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Lance Armstrong Performance Enhancing Drugs

January 3, 2012 by · Comments Off on Lance Armstrong Performance Enhancing Drugs 

Lance Armstrong Performance Enhancing DrugsLance Armstrong Performance Enhancing Drugs, Tyler Hamilton, a former teammate of Lance Armstrong, told “60 Minutes” that he used performance-enhancing drugs with the seven-time Tour de France winner to cheat in cycling races, including the tour.

Hamilton says Armstrong took a blood-booster called EPO in the 1999 Tour and before the race in 2000 and 2001. Armstrong won the race every year from 1999-2005.

The interview with Hamilton was broadcast on the “CBS Evening News” on Thursday.

“I saw (EPO) in his refrigerator. … I saw him inject it more than one time,” Hamilton said, “like we all did. Like I did, many, many times.”

Hamilton told “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley: “(Armstrong) took what we all took … the majority of the peloton,” referring to riders in the race. “There was EPO … testosterone … a blood transfusion.”

EPO is a drug that boosts endurance by increasing the number of red blood cells in the body.

Armstrong has steadfastly denied doping and has never failed a drug test. However, federal authorities are investigating whether Armstrong and his former U.S. Postal team did participate in a systematic doping program.

Hamilton’s accusations come a year after Floyd Landis, another former Armstrong teammate, made similar allegations of drug use by Armstrong and the team. And like Landis, Hamilton said Armstrong failed a drug test at the 2001 Tour de Suisse.

Armstrong’s attorney Mark Fabiani dismissed the “60 Minutes” report.

“Hamilton is actively seeking to make money by writing a book, and now he has completely changed the story he has always told before so that he could get himself on ’60 Minutes’ and increase his chances with publishers,” Fabiani said in a statement. “But greed and a hunger for publicity cannot change the facts: Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports: He has passed nearly 500 tests over twenty years of competition.”

Shortly after Hamilton’s comments aired, Armstrong launched a website that refuted the claims and tweeted: “20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case.”

Hamilton won a cycling gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games but failed a drug test later. He was allowed to keep his medal, however, because problems at a laboratory meant his backup ‘B’ sample could not be tested.

Months later, he was caught blood doping and served a two-year ban which ended in 2007.

Hamilton returned to racing and won the 2008 U.S. road championship, but retired last spring after admitting he took an antidepressant that contained the banned steroid DS-EX-A. He was officially banned from cycling for eight years.

On Thursday, ESPN reported that Hamilton sent a letter to friends apologizing for lying about his past drug use. He said he testified six hours before the Los Angeles grand jury investigating Armstrong.

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