Excellent review of Hamilton's book

[BillG]

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n22/david-runciman/everybody-gets-popped

[dancinkozmo]

....good one bill, thanks for the link

[shovelhd]

Agreed. I am almost finished with Tyler's book. Between it and the Reasoned Decision, it's all you need to know about cheating in bicycle racing.

[William]

Good review. Thanks for posting the link.






William

[cfox]

I stopped when he said British footballers likely don't dope as it wouldn't help them. What a clueless fool.

[Hawker]

Good article, thanks for posting.

However....me thinks a bit of hyperbole when I continue to hear about Hamilton that "The pain was so bad that he ended up grinding his teeth down to stumps." I just don't believe that.

[shovelhd]

Read his book. He had to get something like 14 caps on his teeth.

[Hawker]

Read his book. He had to get something like 14 caps on his teeth.

If that's the case...I stand corrected. Or, maybe he just needs to floss?

[dana_e]

It was a good read. Sort of sad. I wonder if Tyler spent all his cash on his defense.

I mean if you cheat and get caught, just pony up and said you did it.

I thought most folks learned that as kids.

Always the best course of action. And cheaper to boot.

[weiwentg]

If that's the case...I stand corrected. Or, maybe he just needs to floss?

He ground them down to the nubbins riding with a broken shoulder in the Giro d'Italia. That took guts. He was a hero of mine for a long time.

Then he got busted, and I thought, wait ... he's got to be innocent. Or at least not guilty, given the doubts he raised about the lab's process.

And then I thought, more likely than not he and Lance are guilty.

And then he confessed.

I don't maintain heroes. Everyone is flawed. So, he's not a hero anymore, but what he did deserves respect.

[rinconryder]

good read for sure. One thing that surprised me (among many things) is that EPO wasn't even enough - you had to be blood doping on top of that to really compete.

[malcolm]

good read for sure. One thing that surprised me (among many things) is that EPO wasn't even enough - you had to be blood doping on top of that to really compete.

You needed both to get and keep your hematocrit at or near 50%, the transfusion would get it up where you wanted it and the epo made sure you had adequate reticulocytes so they couldn't tell you had been transfused and apparently the micro dosed epo was not as detectable.

[Hawker]

I once had a hero (in the 1960-70s) who was a celebrity and also a heroin addict for for over ten years. Because he was in the public eye he had to be very careful about scoring drugs without getting caught as he moved around the country to work in different cities. This was long before Methadone or anything like that.

It was exhausting hearing about his life as he had to perform, score, lie, not get caught, get bailed out of jail, hire lawyers, perform, get divorced, score, etc.

I just cannot imagine how you could maintain any sort of real life and perform at anything on a high level and...at the same time having to be worried about being caught 24-7. Ever tell a lie and have to cover yourself for a few days or a week and how stressful that can be? Imagine doing so for a decade or more. You have to be organized that's for sure.

[toaster]

That review confirms long held beliefs about L.A. and how hard he competed all the way into the psychological, technical, and doping aspects of cycling.

A brutal S.O.B.