Tyler Hamilton

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Tyler Hamilton

Personal information
Full name	Tyler Hamilton
Date of birth	March 1, 1971 (1971-03-01) (age 37)
Country	United States
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Weight	65 kg (140 lb/10.2 st)
Team information
Current team	Rock Racing
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	All-rounder
Amateur team(s)
1994	Coors Light (stagiare)
Professional team(s)
1995–2001 2002–2003 2004 2007 2008–	US Postal Service Team CSC Phonak Tinkoff Credit Systems Rock Racing
Major wins
Olympic Games Time-Trial (2004) Tour de France, 1 stage Giro d'Italia, 1 stage Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2003) Tour de Romandie (2003, 2004) Dauphiné Libéré (2000)
Infobox last updated on:
December 31, 2007

Tyler Hamilton (born March 1, 1971, Marblehead, Massachusetts) is an American professional road bicycle racer and Olympic gold medalist. He served a two-year suspension for blood doping, which expired in September 2006. In November 2006, Hamilton signed with Tinkoff Credit Systems^[1], an Italian UCI Professional Continental team for the 2006-2007 UCI Europe Tour season. He was suspended by his team on May 9, 2007 after continuing links emerged to the Operation Puerto drug scandal.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Olympic Gold - and a Doping Suspension 1.2 Operación Puerto 1.3 After the Ban 2 Major achievements 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Biography

Hamilton attended Holderness School in Holderness, New Hampshire, where he first started cycling. After graduating in 1990, he attended the University of Colorado at Boulder as a ski racer and received a BA degree in Economics in 1994 (although it has been alleged that he did not graduate^[2]). A back injury (two broken vertebrae while doing mountain bike dry land training on ski jump) at the University of Colorado developmental ski team in September 1991 ended his skiing career and he switched to cycling.

He turned pro in 1995, riding for the U.S. Postal Service cycling team in the 1998, 1999 and 2000 editions of the Tour de France. Hamilton was responsible for protecting Lance Armstrong in the mountain stages of the Tour, as it was hard for other teammates to keep up. Hamilton also acted as a scout in the individual time trial stages, riding as hard as possible without regard to his finishing performance to provide time-split comparisons for Armstrong.

In 2001 Hamilton left U.S. Postal and signed with Team CSC. He was made a team leader under the tutelage of manager Bjarne Riis. Hamilton fractured a shoulder in a crash in the 2002 Giro D'Italia, yet still managed to finish second. Hamilton won both the Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour de Romandie in 2003. In the 2003 Tour de France he cracked a collarbone in the first stage, but stayed in the race. He went on to win stage 16 with a 142 km solo breakaway, and placed fourth overall. For his stage win, Hamilton was awarded the Coeur de Lion (French for Heart of the Lion) prize, awarded to the most aggressive and daring racer of the stage.

In the 2004 Tour de France Hamilton raced for Phonak Hearing Systems. He dropped out on stage 13, after having continued back pain, mostly due to bruising incurred in a crash on stage 6.

He had developed a reputation for having bad luck, crashing during important stage races, but also for being a courteous, affable cyclist and spokesperson for the sport, especially in the United States. His wife Haven Hamilton and golden retriever Tugboat became recognizable fixtures at the races, appearing in photos and interviews. Late in 2003, Hamilton founded The Tyler Hamilton Foundation to raise funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and to help amateur cyclists rise through the ranks.

[edit] Olympic Gold - and a Doping Suspension

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Hamilton won the gold medal in the men's individual time trial. That medal was placed in doubt on September 20, 2004, after it was revealed that he had failed a test for blood doping (receiving blood transfusions to boost performance) at the Olympics. Two days after the announcement of his positive test result at Athens, the IOC announced that Hamilton would keep his gold medal because results could not be obtained from the second, backup sample. The Athens lab had frozen the backup sample, which made it impossible to repeat the blood doping test.^[3] The Russian Olympic Committee filed an appeal with the International Court of Arbitration for Sport seeking to strip Hamilton of his gold medal and grant it to Russian silver medalist Viatcheslav Ekimov. However, on June 27, 2006, the Court rejected the Russian Olympic Committee's request to strip Hamilton of his gold medal.^[4]

