Tyler Hamilton has finally broken his silence on the FDA Lance Armstrong investigation, joining fellow ex-professional cyclists Floyd Landis, Joe Papp, Bernhard Kohl and Jörg Jaksche in attempting to tell the recent “truth” about the role of performance enhancing drugs in our beautiful sport (I admit that truth/reality are difficult concepts these days, see here and here). Like Landis (and unlike the others mentioned above), Hamilton spent a lot of time, effort and money bolstering claims that his doping positives were erroneous, and he not only risks attack from those in cycling who would like him to keep quiet, but also those who see the volte-face as hypocritical. In this post I look at his stated reasons in light of the cost-benefit analysis athletes perform (consciously or unconsciously) when they make decisions about talking openly and honestly about doping. Continue reading →

The emails and tweets of from Grey Manrod Ass. have provided some of the funniest and most incisive comments on the malaise that has befallen professional cycling since the early 1990s.

Doping has long been rife in the peloton, but the misuse of rEPO really changed the game, and the more recent re-discovery of self-transfusion (synthetic EPO can now be identified by the dope-testers) creates a playing field levelled to the lowest common denominator. Moreover, as the recent hospitalisation of Ricardo Ricco demonstrates, such techniques do more than distort sporting perfomance: they can make you critically ill.

After a few days of quick-fire emailing and tweeting, Chade O. Grey and partner have been rather quiet. I miss them…

UPDATE:

See Neil Browne’s live chat with Chade…