Tyler Hamilton | The Truth About Doping in Cycling | Full Talk and Q&A

[Music] thanks a lot let me know if you if everybody can hear me all right sometimes I've a bit of a quiet voice but it's an honor to be here thanks thanks to all you for coming I'm truly humbled by this experience so I'll get right to it I'll speak for probably about 15 minutes or so just know it here will ask me a few questions after that and then I think we'll do some question answers with you guys please feel free to ask any question you want and I'm psyched I'm psyched again I'm psyched to be here so the Tour de France arguably the world's most difficult athletic event it's 21 days of racing over 2,500 miles on some of the world's most punishing roads it's like running a marathon every day for three weeks I raced the Tour de France eight times and put every ounce of energy into that race getting to that final finish line in Paris was a feat in itself but during those years finish lines were not the only lines being crossed cycling had a dark side beside I wasn't ready for and one that pushed me over a line I thought I'd never cross and once on the other side there was no going back it was the beginning of a double life filled with secrets and lies that would destroy me from the inside long after I left the sport Johnny Cash once said lies have to be covered up but truths can run around naked this is my story about lies and the truth and what happens when you compromise your values to chase a dream how one bad decision can snowball into so many more it's also about realizing that no matter how bad things get or how impossible situation seems there's always a way out [Music] when I began racing I realized I had a special ability to endure pain it might sound strange but pain is something I'm good at it comes from my family my dad would tell me when I was younger it's not the size of the dog in the fight it's the size of the fight in the dog Hamilton's are tough another Hamilton trait was honesty my parents didn't put many demands on us but the one thing they wouldn't tolerate was lying tell the truth or else no matter what tough and honest with those two traits I thought I could handle just about anything when it came to racing I always knew I could outwork anyone and then I could win at the highest level on grit and a willingness to suffer alone when I arrived to the top tier of the sport of cycling I did what I knew best I worked my tail off and I never gave up during that time there was a word I kept hearing the Europeans a Paniagua that say that guys doing well even though he's Paniagua or he'll never finish today he's Paniagua eventually I realized what they were saying was Spanish translated to English it means Paniagua means bread and water and are the words race and clean without any performance and drugs around that same time I noticed the top guys in our team getting these little white lunch bags from the team doctors after every every race I didn't know what was in them but I knew I wasn't getting one then I figured out what was going on and that became my motivation to work even harder to prove I didn't need one but things were about to change one night after our tough week-long stage race in southern Spain there I was in my hotel room collapsed on my bed physically depleted completely exhausted the team doctors knew I was hurting and one of them Pedro Celaya came in to check on me he was concerned and sympathetic almost fatherly he told me how hard I had worked how much I pushed through the pain and now he admired that in me he said I had to start taking care of my body make myself healthier Pedro always wore this fly-fishing vest that had all these pockets he reached into one of them and pulled out a little red egg-shaped capsule he said Tyler this is for your health it's not doping it's for your health he handed me the capsule and there I was at the crossroads in or out yes or no I swallowed a red egg without much thought and it was testosterone a banned substance of course I knew it was against the rules but I had worked so hard and was so close to my dream of riding the Tour de France that I felt I owed it to myself to look the other way and I justified it I told myself everybody was doing it and it was a necessary art of competing at the top level but I knew is wrong and deep down I was ashamed but that shame was buried by a new feeling a possibility how far can I go how fast can I ride how good can I be in a strange way it was a badge of honor it meant the team finally thought I was good enough get a white lunch bag now on the inner circle I was next introduced to injections of a drug called EPO or Edgar Allan Poe's we called it EPO increases a production of red blood cells which carry oxygen to your muscles and improve endurance at the time EPO is undetectable and it was fast and easy a quick swab of the arm a little injection and done like the red egg it didn't feel like a big deal with EPO we could train harder and longer and in a three-week race like the Tour de France EPO was an absolute game changer in the beginning EPO and all the other drugs were given paid for transported and administered by the team because it was all done for us we reasoned it was the team actually breaking the rules and we the riders were just the dutiful employees that situation changed during the 98 Tour de France when police raided a vehicle of a French team and uncovered a massive amount of doping products from that point on it became too risky for the