Teammates Tyler Hamilton (L yellow jersey) and Lance Armstrong compete in the last stage of the Dauphine Libere cycling race in Sallanches in this June 11, 2000 file photo. Hamilton, who was allowed to keep his Athens Olympics gold medal despite failing a doping test, has finally confessed to cheating and accused other top cyclists, including Lance Armstrong, of doing the same. In an interview to be aired by “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Hamilton, ended years of denials by finally admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs but insisted he was not alone. REUTERS/Files (FRANCE – Tags: SPORT CYCLING)
In an interview that was shot for “60 Minutes” and broadcasted on “CBS Evening News” on Thursday, Tyler Hamilton said he used performance-enhancing drugs with his former teammate Lance Armstrong.
“I saw (EPO) in his refrigerator…I saw him inject it more than one time,” Hamilton said. “Like we all did. Like I did, many, many times.”
Hamilton told “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley that Armstrong “took what we all took…the majority of the peloton.” Hamilton went onto say that there was “EPO…testosterone…a blood transfusion.”
EPO is a drug that boosts endurance by increasing the number of red blood cells in the body, which obviously would help cyclists like Hamilton and Armstrong. This is now the second time that a former teammate of Armstrong’s has accused him of taking drugs to improve his performance on the bike, as Hamilton’s accusations come one year after Floyd Landis made similar allegations.
People are going to believe what they want to believe, but the fact of the matter is that Armstrong has never tested positive for PEDs. The question in my eyes is do we care?
The thing about performance-enhancing drugs is that they allow an athlete to perform at the absolute best of his abilities. Granted, if I were to juice for a year and tried my hand at professional football, I’d probably get killed – same as I would if I didn’t dope. If your skill level was low to begin with, sorry, but drugs aren’t going to turn you into a professional athlete.
But they will turn a special athlete into a superhero, which is where the problem lies. Barry Bonds was already one of the most gifted baseball players to have ever played the game, which people tend to overlook when his name is brought up. People forget just how good he was before he started taking PEDs, which only made an incredibly gifted athlete perform to the max of his abilities. He could already hit major league pitching, but thanks to the steroids his bat speed never decreased, he was able to hit the ball harder and farther, and was able to keep playing into his 40s.
It’s the same concept with Armstrong. He was already a gifted cyclist. If he took them, all PEDs did was make an already gifted cyclist max out his abilities on the bike (which includes being able to ride faster, longer, etc).
Here’s my take on PEDs: I actually don’t have a problem with athletes using them. I have a problem with the fact that they create an uneven playing field. Guys like Bonds and Armstrong are already special and if they use drugs, then they’re creating an even bigger gap between them and the next guy.
I don’t mind the alpha male when it comes to sports. Tiger Woods has been great for golf for over a decade. Lance Armstrong has been great for cycling. The pure act of watching Barry Bonds hit a home run every 10 at bats in 2001 was fun.
But in the end, I want to see athletes go toe-to-toe with only their God-given abilities and their dedication to their craft at their backs. If Tiger puts on an amazing display to win a major, I want to know that what I watched was an athlete performing at his best not because he was on drugs, but because he was more special than the next guy on that given day. The same goes for Armstrong, Bonds or whomever.
So if Armstrong did dope, he was wrong. Again, I don’t care that the best cyclist in the world used drugs to make himself superhuman. I care that what I witnessed wasn’t natural. I want my sports to be 100 percent pure.
Lance Armstrong missed out on a Tour de France stage win today after being outsprinted at the end of the three-week race’s toughest day, which included four Pyrenean mountain climbs.
The seven-time champion finished sixth of eight riders in the dash to the finish in Pau, after helping drive the pace of the breakaway group for about five hours. Pierrick Fedrigo won the stage, the 16th of 20, while Alberto Contador kept an eight- second lead in the overall standings.
“It was full gas all day,” Armstrong, who hasn’t taken a stage this year, told reporters. “I’m not the best guy in the race but I still have the spirit of a fighter.”
Defending champ Alberto Contador continues to lead the race by eight seconds.
Close the book on the Lance Armstrong era at the Tour de France. He has.
