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Uh And we continue with our American stories. Former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton rocked the world of professional cycling and exposed the doping culture surrounding the sport. and its most iconic rider. Lance Armstrong. As one of the world's top-ranked cyclists and a member of Lance Armstrong's inner circle, Hamilton has quite an amazing story of his own.
and is here to share it with us. Let's take a listen. My name is Tyler Hamilton. I live here in Missoula, Montana. Grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
Great family. Older brother, older sister. Love the outdoors and love to spend time out in nature. First, it was my love for skiing that kind of got me excited about being outdoors. him a ski racer.
After an accident with the University of Colorado ski team, I broke my back and then started my cycling career kind of by accident. It happened fast. I was a bit of a late bloomer in cycling, but you know, I've always had like a high pain threshold. I think I was born with it. I don't know.
My parents are tough. My grandparents were tough.
So I think that was the biggest asset that I had. as a bike racer, just, you know, that never give up mentality and just... You know, don't listen to the pain. Growing up in Marblehead, Massachusetts in the 70s was pretty awesome. I was born in 1971.
Yeah, I mean, my parents didn't really put many demands on my brother or sister at all. You know, I mean, they're like just. Trying to do well in school and working hard. And they liked us competing in sports if we were interested in it. But whether or not we were successful in sports, it didn't matter.
It didn't matter. You know, the most important thing for them was, you know. being honest, being a good sport. And just being transparent. My dad said if we did have a family crest, it would probably be honesty.
And uh yeah, I got in trouble here and there, but it was I got in a lot of trouble when I was dishonest. A lot of trouble. It was really exciting to get my first pro contract. I signed it in what the fall of 1994. It was the original postal team.
It was under a different title sponsor then, but it was the original U.S. postal team. and it was under the sponsor of Montgomery Bell. The next year, 1996, it became the U.S. Postal Team.
I thought I had no business, you know, racing professionally, but. Obviously people believed in me and I got a call from Tom Weisel, who the head of Montgomery Securities and the leader of the team. Yeah, he offered me a contract for I think it was thirty thousand dollars back then and at the time when he made the phone call I was painting my neighbor's house to make extra money to just make ends meet and I thought it was just going to be, you know, one year, maybe two years of doing this, and then I had to finish up college and get a real job. do the nine to five thing, but Next thing I know, I'm on the start line in the Tour de France, which I thought was way beyond anything. that I could possibly do.
Fast forward two years from there, we're trying to win the Tour de France. And that was with Lance Armstrong. That was in 99. But yeah, I mean we're kind of the bad news bears like Of cycling in the early years, 97, 98, even 99 when Lance won. You know, we were a a small budget team.
Most teams have big bus, big shiny buses. We had like two rented little campers. We'd stuff all nine riders into both of those and staff members and One again in 2000, one again in 2001. With Lance and then at that point I was I felt like I could see myself in the same role. I could look back three years and then look ahead three years and see myself doing the same exact thing, which is.
being like a domestique or workhorse for Lance in the tour. It wasn't a bad thing, but I was sure that If I stayed in that role, I would definitely regret it someday. regret the chance of going off and maybe trying for myself, seeing what I could do. You know, the doping in the sport of cycling, I mean, I remember hearing about it back in probably like 1994 when I was on the U.S. national team.
And then first year Pro in 1995, I remember hearing a little bit about it, but every once in a while you'd read like a small blurb, and it was like. doping was happening over in Europe, you know, what didn't wasn't happening stateside, but I didn't really realize it until I got to the highest ranks in 1997 when we did the Tour de France for the first time. And that's kind of when I kind of gave into it. A team doctor came into my room. for your a few months into the season.
We just finished a Really difficult. five or six day stage race in southern Spain. I was just like a starfish on the bed, laying on the bed, and the team doctor walked in and Told me like how proud he was of me. But that I start taking care of my body and You know, that's when it happened. He was wearing this five-fish vest and pulled out a little Red egg eggship capsule.
This He told me what it was and he told me that it was uh testosterone and then what I needed to do. Yeah.
So that's how it started. I didn't want to be I didn't want to participate in any of that. But I feel like at that level That was, it was either say yes to it, and at that point I knew a lot of my teammates were doping. It was a hard decision, but I made the decision really quick. And then I thought about the consequences of it almost daily.
It was also like he was inviting me into onto like the A team basically. You know, it was like the team within the team. Before that, I felt like I was on the B team just trying to prove myself. And then all of a sudden, I think the team saw that I was talented enough, they believed in me enough. I saw that I was hungry enough and that's when I kind of got it invited onto the Whatever you could call it.