team to handle her our doping program we would now have to do it ourselves team management told us the new system was for safety but now the risk of transporting and border crossing was all on us since there would be no EPO in the team cars anymore how do we get it during the tour our team leader Lance Armstrong came up with a plan his gardener Philippe or moto man as we nicknamed him would zip through the Tour de France circus on his motorcycle and drop off the drugs to an undercover staff member the staff member would have our syringes waiting for us sometimes tucked in our sneakers or no race bags we would inject quickly 30 seconds at the most and stuffed the syringe into an empty coke can we crushed the can and make it look like trash and the team doctor would bury the can in the bottom of his backpack open the door and walk past the crowds of fans journalists and even police there we were in one of the world's big at largest sporting events injecting banned banned drugs just feet from thousands of people people always want to know why we didn't get caught weren't there drug tests of course they were and lots of them but if you follow the doctor's instructions or cheat sheets none of them were hard to beat I probably passed hundreds of tests when I shouldn't have and in the 1990s there was no test for EPO at all in the year 2000 that changed the team was worn by an inside source that an EPO test could be used at the upcoming tour we needed a new strategy to work around the EPO test the team decided decided to try a safer alternative a couple weeks before the Tour de France aboard a private jet with Lance Armstrong and another teammate and flew to Valencia below us we could see the French Riviera the mansions and the yachts it felt like a fantasy world when we landed in Valencia the team doctors and staff members were there on the tarmac waiting for us as we were shuttled to the secluded hotel the team doctors told us how easy this new method would be how safe it was and how there was absolutely nothing to worry about what they were talking about was blood transfusions or blood doping I've heard about transfusions before but I couldn't believe athletes actually did them it's a process where the doctors will extract your blood stored in a fridge or freezer then reinter body is depleted it has the same red blood cell boosting effect that EPO has only this was natural but in reality it was a risky dangerous procedure with serious consequences if done improperly blood transfusions are not the same as swung a little pale or getting an injection here you're watching a big clear bag fill up with your own warm red blood you never forget it and you never get used to it and when you're leaving in the hands of doctors with questionable past things can go wrong after one visit I left the doctor's office in a hurry to catch a flight hailing a cab with one arm I felt a strange wetness on the other I looked down to see my hand dripping with blood and my sleeve completely soaked and red it looked as though I'd been stabbed the whole from the extraction needle hadn't closed that point in time character has characterized exactly what my life had become there I was on a busy street corner in Madrid hiding behind dark glasses and a baseball cap paranoid of being seen in one hand I'm holding a secret cell phone with code names and numbers and the other hand is dripping with blood and down the street in a backroom clinic a doctor I don't trust is stockpiling bags of my blood all for a bike race people ask me why wasn't that enough to make you stop at all right then and there my reality was so twisted by then I reasoned it was just temporary my career would be over in a couple years and once it was done I'd go back to living a normal life so there I was at the top of the pack cruising up and over the French Alps in Pyrenees the Italian Dolomites and the Belgian are done winning at the highest level and the most famous bike races in the world I was now the elite of the elite I'd fulfilled my childhood dream of becoming an Olympic champion I was living the American dream my family was so proud invitations came rolling in ring the opening bell on Wall Street throw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game nationally televised interviews these winds these highs these accomplishments should have made me feel like I was on top of the world yet my life was spinning out of control and I worried more about getting caught than I did about winning but what could I do I already walked into the casino and roll the dice I was in over my head there's no turning around and no way out and then it all came to a screeching halt there was a second week of the 2004 tourist bein I was at the peak of my cycling career and I got the news I'd failed a drug test oh he can change this another person's cells were detected in my blood I assumed that the blood bags had been mixed it was a mistake that could have killed me so there was my opportunity my moment to finally do the right thing tell the truth take responsibility leave all this behind and start my life over again instead with the pressure mounting I lied professional cycling was a brotherhood we live by the omerta a code of silence we all understood we protected each other we protect the system lying and denying was what I was supposed to do you get caught you say nothing you take one for the team that's how it was done if I told the truth I would have to implicate everyone involved dozens of people