The record seven-time champion wrote off his chances of victory in his 13th and last Tour, signaling the beginning of the end of one of the most celebrated and controversial careers in cycling history.
The 38-year-old Texan’s hopes for yet another title were dashed Sunday after he got caught in three crashes — one of which brought him down — and struggled to keep up during two tough climbs in Stage 8, the race’s first foray into the Alps. He and his team said his hip got banged up, keeping him from pedaling hard.
“My Tour is finished,” said Armstrong, who fell to 39th overall.
He won 64 times around the world, including 12 majors, and hoisted a trophy on every continent golf is played. He lost only one time with the lead going into the final round. His 56 PGA Tour victories in one incomparable decade were more than anyone except four of golf’s greatest players won in their careers.
Woods received 56 of the 142 votes cast by AP member editors since last month. More than half of the ballots were returned after the Nov. 27 car accident outside his Florida home that set off sensational tales of infidelity.
Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor who won the Tour de France six times this decade, finished second with 33 votes. He was followed by Roger Federer, who won more Grand Slam singles titles than any other man, with 25 votes.
Not that anyone needed a reminder, but this just goes to show you how dominate Woods has been over the past decade. Sex scandal be damned, Tiger has done legendary things in the world of golf over the past 10 years and it’s nice to see that he got recognition for what he’s done on the course.
It’s also good to see that the media can separate a player’s personal life from his career. In a perfect world, athletes would be role models for our children because they’re always in the public eye. But we don’t live in a perfect world and therefore, the media has to be able to separate what the player does on the field from what he does off it.
That said, how embarrassing for Woods. He receives this great honor, but he can’t even fully enjoy the moment because he’s in a hell of his own making. Every time he looks back on this award, he’ll immediately be reminded of his sex scandal. What a shame.
Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (07/19/2009 @ 6:13 pm)
It seems like those Lance Armstrong commercials for Nike are no joke. Dude is a competitor. This is Armstrong’s first Tour de France since his comeback and, at age 37, the young man still has it. Armstrong has since moved up to second place after completing the race’s 15th stage. Only problem is, his teammate Alberto Contador is 1 minute and 37 seconds ahead.
The Spaniard dominated the first stage in the Alps to take the overall lead on Sunday — his first chance to wear the yellow jersey since winning the 2007 Tour de France. Armstrong, who started the 15th stage in fourth, moved up to second overall but is 1 minute, 37 seconds behind his teammate and rival.
“The differences now are pretty big, and the team’s bet should now be me, no?” he said. “I’m sure my teammates are going to put in great work to back me up just like they did today.”
“I think when Alberto went, he showed he’s the best rider in the race, certainly the best climber. … Hats off to him,” Armstrong said.
The American vowed that he would not go against team orders and attack Contador later in the race.
“That’s not going to happen,” he said. “There’s been a lot of drama between Alberto and me … but at the end of the day we sit as a team.”
The 26-year-old Spaniard broke away from other pre-race favorites with 3.5 miles left in the 128.9-mile ride from Pontarlier, France, to the Swiss ski resort of Verbier — and he kept extending his lead to the end to finish in 5 hours, 3 minutes, 58 seconds.
I know I’m not the only one who doesn’t completely understand how the Tour de France works. Apparently, you ride for a sponsor who puts together an entire team. This character Alberto Contador is on the same team as Lance Armstrong. The cycling legend is showing true sportsmanship in promising not to try and pass Contador. However, Contador rubs me the wrong way, at least judging by his quotes. For the sake of comedy, I’d love Armstrong to throw something in his spokes and dash ahead during the last leg of the race. For the sake of comedy, of course. For the sake of sports, I guess that’d be bad.
- NBA TIPOFF has great video of the Top 10 Buzzer Beaters of 2009.
- THE DAILY BEAST has a funny (but harsh) take on Steve McNair’s murder, claiming that had Saleh Kazemi had followed the “rules” of being a sports mistress, the situation wouldn’t have unfolded like it did.
- DEADSPIN has the surprising news that no one cares that Manny Ramirez used PEDs as Dodgers fans embraced his return to L.A. Thursday night.
