Time for Hamilton to Pedal Off

By Richard Martin, 7-06-06

	Caption: Who me, a doper?

The other day I was lounging by the pool at RallySport and two guys were discussing the latest doping scandal to degrade the Tour de France, which is now in its fifth day.

"Yeah, and now they're saying Tyler's implicated too!" one of them remarked.

"What a drag," said the other one, more in sadness than outrage -- as if Boulder rider and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton, already serving out a two-year suspension for blood doping, had gotten caught up in some unfortunate, and unfair, turn of events.

When, it made me wonder, will local Hamilton fans admit the truth -- that the guy is guilty as hell?

The Spanish newspaper El Pais -- not an axe-grinding sporting tabloid but a national daily on the order of Le Monde or The New York Times -- published a devastating expose of Hamilton's doping regimen in the wake of the latest revelations, which caused the Tour to lose its top four favorites this year. The story includes a host of incriminating evidence including a fax sent to Hamilton's wife in their seasonal European home of Girona, Spain that featured a bill for €31,200, or almost $40,000. The documents from the Spanish police investigation showed that, besides engaging in prohibited extractions and transfusions of his own and others' blood, Hamilton ingested in a Barry Bonds-like buffet of banned performance enhancers including EPO, anabolic steroids, human growth hormones and IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1).

A couple of years ago at the Boulder Christmas parade one of the floats featured local Olympians, including Hamilton, who had just been accused of doping and was facing a lengthy suspension. The crowd was uniformly supportive, some carrying signs that said "We believe you Tyler." At least until the latest revelations, that seemed to be the prevailing sentiment in Boulder sporting circles (except among sportswriters who cover cycling intensively): It just can't be true! Not our Tyler!

Hamilton's Boy Scout looks and his humble demeanor no doubt contribute to this credulity, as do his impassioned denials (as in this recent, ridiculously fawning interview by Pro Cycling News). Hamilton has said he'll return to pro cycling when his current suspension is up, later this year. But it's time for everyone to admit the obvious: Unless you believe that Hamilton is the victim of multiple false-positive test results and a concerted conspiracy that includes forged documents, phony faxes, and a bogus investigation by Spain's Guardia Civil, the guy is one of the worst drug abusers in a sport that makes major league baseball look like a Sunday school picnic. (For a complete analysis of the latest scandal and Hamilton's involvement, see this thread on Daily Peloton.)

The "Say-it-ain't-so" willingness to believe in our heroes despite incontrovertible documentary evidence may be understandable, but it gives no credit to the Boulder endurance-sport community. What, I wondered on that chilly December evening when Hamilton was being cheered at the parade, am I supposed to tell my 6-year-old son when he asks why people yell, "We believe in you"?

One of the posters on Daily Peloton remarked that "Tyler lied to my face." Correction: he's lied to all of our faces, baldly and repeatedly. He should have the grace to voluntarily retire now, before he's banned for life.
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