many of them my friends would lose their jobs and I'd be blackballed from the sport forever I received a two-year suspension for 14 years I lied to everyone during that time I had two faces one with the person everyone thought I was and the other the person I knew I was a doper and a liar who was unravelling on the inside I dealt with depression I abused alcohol I had suicidal thoughts and feelings of self hate but never went away I was alone and a prisoner of my decisions I retired in 2009 six years after I wrote my last Tour de France a subpoena arrived in my front door there was a federal investigation underway into Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service cycling team I was ordered to testify in front of a grand jury the choice in front of me was stark tell the truth or go to jail when I walked into that Los Angeles courtroom I knew what I had to do from the very first question the truth came pouring out and for the next seven hours I unloaded more than a decade of Lies the more I talked the more I realized I had spent the last 14 years protecting a culture there was never worth protecting in the end the true saved me well my story happened in cycling every industry has its unwritten rules its own secret race corporate corruption is widespread academic cheating is it an all-time high and a growing number of people in the workplace feel they have to bend the rules to get ahead whether the rewards are money fame power personal validation a promotion or a scholarship the pressure to excel is taking its toll every day we're presented with red eggs moments when the lure of success or fear of failure puts us to the test should you fudge that number just this once to meet your sales quota do you turn your blind eye when your boss over charges a customer to inflate your resume to get that dream job I wish I had been better prepared for that day Pedro walked into my hotel room I wish I thought harder about swallowing that first red egg about where would lead and how out of control things would get I wish I knew how numb victories would feel when they were achieved dishonestly and I wish I knew then that giving back an Olympic gold medal would feel better than winning it thank thank you that tighter that was I am really fascinating and I just want to take you back if you don't mind to that moment when you're on the bed and you're exhausted and Pedro comes into your room do you feel that you were exploited in that moment he put me in a really tough spot you know the Tour de France was a few months away I knew they wanted me on the Tour de France team and he knew I had a lot of respect for him I kind of he was kind of like a fatherly figure to me and yeah you know he got the better of me I let my guard down mmm you know I grew up with two great parents and you know they taught me the difference between right and wrong and you know what to always make the right choice and when I did make the wrong choice to you know get back to the right side of the line and yeah I was young and wide-eyed and when do you think you crossed that line from being something of a victim to being a criminal you know I I don't consider myself a victim you know I mean I made the choice I knew you know I was an adult I was a young adult but I was you know it was like so I'm saying when do you think that there's you cross that line between being maybe exploited by people you respect to being someone consciously in control of their actions yeah I mean the wrong thing you know I was I guess I was always really in control of it you know no one ever had a gun to my head obviously they you know that back when I started everybody was you know the whole peloton was doping and and they knew that if you know if I wanted to make it to the topic I was going to have to do that you mentioned also that after taking that pill in that room there was no going back but but why not why can you've just taken the testosterone pill and then said no no like I could have I could have but you know just started with a little red test testosterone pill you know I did that a few times then next thing I know I was getting introduced to an injection of EPO and just started really slowly you know at the beginning you know that red little testosterone pill was just like good a speck of dust on my shoe you know you know by the end I was really up to my neck in it and moving away from you on to Lancer a lot of times from Reetha do you feel that he's been vilified and even bullied and made an example of in a way that's at all I'm fair uh you know he was the the biggest name in the sport sometimes the people the highest in the company will fall the farthest and he you know he said a tough run at it that's for sure but you know we all have to pay the consequences for sure and comparing you to Lance you know your hair people love you people buy your books people want to hear what you've got to say and are you ever surprised by the extent to which you've been accepted after having been persona non grata um you know it was tough for me when I first came out with the Hulk when I first told the whole truth I was still you know a lot of people didn't believe me but then when really the whole truth came out that I think the book helped a lot and obviously when Lance finally admitted the truth I think a lot of people forgave me and I think at first it was a little bit difficult you know I'd been just my name is black for so long and there's so much dislike for me and then people of a sudden