# Lance, Tyler and 60 Minutes



## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

Have you guys seen it? I'd like to hear from Norcal locals on their thoughts on this new development. I just saw the episode and it is kind of a big deal.

You can watch the whole thing here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7366948n

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fc


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

I watched it - Tyler certainly comes over as being more believable than Floyd last year. It seems to me that the reaction from the Lance camp has been more muted than before. I think it is inevitable that Lance will get questioned by Novitzky or the Grand Jury at some point, and then he will finally be put on the spot. But I suspect that he'll pre-empt this by going on Oprah or Letterman or something similar, and putting the record straight on his own terms and in his own words. It must be hard to swallow an ego that big. The bigger story from a prosecution point of view isn't going to be the individual riders, but the complicity of the teams and the corruption up to the highest levels of the racing organizations.


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## thinkcooper (Jan 5, 2005)

Tyler was a former team mate of mine on CCB, when he was first getting started, so I'm biased, but I thought the interview was pretty damn frank, chilling to listen to, and sadly, easy to believe.

Here's the thank you note he sent around on FaceBook:




Tyler Hamilton said:


> *Thank You*
> The 60 Minutes interview was extremely difficult for me because implicating teammates was not something I ever wanted to do. I knew going in, that like the Grand Jury testimony, it was necessary in order to tell the whole story, and in the short term, it would not be good for cycling. As I said in the interview, this is not about one person or one team, but about a culture that I and many other riders were a part of. I believe the investigation and the information provided by riders under oath will have a positive impact on the future of the sport. Hopefully, it will help create an environment where athletes will no longer be asked to compromise their integrity as a result of difficult choices. I want to give a special thanks to my attorney, Chris Manderson, for the hours of tireless work spent on my behalf and for being a such a great friend. I know we're not done yet but I want you to know how much I appreciate all you do. There are no words to describe the gratitude I feel for the amazing support and words of encouragement I’ve received over the past few days from so many people. It's meant the world to me and I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart.


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## Big-foot (Dec 14, 2002)

francois said:


> Have you guys seen it? I'd like to hear from Norcal locals on their thoughts on this new development. I just saw the episode and it is kind of a big deal.
> 
> You can watch the whole thing here:
> http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7366948n
> ...


Um, shouldn't this be in "Doping"? Newbie. 

Oh Coolhand...yoo hoo!


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## WaitWienie (Feb 15, 2010)

I watched it about an hour ago, you could tell it was hard for him to talk about and you could tell when he kinda got irritated when the interviewer kept implying and bringing up Lance. The only thing I hate about all of this is the focus on Lance... If he did it he did it, the focus should be on moving forward and figuring out how to make things right with the sport. I hate that the media on the other side of this even though it keeps getting said that everyone is doing or has done it keep the focus as Lance as the ring leader. It is sad though and I see some tough times in the near future for Lance and Cycling in general along with UCI as they are implied as being involved as well. 

Chris


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## goloso (Feb 4, 2004)

*not a lot new...*

If you read LA confidential (or rather the leaked translation you can read for free) you get most of what was in the report plus a lot more.

What was new are the allegations that the UCI covered up a test presumably for a $100k bribe. If proven true, this could be just what Vaughters needs to get the race organizers on board to start his new league.

I thought that is was very curious that there were a bunch of CERA/EPO positives the year the AFLD ran the testing at the tour...


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

<img src="https://www.ciclirati.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/jeff-novitzky.jpg" width ="250" align="left" hspace="10">To understand this issue, one has to look in to Jeff Novitsky, the FDA doping cop heading all these investigations. Apparently, he is former basketball athlete, a former IRS agent and a person who has taken on/down Conte, Marion Jones, Bonds, etc. He is brilliant and has an Elliot Ness like tenacity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/sports/baseball/30novitzky.html

It does not matter if 'everybody was doing it'. And it is irrelevant to Novitsky if he's spending more than what USPS gave the team. And if Lance gave $1 billion to cancer, I don't think Novitsky will clamp down less harder. Novitsky has a job and he's going to do it.

Last year, my friends told me Lance was in real trouble as he retired abruptly. Novitsky is subpoena-ing everyone. Everyone close to Lance was being called in court to testify against him. It seemed very, very unlikely that they would all 'lie' and protect cycling and Lance. Lying to the government has a deep downside as Barry Bonds can now attest to. Now, it is unraveling and it seems like they all sang like canaries. Even Hincapie turned Lance in it seems.

It does seem like things are about to get a whole lot worse for Lance.

fc


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## parity (Feb 28, 2006)

Eventually I think Lance will be put on trial. He has too much to lose to admit any doping. And I can't see why Novitsky would waste his time on this unless he thought he could make a case. And why is Hamilton going to lie about this now while admitting his own drug use? 

There was a number of new things that came out. New evidence surrounding the test at the Tour of Switzerland that was suspicious of epo use that seemingly went away which was followed by "donations" by Lance to the UCI. There seemed to be systematic doping at US Postal (white lunch bags). So I think the more they dig into this the more they can uncover. And the more dots they are going to be connecting. 

I hope Hincapie and others come forward to tell their stories to the media and then we can put this behind us.


