NEWSLance Armstrong Used EPO Enhancement Drug, Says Ex-Teammate Tyler Hamilton
May 20 2011, Published 5:19 a.m. ET
Lance Armstrong may have announced his retirement in February, but now his ex-teammate Tyler Hamilton has decided to divulge some unsettling claims about the champion. Tyler recently told 60 Minutes that Lance used performance-enhancing drugs to get ahead in cycling races, including the Tour de France.
Hamilton said, via the Huffington Post, that the seven-time Tour de France winner took a blood-booster drug called EPO in the 1999 Tour and before the race in 2000 and 2001. Lance won the race every year from 1999 to 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," he told 60 Minutes reporter Scott Pelley, "like we all did. Like I did, many, many times."
"(Armstrong) took what we all took... the majority of the peloton," he added, referring to fellow riders in the race. "There was EPO... testosterone... a blood transfusion."
EPO boosts endurance by elevating the number of red blood cells in the body.
This is the first time Lance has been accused of "doping." He has never failed a drug test, however there has been a federal investigation into whether Lance or his former U.S. team did take performance-enhancing substances.
Hamilton's claims come only one year after Floyd Landis, another former teammate, made similar accusations of drug used by Lance and the team. Both Landis and Hamilton claim Lance failed a drug test at the 2001 Tour de Suisse.
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Lance continues to deny all reports and his attorney Mark Fabiani dismissed the 60 Minutes report, which aired last night on CBS Evening News.
In February, Lance announced he was retiring to “focus now on raising (his) five children, promoting the mission of LIVESTRONG (Global Cancer Campaign) and growing entrepreneurial ventures with our great corporate partners in the fight against cancer.”
Catch the report, via CBS, below.