understood the whole situation yeah it wasn't necessarily that easy I mean you also mentioned the two-year suspension and now in your entire life your physical life your emotional life is a sport how on earth do you cope but physically and psychologically with a two-year period of suspension I was brutal it was brutal hardest you know those were two hard years but it continued really like it didn't I came back to the sport for a couple years I tried to make a comeback and I was still persona non grata within the sport you know a lot of people didn't want to see me back you know my name was black and I struggled I struggle for a long time for sure yeah and I wanted to touch on something else you said you said you'd convinced yourself that you needed to dope in order to compete not in order to win but do you think that the problem is so widespread that actually it's not a matter of getting an edge it's a matter of keeping up you know back down it was about keeping up you know a lot of you know my old teammates guys were kind of middle road cyclists at that level you know they they complain that yet they weren't doing it they weren't you know they're going to be out off the back of the race for sure moving away from doping briefly just to talk about cycling more generally before we come for the audience do you think that the defensive riding in the mountains it carries on the way there are defensive riding in the Tour de France if it carries on in the same way teams and spectators that will turn to what other other Grand Tours or do you think sort of the lure of the Tour de France defensive running so that this style of riding which is perhaps less enjoyable for spectators in order to protect cyclists which which might draw attention away from what is as you described is that the greatest sort of competition I don't know what for me you know I lived it and breathed it and you know I think it's I think the team aspects a lot of fun you know sometimes it kind of dulls a race down a little bit because you know for example the way Team Sky rides you know they protect their leader and there's less maybe action because they set such a hard case of the front but it's team tactics you know they have you know they have one guy that they're all working for Chris Froome and you know they do a good job at you know they they get him to the most critical part of the race as fresh as possible and then let him go you know that's what we used to do for Lance Armstrong and that's really the way to win the Tour you know I guess they could really they could reduce the number of riders per team and that might make it a little bit more interesting I'd be in favor that yeah maybe from nine maybe bring it down to seven riders my last question before that you guys have a chance is with regards to the dangers of cycling the Olympics opened with many exciting things but also with some really really nasty Falls and broken collarbones do you think as slopes get more challenging and as athletes go faster there's actually an element of risk in cycling which is going far beyond what's appropriate there's a lot of risk in cycling at and I don't I don't know how you're really going to control it but there's a lot I mean dangerous descents and you know this it's hard to you know to put fences along 120 or 130 miles of a racecourse you're constantly taking risks I'm actually just recovering from a lethal accident I was doing to charity riding this on a lady's wheel and she hit a rock and crashed right in front of me and stitches everywhere it's a dangerous sport dangerous sport and you know there's two in that race like the Tour de France there's 200 of the fittest athletes in the world you know I'm small French roads and everybody's trying to get to the front and you know you're packed in like sardines and you know one one rider makes a mistake or has a mechanical problem and you know you can go down like dominos and it's awful it's awful I mean you've been through hell in cycling what makes you get back onto the saddle I don't you know I don't know I've always been really competitive less weigh less now but as a kid I was I always loved sport that's kind of sort of spoke through sport and yeah I'd love to compete and you know a crash wouldn't wouldn't you know for most of those guys of crashes and getting to slow you down yeah yeah thanks let's see some questions from the audience here we go there yeah and do you think that knowing that what you know about doping and telltale signs and I know recently in America there was a big scandal baseball do you think or if you noticed that is prevalent throughout sport and all elite levels I don't think it was a problem just in cycling that's for sure yeah I think doping is a problem we have in all sports at the top level to some degree I think it's almost a necessity not a necessity I mean it's it's it's unfortunate that it's out there but when there's so much on the line so much pressure and there's all that there's a lot of money on the line a lot of jobs on the line a lot of people slides and careers on the line people cut corners so I'd love to see sport with less pressure I don't know how it's possible but I'd be great keeping up on something he was mentioning do you think question do you think there are telltale signs though can you look at you know an NFL game or you know an NBA game and say what that guys doing is is not more yeah I can't really speak for other sports I'm not football yeah Merrick yo-yo player but