When There's That Much Smoke

There Has to Be A Fire Somewhere Right?

Is America's Most Famous Cyclist a Fraud?

by Jay Kaplan, OTSL Co-Host & Head Writer

This past Sunday Tyler Hamilton, a former Gold-Medal winning cyclist and former US Postal Cycling teammate of Lance Armstrong, was interviewed on "60 Minutes" where he confessed to using illegal performance enhancers like EPO and other doping techniques while helping Armstrong win three of his record seven Tours de France.

He also stated that Armstrong himself was a major user of the blood-booster EPO, as well as human growth hormone and testosterone while regularly using techniques designed to beat the testing done by the agencies like the World Anti-Doping Agency. When pressed to back up his claims, Hamilton gave replies that were along these two lines: "I heard the conversation" or "I was there when he was doing it and I was doing it with him".

He even went so far as to say that part of the reason that Lance never got caught or never tested positive was that he and his people could make things like that go away. Hamilton hinted that the International Cycling Union was at best turning a blind eye and at worst complicit in covering up Armstrong's transgressions. If true, that's a very damaging statement leveled at the governing body of a sport that has long fought rumors of rampant corruption.

Hamilton is the third former US Postal teammate of Armstrong's to come out and say that despite Lance's "I've never tested positive" affirmations to the contrary, America's greatest cyclist reached his legendary place in his sport's history by hook and by crook.

When Armstrong's bitter rival Greg LeMond made accusations that Armstrong might be cheating en route to winning the Tour de France after his fight with cancer, he was dismissed as a rival chucking sour grapes at a legend, because he was bitter over rumors that Armstrong was behind bike maufacturer Trek threatening to end their relationship with LeMond.

And when another former Armstrong teammate, Floyd Landis, threw similar stones with regards to Armstrong claiming that he was the biggest drug user of everyone on the US Postal team, his accusations were dismissed under the headline of "People in Glass Houses" as Landis himself had just recently been stripped of his 2006 Tour de France win due to his own doping.

All the while Armstrong sang the familiar "I have NEVER tested positive" refrain and Landis was dismissed as just another bitter, jealous ex-teammate just like Steven Swart and Frankie Andreu who along with his wife Betsy and former Armstrong personal assistant Mike Anderson are among those who have leveled accusations at Armstrong regarding doping and other cheating while he was racking up his record seven Tour de France wins.

In the past Lance Armstrong would make the case that personal hatred, want of financial gain, revenge, jealousy, any and/or all of the above drove his accusers to level these unfounded charges at him. He could make the case that accusations by Landis and LeMond had no credibility since both men admitted to their own drug use after years of steadfast denials.

All of this would eventually cut the legs out any potential story and Lance would continue on. Winning the Tour de France, adding to his legend as America's most famous cyclist and seemingly, its most famous cancer survivor. After all, who wants to believe that a guy who conquered cancer and continues to push for research, programs and any other initiative that will assist in curing as many of the myriad types of cancer that are out there could possibly be a hero with feet of clay.

And yet, Hamilton's "60 Minutes" interview is compelling. A man who got away with cheating the system for most of his cycling career. A man who claims that although the Olympics was one of the few times he raced "clean", he was so disgusted with himself that he hid his 2004 gold medal away for years before recently returning it to the United States Anti-Doping Agency last week.

Armstrong's people claim that Hamilton is fueled by greed and a desire for publicity since he is writing a book about his career in cycling. This time, the typical response from Armstrong's camp seems to ring hollow. Hamilton was a widely respected and well-liked member of the professional cycling community and Armstrong's camp aside, very few people have anything bad to say about him.

Hamilton's confessions may be good for his own soul, but they may ultimately wind up being good for the soul of the sport he still claims to love. Even if those confessions lead to the sport's biggest name being taken down. Sometimes the only way to make something better is to blow it up and start all over.