- Even though it might seem like a daunting task at this point, BICYCLING.COM writes that Lance Armstrong will pull ahead and win his eighth Tour de France.
- FIVE TOOL TOOL lists 10 ways that the Minnesota Timberwolves will woo Ricky Rubio.
Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (07/07/2009 @ 4:41 pm)
Since returning from retirement, Lance Armstrong hasn’t been able to reach the level of dominance he displayed during his entire career. That’s expected, obviously, but he’s currently showing signs of his past ability at this favorite race, the Tour de France. Earlier today, Armstrong jumped from 10th to third place.
Britain’s Mark Cavendish won his second straight stage. He and Armstrong and overall leader Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland kept up with a breakaway group that bolted from the pack with 18 miles left in the 122-mile third stage.
Armstrong, a seven-time champion coming out of retirement, is 40 seconds behind. He was able to make his big jump because riders in front of him at the start of the day got trapped in the main pack.
The race is set for a shakeout featuring Cancellara, Armstrong and Germany’s Tony Martin in Tuesday’s team time trial. Each team is strong in the 24-mile event, which starts and finishes in Montpellier. If Astana wins, Armstrong could take the yellow jersey. The race ends July 26 in Paris.
Like Roger Federer, Lance Armstrong is an institution in his sport. It’s nice to watch the “old guys” succeed, though neither is old in general by any means. As far as spectator sports are concerned in America, cycling is about as popular rugby. Nevertheless, Armstrong’s story is both interesting an inspiring. The fact that he’s won 7 times is proof enough that he’s both a phenomenal athlete and the greatest cyclist of all time. That he’s come back is a product of his determination and frustration with the minutia of everyday life. There’s only so much one can do before they need to partake in the things they love.
A new case of Twitter becoming more powerful than we can possibly imagine (especially for those of you who imagine The Wall Street Journal Board of Directors as possible Sith Lords). Deadspin has the scoop:
Last month, Lance Armstrong boycotted the media, speaking directly to his fans in 140-character chunks. He tried to break the ban by writing a letter to The WSJ, but they “butchered it,” and instead, he printed it on his blog.
The Wall Street Journal ran a story June 10 about an alleged feud between Armstrong and Greg LeMond. Armstrong called the piece “sensational,” and not in the good way. He wrote a letter to the editor. The editor made some edits. Armstrong didn’t like the edits. He said the editor “removed the pertinent and topical parts. Frustrating.” I bet!
It’s interesting that Armstrong was able to post his own rebuttal of a major international newspaper using a form of communication as easily (if not more so) available as a newspaper. Power to the people on this one. It’s important everybody gets checked, and possibly called out, when things get a bit fudged. Of course, if The WSJ merits Lance Armstrong getting involved. My previous post may get me a gang of 200 pound 7th graders out for blood. Yeesh.
Posted by Christopher Glotfelty (04/12/2009 @ 6:10 pm)
- The WILL LEITCH EXPERIENCE has transcribed the magnificent Vin Scully’s words concerning Nick Adenhart’s death. Watch the man work as he mixes in the commentary while announcing the Dodgers-Padres game.
- Apparently, Dustin Pedroia’s statements toward his hometown of Woodland, CA haven’t gone over too well with its inhabitants. DEADSPIN has the story.
- SPORTSBYBROOKS reports that France really doesn’t want Lance Armstrong winning their historic cycling competition ever again.
- Who are the scrappiest players in baseball? Head on over to THE LOVE SPORTS to get their opinion.
- In light of the news/rumor that he won’t return to ESPN next season, AWFUL ANNOUNCING pays respect to Emmitt Smith by listing his top 10 “Emmittisms.” Good stuff.
- SPORTSBYBROOKS has photos of Lance Armstrong fending off “Syringe Man” at the Tour of California cycling race.
- CHRIS COOLEY describes having to fend off overzealous fans during his night out with Alexander Ovechkin at a UWC fight.
- DEADSPIN chimes in on Jim Calhoun’s run-in [video] with a freelance journalists/rabble rouser. Calhoun was right, but he was condescending about it.
- I defy you to watch this touching story about a high school basketball game in Wisconsin without getting misty eyed…