even but in cycling yeah but within cycling I don't know I used to be there's some telltale signs I think you know oh it was always interesting to see just someone kind of come out of nowhere just get amazing results and sort of go away that was a sort of a sign that doesn't guarantee that they're doping but you know there are signs like that or just or just incredible speeds you know going up some of these climbs and yeah that's good for the guy parkour you ginger and as I'm sure you're aware the level of public trust but in cycling is probably in an all-time low do you think it's it is it is possible to return to a level with where the public believes that the riders in the tour are clean and I mean is it a case of you know banning for a lifetime riders that have been convicted of doping cousin sure you're aware there are riders that rather than tour today that are previously convicted of doping and the public suspect them maybe of doping again do you think it's possible to return to that level of trust yeah I think it's possible it's going to certainly take some work that's a great question it's going to take some work that's for sure you know we need to still focus on anti-doping it's it didn't just go away in 2006 like a lot of people said for in 2007 or 2008 you know it's it's obviously still around guys are still getting caught but we need to you know a lot of people in the sport yeah just assumed okay it's over it so it's clean now but you know we know that's not totally true anti-doping skiing and you know these world anti-doping agency and all the national anti-doping agencies need more support you know we need more testing you know if we had a test that could can you imagine if we had a test that you know that took a blood or urine test and it would could detect what's been put in your body for the last six months you know that'd be incredible you know in these days you can still blood dope you can still micro dose with EPO still takes you know small amounts of testosterone you know the same thing I was doing way back when you know you can still take cortisone you know under the TU 8tu a system so I think we've got to crack down even harder it's not it's not over so yeah and it's unfortunate the public's not happy with the sport of cycling today that's for sure was there someone you want to go to so you know I don't know it's okay just check out the guy yeah yeah I I'd like to pry a little bit more into the culture of doping and who it was specifically led by you mention a lot of things about competition being your motivation for doping but there's also a lot of allegations by Floyd Landis Betsy Andrew others that indicate you know it was more of a culture of the leader you know perpetuating the the culture of doping do you think that you know you rode with Lance for three years if I'm not mistaken yeah do you think this culture of doping was really driven by him or was it driven by the competition itself to be better and to you know be the best you possibly could be yeah that's a great question no I don't think you know Lance was you know the the one that really push I started doping before it was teammates with Lance I was teammates with Lena for four years you know I probably you know the whole moto man thing with you know bring EPO and the motorcycle that probably wouldn't happen if you know Lance was around I probably wouldn't have blood dope for that first time had Lance not been around but you know doping it started long before Lance Armstrong got to the pro ranks you know sure but what about other leaders in cycling as well other team leaders I mean I'm sure that you know I can't speak hint but I would just assume that they were you know pushing to have a strong team you know that required you know crossing line in a serious way doing things like EPO blood doping but I wouldn't say it's their you know their fault I think you know it's it was in the sport for a long time a really long time in a Lance I think arrived in the professional side of cycling and to that side in 1993 yeah and doping had been going on for a long time before before that I don't know anything else um I mean just was the culture perpetuated by the team leaders I guess is like and you're get out in which which contributed more I'd say the culture the culture contributed more it was there you know when I arrived in 1997 I've been I've been a pro for two seasons before kind of racing more domestically in the States then I arrived in the big leagues in 1997 that was when I first did my first Tour de France and that you know and that's when I realized you know wow it's everywhere you know they're handing out white lunch bags you know full of you know performance-enhancing drugs to guys you know at the race they were bringing it to the race you know that's how open it was you know it was like nothing they know but no one no one was stressing about it you know all the staff members weren't stressing that it was you know in the back of there and the team bus you know obviously once that Festina affair happened in 1998 that's when everyone was like whoa we're gonna hide this stuff we can't you know you guys kind of got to do it yourselves and we'll teach you how to do it but like you got to keep this little quieter you know secret cellphone started happening you know stuff like that before it was like the Wild West you know before the Festina affair was just wide open prevalent and it was like it was pretty in your face so she - well the normalization