We didn't have an A and B team, but hypothetical A-team. And that was a couple of months away from riding my first tour de France and so that's you know I was like, okay, I'm being invited onto this team. I need to, even though I know it's wrong. I need to take this opportunity.
So I started with the red egg, testosterone, and then. I don't know if um A month later, my first injection of EPO, which raises your red blood cell count. But you really wouldn't feel it. You really wouldn't feel anything. It was just a small little prick under your skin and then.
But if you did it consistently, you know, a few times a week over three four weeks eventually you'd feel a little bit of a difference like you know, going uphill felt a little bit more comfortable. Riding a little bit faster at the same heart rate, and yeah, you could feel the difference. It made it, I mean, out of all the things I did, that was the biggest. Game changer. 100%.
EPO. Yeah, I mean, within cycling, it was a bit of an arms race. I mean, doping was prevalent. I mean, at first, I didn't really know how prevalent it was, and then I quickly realized, yeah, it wasn't just. myself and a few of my teammates on postal.
It was Every team was doing it. It was rampant, and you know, riders are changing teams on a yearly basis. Directors change teams, team doctors change teams.
So, in general, the secrets were out. You know, when I first started doping in 1997, I mean, the teams would travel with it to the races, divvy it up to riders, and then send them home with it in a little like care package.
So it was very open Wild West days. They weren't worried about getting caught. You know, and then things came like kind of cracking down what In the 98th season, what, that's when they had the Festina affair, they called it French team. I think it was at the Belgian border. crossing over and It was one of the s uh staff members had a car load of performance in use in drugs.
Last night, Jean-Marie LeBlanc, the Director General of the Tour de France, issued a statement saying that Team Festina, the number one team in the world, has been removed from this year's tour.
Now, this comes on the heels of an admission by the lawyer for Bruno Roussel, the team manager, that there was a doping plan in place for the use of performance-enhancing drugs under strict medical supervision. And that's when Writers went to jail. People became a lot more secretive. people just seem seemed like they just became a lot more worried. The EPO test came out, and the team doctors quickly figured out how to beat it, how to still take EPO without getting caught.
Then That meant uh like kind of smaller type doses. And maybe a little bit more consistently. Yeah, and then under the skin, it goes through your body. Clears through your body quicker if it was. Oh no, in the vein instead of under the skin.
Yeah, all these little tricks. Most cyclists wouldn't know this, but all the doctors knew, and they. Then you gotta beat the test.
So, like, before you even thought about it, they were handing you a cheat sheet, basically. And you're listening to Tyler Hamilton tell a heck of a story. about his life in cycling, his family. And so much more, including how doping came to be and how it became just.
Well a part of cycling life. I love what he said about his parents and their motto: the family crest, be honest. I got in the most trouble. when I wasn't honest. More of Tyler Hamilton's story, his book, The Secret Race, Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France, Doping, Cover-Ups, and Winning at All Costs.
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Savings vary. And we continue with our American stories and former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton's story. Let's pick up where we last left off. There were a few times during my career when, yeah, I knew I wasn't clear to take a test, and when they had anti-doping or out-of-competition anti-doping tests, like. That's when things became a lot more difficult.
One time I remember I was back home in the my hometown of Marblehead. And we got my wife and I at the time got a knock on the door. It was a pretty loud knock and It sounded like the knock you didn't want to hear, so. Instead of opening that door, we just hit the deck. stay low and stay quiet and basically avoided a test.
You were able to get, at the time, I think you were able. to have two missed tests before you got in trouble. Being a teammate with Lance was, I mean, I would say it was a challenge. You know, he was the boss. He was the unofficial boss of the team.
You know, I mean, even he was higher. He had more power than even our director, for sure.
So, yeah, I mean, that came with consequences. It was just like he was the boss, and he laughed at his jokes. You didn't ever talk to over him. And you try to sympathize with him when he was having a bad day or when things weren't going great. It was stressful because you kind of always had to be in your toes.
And when you weren't And you maybe were like a in his eyes a little bit disrespectful or weren't paying enough attention then. Yeah, things happen sometimes and Wasn't always the funnest. But yeah, but he also brought a lot of energy to the team. He had tons of energy for sure. He's always making up uh you know, funny sayings and Calling pe he call like to call a lot of people out.
You know, with the exception of himself, maybe. But he called a lot of people out and you know, sometimes that was fun, but a lot of times it wasn't. You know, just. Bullying. You know, if a rider went too fast, it was not normal, par-normale, as they would say, not normal.
You know, but But yeah, I mean we're all we were all rotting too fast at times. Eventually my career, yeah. I believe it was in 2002, 2003, I worked with a doctor by the name of Ufimana Fuentes. We call them Ufe. He was basically my blood doping doctor.
