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Hamilton says Armstrong encouraged doping

During a CBS 60 Minutes report, Tyler Hamilton, a former teammate of Lance Armstrong says that Armstrong and other team leaders encouraged, promoted and took part in doping programs in order to win the Tour de France in 1999 and beyond.

Hamilton says he witnessed Armstrong take performance enhancing drugs, EPO and testosterone and also saw him receive a banned blood transfusion in 2000.

“I feel bad that I had to go here and do this,” Hamilton said in his first public admission of doping throughout his career. “But I think at end of the day, like I said, long-term, the sport’s going to be better for it.”
Furthermore, Hamilton also revealed other observations during the 60 Minutes interview…
  • Team leaders, doctors and managers encouraged and supervised doping.
  • Doping was going on inside the United Postal team even before Lance Armstrong joined in 1998.
  • Performance enhancing drugs, including EPO were handed out to cyclists in white lunch bags.
  • Team members were met at the airport, driven to hotels, told to lie down and give blood that could be transfused back into their bodies at a later date.

Lance Armstrong has adamantly denied using performance enhancing drugs in his career and on Sunday his attorney released a statement in response to the 60 Minutes report.

“We have already responded in great detail at http://www.facts4lance.com/,” Fabiani said. “Throughout this entire process, CBS has demonstrated a serious lack of journalistic fairness and has elevated sensationalism over responsibility. CBS chose to rely on dubious sources while completely ignoring Lance’s nearly 500 clean tests and the hundreds of former teammates and competitors who would have spoken about his work ethic and talent.”

Source: SI.com, Yahoo Sports


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