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

Part Two of the 60 Minutes investigation is coming this weekend.

This will go to trial. Only question for me is: Will Lance go to jail or not.

fc


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

He can avoid a trial by not perjuring himself. Can he take the 5th? If he admits that he doped, there will be no criminal case. It's not clear to me whether there's anything like enough evidence to get him on anything else, such as dealing, conspiracy, defrauding the government, corruption, bribery, etc. But if he holds on to his clean story, this will probably play out like the Barry Bonds case and over a similarly long time-line.

IMHO, Lance will not end up on trial, and definitely not in jail. I'd expect Lance to leave it as late as possible without perjuring himself, and then come clean at the time and place of his choosing.

One interesting question is how do you go about reassigning his TdF victories? You have to look a long long way down the results sheet to find anyone with a clean reputation in that era ... maybe Levi would get the 2005 TdF unless he gets forced out too? I guess there are prior cases where they didn't take away a TdF victory even after a doping admission, but that doesn't seem right.


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## goloso (Feb 4, 2004)

ukbloke said:


> He can avoid a trial by not perjuring himself. Can he take the 5th? If he admits that he doped, there will be no criminal case. It's not clear to me whether there's anything like enough evidence to get him on anything else, such as dealing, conspiracy, defrauding the government, corruption, bribery, etc. But if he holds on to his clean story, this will probably play out like the Barry Bonds case and over a similarly long time-line.


I don't think any of us know (except perhaps Dr. Falsetti) what other info the government has gathered. They are really good at tracking down money transfers and there has been quite a bit of smoke around the financing of doping. We will just have to wait and see if there is any fire.

If running a clean program was a condition of the USPS contract then LA could be caught in a fork (pun intended). If he confesses for doping then all the government has to do is prove that he instigated or supported a doping program and they can get him for fraud. If he lies about doping then they get him for perjury.

I suspect that what is leaking is the tip of the iceberg. I think we will be amazed at the detailed information that the govt gathered. Novitski's silence regarding these leaks is deafening.


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## MerlinAma (Oct 11, 2005)

francois said:


> <img src="https://www.ciclirati.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/jeff-novitzky.jpg" width ="250" align="left" hspace="10">.............Novitsky has his career to enhance and he's going to do it...............


Fixed it for ya.


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## twain (May 18, 2004)

*Definitely conflicted thoughts*

Thinkcooper-very cool that you rode with Tyler; what team was that?
I was doing triathlons back in '87 and "raced" against Lance when he was just 17 years old in '88 at the Bud Light championship. 
I also got a chance to ride with the US Postal Team in 1998-with Lance, Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton, Mark Gorski, and the head of Montgomery Securities. Tyler Hamilton seemed like a great guy.
I definitely have weird feelings about this whole issue; actually got a story up in Yahoo! Sports on this issue if you are interested:
http://sports.yahoo.com/sc/news?slug=ycn-8531013

Lastly, I wonder what % of roadbikereview members have owned or worn a yellow livestrong bracelet...

Novitsky VS Armstong is going to be a brutal battle :-(


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## thinkcooper (Jan 5, 2005)

twain said:


> Thinkcooper-very cool that you rode with Tyler; what team was that?
> I was doing triathlons back in '87 and "raced" against Lance when he was just 17 years old in '88 at the Bud Light championship.
> I also got a chance to ride with the US Postal Team in 1998-with Lance, Hincapie, Tyler Hamilton, Mark Gorski, and the head of Montgomery Securities. Tyler Hamilton seemed like a great guy.
> I definitely have weird feelings about this whole issue; actually got a story up in Yahoo! Sports on this issue if you are interested:
> ...


CCB out of New England was the team where Tyler got his start as a junior. I was on the senior 3, and vet 2 squad before moving west and out of road racing. Tyler was a great kid - he and Erich Kaiter were both cleaning up nationally as juniors. CCB also is Tim Johnson's old team.


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

Lance says it's time to lawyer up.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lance-armstrong-bolsters-legal-team

Pair of attorneys added with prior success against federal investigators

Lance Armstrong has bolstered his legal team, adding two lawyers who have previously had success in court against US federal investigators.

The seven-time Tour de France winner has hired Elliot Peters and John Keker. The pair had previously represented Major League Baseball players and won a key appeals court case two year ago in which federal judges ruled that agents had no right to seize baseball's anonymous drug testing results.

The news agency, AP, reports..............


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## Big-foot (Dec 14, 2002)

francois said:


> Lance says it's time to lawyer up.
> 
> http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lance-armstrong-bolsters-legal-team
> 
> ...


And it seems that Lance needs to raise some cash to cover his "Dream Team's" retainer: http://www.homeluxury.net/lance-armstrongs-luxury-vacation-home-for-sale/#comment-19


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## twain (May 18, 2004)

*House has been for sale for a while*



Big-foot said:


> And it seems that Lance needs to raise some cash to cover his "Dream Team's" retainer: http://www.homeluxury.net/lance-armstrongs-luxury-vacation-home-for-sale/#comment-19


"trying to sell this luxury vacation house since 2007"

So not quite that much of a cause/effect here.


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## zender (Jun 20, 2009)

My thoughts: "Here are my tax dollars hard at work"


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