He'd extract blood, store it for you. like a lot of other cyclists and athletes. and then re-infuse it back into you when your uh when your body was depleted so We'd usually text back and forth. Rarely would we talk to each other on the phone, but. We definitely spoken code a lot.
If you gave a blood bag, you're going to give a present.
Sometimes I have a present to give to you. I maybe say that in a text message. I mean, I do remember this one time I texted him like, hey, Ufe, I need to give you a bike, meaning. Meaning a bag of lug, basically. And he took that, literally took that and said, oh, so great, I need a new bike.
Yeah, I kind of got myself into a little bit of a pigeonhole and But you know what? I had an extra training bike. I believe it was a Cervello. Yeah, that made its way to Ufimiana Puntes. After that, I didn't promise him anything else.
Didn't want to say, I'm going to give you a car.
So yeah, I mean I've had all sorts of uh problems with with my teeth due to me grinding down. grinding them down during my career, during painful moments. The first big accident I had where I started grinding severely was in the 2002 Cheerde Talia. Bombing down a descent. And the pins on my cassette on the back wheel snapped off.
And it's basically the same effect as breaking your chain.
So sprinting out of a corner and that happened and I went flying over my handlebars. land on my shoulder and I didn't find out until the day after the race ended, you know, two and a half weeks later, that I broke basically the top of my arm in my shoulder.
socket.
So, yeah, I spent the rest of the race in a ton of pain, whether I was on my bike or off the bike or even sleeping. I was grinding my teeth, constantly grinding, grinding, grinding. The same thing happened the next year in the 2003 Tour de France. I crashed on stage one in a mass crash and broke my collarbone. Continued in the race, did the same thing, ground my teeth the whole way.
I finished fourth overall and won a stage. That offseason I went to see the dentist and And yeah, then I had to have my whole mouth reconstructed, all caps on every tooth.
So it's been a process and actually in about an hour I gotta go to the dentist to Get a new cap replacement, so.
Sometimes people say, was it worth it to keep going? You know, I got a lot of people praised me for keeping going in the Tour de France and 03 and. It seemed like it got a lot of attention back in the United States and uh And I didn't really realize it until I got back to my hometown of Marlead, Massachusetts. Did like a huge parade for me and A couple thousand people came out and They gave me the key to the town. Yeah, you know, from the outside, it looked really glamorous, and you know, how lucky for me.
But, you know, on the inside, I was really struggling. And there I was having to smile and speak in front of thousands of people there in my hometown. Probably a month later, I was diagnosed with depression. at the high, really at the peak of my career.
So I entered this relationship with this Deviant Doctor, Ufimiano Fuente, is he uh Uh it was the 2004 Tour de France. You know, text back and forth, arranged the meeting where he's going to drop off a blood bag and I'm going to infuse a bag of my blood that I'd given to him maybe a month or two before. And they came to my hotel room. I got the blood infusion and then Probably about an hour later I started feeling kind of hot. Feverish.
And then I went to the bathroom and I went to Um I looked down and my yearn was was like black like filled with like dead red blood blood cells, so Uh That was kind of a scary moment. For me. I didn't know what was. I figured right away, like, oh, they gave me a, my blood bag had gone bad. It probably had gotten too warm or.
had been affected. And you know, the blood cells had died and then it was reinfused into me.
So it was uh I mean, I was lucky I didn't die, really. And I continued on the race, but it was uh... It was definitely an eye-opening moment. Like, you know, the system we were in was certainly not perfect. You know, another time I was After I basically gave it by a bag of blood, I was rushing out of the Madrid airport where Ufinano Fuentes lived.
And I was heading back to my home in Girona, Spain. And I was in really rushed to to catch a flight. And I donated a bag of blood. It's a big needle that they put in. And then, you know, I quickly held pressure on my arm for a few seconds, but then I had to go.
I had to go to catch my flight. I ran out to the street, was hailing a cab. with one arm and then I looked down and saw the arm that I just you know, giving the blood like it was My my sleeve is completely red.
So, you know that. the hole from the extraction needle hadn't closed and But there I was, you know, like Yeah. on a busy street in Madrid, you know. In one hand, I'm like holding a cell phone with like code names and numbers, the other hand's covered in blood. It was another moment where I'm like, what am I doing?
This is crazy. This is crazy. And you're listening to Tyrell or Hamilton tell one heck of a story: the secret race inside the hidden world of the Tour de France, doping cover-ups and winning at all costs. It's available at Amazon and all the usual suspects. My goodness, the life of living with these anti-doping tests, the regimes that got set up, the protocols, the daily practices, that knock on the door at home with his wife where he just ducked for cover.