of doping and will rather use of performance-enhancing drugs is there a part of you that thinks as long as these substances are safe that there should be legal in this bowl no I don't think they should be leaving I mean what's that telling the younger generation you know so if young kids are watching Tour de France riders and they know they're taking this this and this you know but I suppose it's a fine line between yeah do many exciting Olympians do and you know if they're on certain diets and they're using creatine in there you know it will really what's the difference maybe between your testosterone pill and other sort of powders they're mixing with their milk or whatever it is yeah well you know if it's I don't know if it's not good for you I don't think it's another thing you should be doing it that's for sure you know I mean we got to think about the younger generations the kids the kids little kids now because like you know they're going to be racing in the Tour de France before we know it and if yeah if third yeah we got to keep it on the straight and narrow yeah for sure take another question there's a ton of the back there I go glasses hi um I just wondered if you could tell us a bit more about what Lance Armstrong was like as a guy to train with and do you think he was the best doper out there what do you think he was a very talented athlete and everyone was doping and he was he was a better athlete and that brought him success great question um Lance was definitely intense intense I've never met anybody like him you know for me winning was nice it was great when it happened you know but ii was also nice and pretty awesome too you know for lance it was you know ii was awful you know it was all about winning he had this intensity that like I've never seen he was a great athlete great athlete heart very hard-working obviously he doped you know he peaked I guess he he'd go pretty deep you know like myself and like a lot of others but yeah great athlete you know got it mixed up in it just like and you know kind of went above and beyond sometimes just in terms of you know winning at all costs yeah great and just one more I'm not sure the recent allegations about Team Sky you mentioned these Tue earlier and we're just wondering what you thought about this story that Bradley Wiggins took these injections for medical uses just before these major events yeah and whether you think Team Sky in general can be trusted yeah that's a tough question you know he he did everything he did was legal you know that that we know well you know whether or not it was ethical or not you know that's sort of up for debate you know it's it's really too bad it's too bad that you know what we found out it was you know you it was taken during three of his big target races so that was a bit i opening you know just days before that was a bit eye-opening and you know you know team sky has in the past said that they're you know a clean team a very ethical team and it's just bits put that into question a little bit but you know I think well I think they're doing an investigation of some sort and hopefully we'll get some more answers but and um yeah hopefully we'll hear the truth good question there's a girl over there and I'm kind of leading up to the first question and I was wondering and if you think that like there's a reason to which the formal one drivers would like less affected maybe by doping and less like looked after for doping and weather like Niki Lauda and James Hunt were also like involved in this for example and yeah um yeah I don't know a whole lot about Formula One but I you know I do know that you know cycling is definitely the amount of testing they do is way more than you know most sports you know they pretty much lead the way in anti-doping do you think there's a reason for this like a particular reason it comes down it comes down each the governing bodies all those different sports you know I won't mention the sport but the it was one of the top four sports in America and their big chief there I was at a conference and their Big Chief said because I was there and it was there a bit of controversy that I was there and journalists asked this guy is doping a problem in your sport and they said yeah he said we don't have a problem don't being in our sport which is you know they barely do any testing and I'm sure that's not the case yeah it comes to it comes down each the governing body of each sport and each sport just does things differently some like some sports they don't think they have a problem in cycling you know if you go back 20 years did they think there was a problem probably not you know but there was at that time twenty years ago it was a big massive problem it was it was terrible so do you see other sports coming into the same kind of trouble maybe in 10 20 years that cycling is experiencing at the moment absolutely absolutely if you don't start dealing with it now they're gonna any sports in particular you see that happening with you can probably guess okay yeah yeah we'll leave that the imaginations yeah yeah it's good did you want to add something sorry um we want that one that that blood doping doctor that I worked with in Spain he you know he said he worked with soccer players or football players as he has called tennis players track and field athletes cross-country skiers well so this is a question over here it was just something I'm Noah touched on I was wondering about your opinion I really a sports editorial