Roger Clemens may have gotten away with it because of a derelict Judge, and Barry Bonds narrowly escaped because of a rogue juror, but lance Armstrong may not be so lucky. A new book by cycling teammate Tyler Hamilton hits the shelves and it blows the lid off the secret methods by which Armstrong allegedly cheated to win seven consecutive Tour de France titles. Among the shocking allegations:
***Armstrong and teammates would “microdose” between 10pm and 6am to take advantage of a French rule prohibiting testing between those hours. By dosing at the stroke of 10 and adding certain masking agents they would not “glow” i.e. they would have metabolized the drugs so that they would not be detected.
***A mysterious motorcyclist called “Motoman” would closely follow the team and distribute drugs and cell phones at pre-arranged drops.
***Drugs would be included in white lunch bags.
***Innocuous looking code words like “red eggs” (for testosterone”) “oil” (for testoserone drops) and “Edgar” (for erythro) would be used by cyclists to order what they needed.
***Phone and text codes would read “The restaurant is 167 miles away” meaning go to hotel room 167 for drugs or a blood transfusion.
***Blood transfusions were used to cover up doping.
***Cyclists used a galaxy of methods such as “patches,” “pills,” “injections,” or “blood transfusions.”
Hamilton also claimed he found Andro and other drugs in Armstrong’s medicine cabinet and when confronted Armstrong shrugged it off saying, “everybody is doing it.”
The book promises to be every bit as useful an expose as “Game of Shadows.” We’ll be reviewing the book later this month. It shows that despite Congressional investigations, court cases, and public shame, steroid use in sports is still rampant and that testing regimens must still progress to catch not only the drugs themselves, but the masking agents used to keep cheating undetected.
Most notably, the PGA Tour’s steroid policy still has gaping holes in it. The PGA Tour does not test for HGH, nor many masking agents, offering what anti-doping scholars once called a roadmap for cheaters. Tour officials have attempted to cover this with a fog leaf of credibility by passing international standards by the IGF in time for the game’s inclusion in the Olympics, but the chances of a cheat being discovered have therefore increased since the higher Olympic standard may well catch a cheat where the PGA Tour did not.
Most notably, golf’s biggest name, Tiger Woods, has been linked to two different shady steroid/PED distributors – Keith Kleven of BALCO and Dr. Henry Galea, called “Dr, HGH” in certain circles. It is widely known Woods got certain controversial blood spinning techniques done on his knee in 2008, the year of his well documented U.S. Open victory at Torey Pines. The PGA Tour has refused to open any investigation into that matter.