And of course, what it was like to work for someone who would drive you to this the way Lance Armstrong did. And the way everybody did, frankly, can't blame Lance for the anti-doping machine. You can blame the industry itself. And then, of course. that recirculation of his own blood.
and calling the bags bikes. Yeah, secret code words, and then blood infusions and It's so bizarre.
So bizarre. And one day he wakes up and he's wondering, how did I get into this? By the way, it's happened to all of us at some point in our life, more than likely.
Something you didn't want to do, you ended up doing. When we come back, more of the story of Tyler Hamilton. former Olympic gold medalist. Here on Our American Stories. Uh And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual, even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.
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In our instant world, we've made Jesus a life coach, a therapist, a political ally. The Missing Messiah, a new book by Kyle Eidelman and Mark Moore, helps us understand how Western culture has gradually reshaped Jesus into our image and recognize the difference between a personalized savior and revolutionary king. If you believe there's a more dangerous, more majestic Messiah than the one you've inherited, visit missingmessiah.com to learn more today. The next 30 seconds could save you hundreds on your car insurance. At the Hartford, we're passionate about your protection.
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and former Olympic gold medalist and teammate of Lance Armstrong. Tyler Hamilton. Let's pick up. where we last left off.
So let's see 2004, September 2004, I was in the middle of the tour of Spain, another three-week, they call it grand tours, and had a positive doping test. My life quickly spiraled out, you know, down downward very fast and You know, kicked off the team. really the cycling real turn turned that back to me. And yeah, went through divorce, went through just hard, hard, hard times, you know, the heavy blanket. I felt like I had a heavy blanket on me almost at all times.
Yeah.
tried to make a comeback and that was you know My name was now black. I wasn't welcome back to the Peloton. Most teams didn't want me. Riders who I know 100% that doped, you know, wouldn't even talk to me. What got me out of The doldrums was telling the truth.
And that was like day one of like. My new life.
Okay. I was uh received a subpoena. to come in and answer questions about The U.S. Postal Service cycling team. and Lance Armstrong in front of a federal grand jury.
in Los Angeles. That was in, I believe, 2010. Very few people knew the truth and There I was in front of, I don't know. twelve jury members and I stood there for like seven hours and told the truth. When I got out of that courtroom, I knew from that moment on like The truth is my way forward.
So it felt so good to tell the truth. You know, from the very beginning to the very end. And that's kind of where it started for me. Like when I exited that court. I walked outside and I felt like I just shed like A hundred pounds.
100 pound backpack gone. Just felt free. Not completely free. I knew there were I knew there was a lot of work to be done, but And I was like, all right, this was, you know, day one of the rest of my life.
So yeah, what was this 2011? It was in the middle of this federal investigation. They're investigating the U.S. Postal Service cycling team, and they're also investigating Lance Armstrong. I was living in Boulder, Colorado at the time and was invited to do a charity event.
up in Aspen.
So my uh My colleague Jim Capra and I Drove up there together and on our way up, I do remember him, like, hey, I'm gonna just because he knew Lance lived up there and There's a big federal investigation going on, and we didn't need to cross paths.
So he, I think he googled what where Lance was, and turns out he was on a charity ride on the East Coast.
So it's great, okay, we're... you know, smooth sailing. That night we're out at dinner with a group of people, maybe twelve people. You know, I got up to use the restroom and I had to walk through like a dimly lit bar area.
So on my return from the restroom, just out of nowhere, like a hand just reaches out and stops me my tracks and I look over and boom, there's Lance Armstrong. Nostrils flaring. You know, you can only Flare your nostrils really if you're angry. It's hard to do it, just fake it, so I knew he was pissed. He got right in my face.
He had his little posse around him. And uh yeah He told me he was going to make my life a living hell. both in the core room and out of the core room, so. You know, that's called witness intimidation. You know, I told him, hey, let's go speak outside one-on-one instead of, you know.
Let's leave your posse here, or let me go grab some of my friends and keep, you know, make this even. He didn't want anything to do with it, asked him also to go to like a quiet room. to speak he didn't want to do that either but he just kind of chastised me in front of this his uh his gang.
So yeah, I mean I straight away had to let let the uh federal investigators now and you know But, you know, unfortunately the the videotape on in the restaurant cash cash got got deleted or was broken somehow.
So none of that, none of that really um went anywhere, but yeah, it was that was the truth. That's what happened. You know, I'm sure today, Lance. But yeah, as you thought. He found out from the owner of the restaurant that I was there and like he came He flew back from uh the East Coast and came straight in and You know, approached me.