that was talking about you Poe and they're a bit about that cuz I'm a doctor but they were comparing it to what some athletes do and including Chris Froome in terms of exposing themselves to high levels of oxygen deprivation in sort of oxygen tents and things like that in order to naturally boost their red cells whereas Ipoh is yeah doing it unnaturally although it's it's a pharmacological natural Sun so I was wondering what your opinion was of the difference that the article was sort of trying to so Jeff at adriaen is here so you know one's illegal one's not but they're both doing the same thing yeah so I think so you're talking about the difference between EPO and just training at altitude or training in altitude tent yeah well I mean there's a big difference you know once illegal and once legal yeah you know you can either go up to live up at altitude for three four five weeks or longer and get get that kind of benefit or you can you know sleep in some sort of altitude chamber in like a tent and we did that to turn during my career [Music] yeah it's a yeah one's legal one's not it's a it's a bit unfair you know it costs money if you're if you live at sea level and you're an athlete but doesn't have a lot of money it's it's almost impossible to to go to go away for a long time to train at altitude or to buy or to rent an altitude tent of some sort so but how can you control that how can you say you can't go up two outs you know it's you have to you have to let that be legal maybe I think some countries actually made altitude tents illegal so so do you think then the act of cheating it's less on the outcome but rather it's on the means so the fact that is maybe requires more effort and energy and time to trade altitude means it's not cheating whereas you know injecting yourself with something is so easy and quick it is cheating if the outcomes are the same well sir okay well so I'm not here to give a hundred yeah that's good I like it yeah great go write the back on the left I'm curious for such an extended period of time working with your team and the wider peloton after being one of the early movers in sort of exposing the unwritten or the unspoken sort of code what life and relationships look like after that view with guys that you spent most of your early years developing yeah most of us pretty broken I'd say yeah yeah you know a lot of my old teammates I just don't see him anymore I'm just different lives different you know living in different areas we don't ever really cross paths at all I'm sure if we cross paths would be at least cordial but yeah a lot of people weren't so happy with me you know weren't happy that the truth came out but that's all right you know it's I'm I think it's much much better to tell the truth and to to save a friendship or something like that it's uh it was necessary you know my my whole career when I was doping I was I always thought this is way too big of a secret for it not to come out because that you know when I first started in 1997 doping like you know the majority the peloton was doping and I always thought this is this one day will come out and yeah I guess I was sort of part of that process of doping coming out the whole truth coming out yeah it's changed a lot of my relationships over the old teammates or you know I've had to testify in many different cases I had to testify in the case that whistleblower case would Lance Armstrong I've had to testify against old doctors and directors have to have had to do a lot of stuff like that spent a lot of time in court or onna or doing it via video I just did one a couple weeks ago and with the Johan Bruyneel and Pedro Celaya and the South guide dr. Pepe Marty are not nice not a doctor but Pepe Marty yeah but it's it's what I have to do it's you know I was a part of it and I feel I feel that I ever have a responsibility to to just continue to be truthful and if there are questions that need to be answered I'll answer them do you think it will end you know soon and I call it the gift that keeps on giving because it like just doesn't go away but you know I got my I got myself into this mess so you know it's the right thing to do and I need to do it so the do you think you'll be on certain questions for juries and for investigations until you're in your old age hopefully not hopefully not but hopefully we can talk about just positive things that you know but yeah if it if that's the case so be it I'll do it yeah take a couple more questions there's a woman on the edge over there and just your left yeah I'm just like do you spend a lot of time thinking what if everyone had been clean where would I've got to where would Armstrong have got to do did you or you over that now or does it still preoccupy your thoughts oh you know I'm not I don't care about it yeah [Music] I'm not consumed by it you know it's just I've kind of just moved forward and past it all it would have been not have been fantastic if that was the case if everybody's cleaning we got to see who truly was the strongest and all that I think you still would have seen a lot of the same guys towards the top but I don't think it would have been exact you know I mean a lot of people have asked you know would Lance have won seven tours out guests no you know what I've won one yep probably you know or maybe not I don't know I don't know I hope I would have done well you know but who knows you know I did pretty well when I was clean you know I want some big races but racing at the Tour de