudl've" made a change but so could dozens of other riders that no one is condemning as the worst thing ever in the sport.
And Armstrong definitely did a considerable amount to further the sport... Cycling was a non-existent sport to the majority of American's pre-Armstrong. Look at all the young clean riders coming out of BLS, a team Lance started based on the considerable clout of his tour wins... Saying he didn't try to further the sport is absurd. Sure, he could've done more to end doping just like so many other riders could've but that's another story. I wouldn't be surprised if part of Lance's rationale in not coming clean is that he thinks he's saving the sport more dirty laundry aired in public. And as for "consumed" the sport... if cycling has been consumed, it's been consumed by the rehashing of all this dirty news, not by Lance keeping quiet. Really, the only part of that quote that matters is the first paragraph...
@unversio
Oh... how cute, taking shit and making it personal.
For the record, I've never consumed anything Armstrong related... not even so much as a gay yellow bracelet. I just have a firm grasp on reality and haven't been blinded by hatred for the guy like so many others. You can bury your head in the sand and blame Armstrong for everything or you can recognize that the sport was fucked from all four corners and NO ONE did anything about for a decade. That doesn't make Lance any different than anyone else because he may have been able to do more but didn't.
For me... Love for cycling > hate for Lance... Nothing more, nothing less.
@Leroy
You're cute when you get upset. I was referring to Lance -- he da' COTHOC
@Buck Rogers
1999 - *
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2009 - *
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2011 - Cadel Evans *
2012 - Bradley Wiggins *
Fixed your post. Plenty of evidence against the additional names I redacted from your list, and Evans is now playing the "I only used Ferrari for fitness tests" which is the latest accepted unimaginitive line for people winding up on La Gazzeta's list of riders who have worked with him.
And if we ever thought Wiggo was clean, even after seeing their devastating USPS-like domination of the Tour, Braillfords hard-line on doping and "amazement" at the depth of doping in the Armstrong era is nearly enough to damn them.
In the current climate, the burden of proof in the court of public opinion is on Sky to prove they are clean; acting like they didn't know there is doping going on is not the way to do it. As Gerard Vroomen rightly put it, if we've heard the rumors, then they've surely heard them too.
@unversio Apolgogies... I thought you were basically saying I was a Pharmy consumer who bought up all the things "Lance" in his glory days... My bad.
@frank Well put!
I just read about Cadel & Ferrari... man, the list just keeps getting longer...