So, you know, I'm sure today he regrets that. I would think so, but yeah. That wasn't one of his best days. Yeah, it was a weird time. I was living in Boulder then, and I mean, I had baseball bats at every doorway.
People had their eyes on me. And that was confirmed by the FBI.
Soon thereafter, I got an invitation to speak with 60 Minutes. And that was uh you know, everything I said to the in front of the grand jury was sealed.
So, the only way like without that information would go to the public is if the case continued. And I knew most likely it was going to get shut down just. Due to like who they were investigating. You know, there's a lot of power there. And it did get shut down.
But I knew the truth, I had to be open and honest.
So, still, the public didn't know the truth. And so yeah, I chose to speak to 60 minutes and they gave me like a double segment, so like almost 40 minutes worth. That was really my first time telling the whole truth, or part of the truth, to the world, or anyone who's listening. That's the first time. My parents kind of heard the whole truth.
You know, I gave them a warning. the day before it aired on Sixty Minutes. That was the first time I told my parents the truth.
So, yeah, I sat my parents down, my brother and my sister, and yeah, told them pretty much the whole truth from the very beginning to the very end. It was brutal, you know, I don't. That was one of the most difficult things I've ever done, so But yeah, they forgave me and they You know, they understand that people make mistakes. And, you know, my dad tells me today that he's more proud of me. You know, for what I've done.
off the bike and on the bike. that still wasn't enough it was you know with commercials and all that it's like Maybe thirty, thirty five minutes of of the truth, but there's a lot of a lot of the truth that I still hadn't told, so. That's when I decided to write a book.
So I got a I luckily had a great co-writer by the name of Dan Coyle and We spent almost two and a half years writing a book together. One of the hardest things I've ever done, but like one of the proudest. You know, I'm really proud of doing that. It was almost like therapy, really.
So yeah, The Secret Race, I wrote a book back in 2012. One award, sport book awards, and yeah, it was uh Yes, I was very surprised. And man, straight away, there was so much forgiveness, almost too much, because I went from being the black sheep to like. Maybe praised a little bit too much.
So I didn't. I struggled with that too, which is kind of weird if you think about it. I just felt a lot lighter, and I did feel really bad for Lance. I know he ate a lot of. Deep dark secrets.
I knew he was gonna fight to the very end. you know, keep those secrets from not coming out and Yeah, I felt sympathy for him. He was backed up into a real deep hole, you know. or to the edge of the cliff and it was like either tell the truth or or jump and I'm glad he told the truth, you know? What he did on Oprah, I thought was great.
Not everyone loved it, but I thought those first 10 questions, he first. The yes, no questions on Oprah when he Her militarous. PED use, like, I thought that was great. And, you know, that's all. Sure people wanted to hear more details and we didn't get a lot of that, but you know the big questions were answered.
And you know, he doped for a lot of his lot of his career, you know, like a lot of us.
So. And I honestly think I'm sure he's a better person today because of it all. Yeah.
I'm certain. Life's changed a lot for me and I'm newly married again. Got married in December. Two step beautiful stepchildren. And then uh my own s I have my own son about eight months ago, so uh It's been a really great experience.
a lump being a dad and a stepdad. Let's say I work for a money manager down in Boulder, Colorado, so A lot helping people. you know, helping people manage their money in a better way is a You get a lot of positive feedback and it makes you feel good for sure. Uh my wife knows She knows about my past, obviously, and you know, I've told our two stepchildren, the 10, one's 10 and one's eight. You know, they know my past.
Our little guy is eight months, you know, maybe a few more years for that. But people need to hear the story, like, how. Things get a little blurry when you set your mind on a goal, and like, but don't get off track, and I got off track. It's you gotta be honest about it and you gotta tell The younger generation makes sure that they don't make a mistake like you did. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Craig Hengler.
And a special thanks to Tyler Hamilton, his book, The Secret Race Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France, doping cover-ups. And winning at all costs. Go to Amazon with the usual suspects and pick up the book. And there he was on that day of that positive doping test, my life spiraled down fast. Kicked off the team, divorced.
I felt like I had a heavy blanket on me. And then came that day where he told the truth. The truth was my way forward. It felt like I had shed a hundred tears. Pound backpack.
And then I can just picture that meeting with Lance Armstrong and the fury he had because this one person was going to blow the cover on everything. And now of course Tyler's married, he's a money manager. And just admitting that life can get blurry when you set a goal. I got off track. Boy, that's any of us.
The story of Tyler Hamilton, the story of the pursuit of success. And of course the excesses we can commit when doing that. Here on Our American Stories. This is Julian Edelman from Games with Names. I want to take a second to talk about something that's personal to me.
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