France level was a whole different whole different story but yeah it would have been interesting it would have been fun and you know I wish I'd like I wish I'd you know said no to Pedro and told him where to stick that red egg but you know I didn't I wasn't strong enough I kind of just played into the game and you know it's new and wide-eyed and super excited to even have the opportunity to just get on the start line and the Tour de France you know I had no idea where it was where it was going to lead you know I thought I was gonna my first Tour de France in 1997 was my first first and only time gonna do that but it was going to do the tour I told my parents I was like you got to come over and watch but come early because I don't know if I'll finish you know and then it was just okay I finished that year then I did another year another year yeah I took my final semester off from college to race on the US national team and I thought okay I'll be in school you know the following fall but it just never I kept postponing college and before I knew it you know I was you know deep into the Tour de France career do you still go back to em France no no no no just done with that now yeah pretty I love France France is awesome and the Tour de France is a great race it's fantastic it's a hardest I think sporting event in the world you know you know that and that's one of the problems you know maybe they could make it a little bit easier no really but you know a couple years ago maybe was more than a couple of the ALP d'Huez is running one of the toughest climbs in France and they the last day or the last day before the date of Paris they did ALP d'Huez twice not once it would have been hard enough in the you know last day to do it once but they did it twice to me that was just over the top over the top here's a commercial aspect to that live oh yeah they love it I mean there's a big commercial aspect to it yeah one time they made us ride over that thing called the passage Dubois and it was like I think three quarters of the day it's underwater and then during low very low tide it's it's out of water and they made us race across it you know for television I'm sure and you know it was so slicker than ice so we hit that thing going you know 60 kilometers an hour because everybody was trying to get to the front the first like 20 guys made it through and then everybody else just you know slid like ice and some guys went into the ocean it was crazy yeah I don't think they've ever raced across a sense but spectacle guy ride the bike yesterday stretching Thank You Tyler for your comments have been very insightful and I'm sure everyone in the room appreciates it I had two quick questions if you'll indulge me first I was curious if in just going back to your last comment about the format of the Tour de France do you think in its current form it's possible for an athlete to compete and to do it as they currently do it and not be doping or is it just too physically demanding on the human body yeah yeah that's a great question you know I can't really speak for today I've been long away from the sport at the Tour de France level so you know I can't I can speak for when I was racing and yeah it wasn't possible to win the Tour de France cleaned not even close not even close I hope today it's possible but I don't know I don't know good to get on the cool to that good question describing how you were like going to do thing I can entirely imagine that most people would do the same as you put in your situation being that good at cycling having that pressure blah blah blah I was wondering if you've forgiven yourself yeah that's a great question I think for the most part sometimes I think I'm a little hard on myself for sure but you know I've always kind of been tough on myself but no you know it's I did a lot of bad things for a while so you know and you know I do talk about it every once in a while and kind of reminds me of you know what I did sometimes and I got a little nervous here it feels like I was in confession you know so you know that's good it's all good I did these things so um but yeah for the most part yeah um you know I mean I think I have a little ways to go yeah I just I do talk about it a bunch and you know not a whole lot of guys talk about it I feel like sometimes I feel like I'm speaking for the whole generation of riders you know the dark during the dark days you know it's not a lot of guy a lot of guys have come forward with the truth you know that they don't but a lot don't really they've just kind of done them done what they had to do and then move down so but I do think it's important to talk about it you know if we don't really figure out what happened in the past how it happened and why it happens we're gonna have to we're going to go through the same thing again so I think I probably owe you a drink now after options like that so it's all it might be around for a few more minutes just in the bar if you have really pressing questions I know you really want to get your second answer I'll get you I'm surely tolerate questions you guys great questions and thanks for listeners and [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: OxfordUnion

Views: 753,336

Keywords: Oxford, Union, Oxford Union, Oxford Union Society, debate, debating, The Oxford Union, Oxford University, Tyler Hamilton, cycling, doping, sport, Lance Armstrong

Id: UM7mdreB-Yc

Length: 55min 12sec (3312 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 18 2016