NEW YORK — A former teammate of Lance Armstrong has 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.
Tyler 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.
Armstrong has steadfastly denied doping and has never failed a drug test.
Federal investigators are probing whether Armstrong and his former U.S. Postal team engaged in a systematic doping program, which he denies.
“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’s attorney Mark Fabiani said Hamilton “just duped the ’CBS Evening News,’ ’60 Minutes’ and Scott Pelley all in one fell swoop.”
“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.”
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 DHEA. He was officially banned from cycling for eight years, and has since founded Tyler Hamilton Training, a company that helps coach all levels of cyclists.
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