At the time the IOC announced that he would retain his gold medal, Hamilton had just withdrawn from the Vuelta a España. He won the stage 8 individual time trial on September 11, 2004, but resigned from the race six days later, citing stomach issues. Being the winner of the stage, he was subjected to anti-doping tests, and was informed by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) on September 13, 2004 that his two test samples from 2 days earlier had showed the presence of a "foreign blood population."^[5] After initially supporting Hamilton, his Phonak team managers withdrew their support after a second member of the team, Santiago Pérez, was found positive for the same offense at the 2004 Vuelta a España.^[6]

The positive sample at the Olympics, and the positive test at the Vuelta were not the only indications that Hamilton was manipulating his hematocrit level. In April 2004 his health test blood samples were found to have a very high ratio of hemoglobin to reticulocytes (young red blood cells), which is indicative of EPO use or blood doping. His score for the test was 132.9, where a typical clean athlete would score 90, and where the UCI mandates removal of the athlete from competition if the score exceeds 133. This sample also showed clear evidence of a mixed cell population (i.e. someone else's blood was in his bloodstream). However, neither of these pieces of evidence in isolation constituted a positive drug test (and the test for a mixed cell population had not yet been officially adopted), so no formal action was taken.^[2]

Given the short interval (two weeks) between the Olympics and the Vuelta, it is very likely that the positive test for blood doping in the Vuelta was for the same blood doping event which had been detected at the Olympics (because the foreign blood cells used in homologous blood doping would remain present in the athlete's body for a period of months), confirming the accuracy of the positive test at the Olympics. It seems clear that Hamilton had in fact blood doped before the Olympics, but had retained the gold medal on a technicality.^[2]

On April 18, 2005 Hamilton was sentenced by the United States Anti-Doping Agency to a two-year suspension from professional cycling,^[7] the maximum sentence for a first-time offense.

On May 18, 2005, he appealed the ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but, after an adjournment to allow Hamilton to gather additional evidence, the Court dismissed his appeal.^[8] Hamilton’s defense claimed that the UCI-sanctioned test was insufficiently validated (and may therefore have returned a false positive result) and that some of the agencies involved had concealed documents that would have supported his case. He also maintained that, even if a foreign population of cells was present in his blood, the cells were naturally present and not the result of a transfusion. Hamilton's lawyers at the time offered the explanation that he might be a Chimera, something Hamilton later disavowed.[1]

Hamilton was banned from competition until September 22, 2006, two years from the date his "B" sample taken in the Vuelta a España was found to be positive. Although current UCI ProTour rules would have effectively doubled the period of his suspension (until September 22, 2008), his positive test occurred before those rules were put into effect in 2005.

[edit] Operación Puerto

On June 26, 2006, the Madrid daily El País alleged that the Spanish civil guard investigation of doping in Spanish professional sports, "Operación Puerto", had found that Hamilton paid more than 50,000 USD to Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes between 2002 and 2004 to plan and administer his use of performance-enhancing erythropoietin (EPO), growth hormone treatment, blood doping, and masking agents.^[9] The El País article charged that Hamilton's 2003 win of Liège-Bastogne-Liège followed by days a "double" blood transfusion planned by Fuentes. The evidence presented by El País also implicated Hamilton's wife, Haven Hamilton (née Parchinski), in facilitating Hamilton's doping program. Fuentes was arrested along with prominent professional cycling figure and team director Manolo Saiz in May 2006 as part of the Operación Puerto investigation.

On June 26 2006, Hamilton stated on his website: "I was very upset to read the accusations against me and to see my name associated with the "Operación Puerto" investigation in Spain. I have not been treated by Dr. Fuentes. I have not done what the article alleges. In addition, I have never been contacted by authorities in Spain regarding these allegations. Therefore, it is impossible to comment on a situation I have no knowledge of."

The Copenhagen daily, Politiken, published an article detailing further charges against Hamilton stemming from Operación Puerto on August 19, 2006. ^[10] The article summarizes Hamilton's alleged doping program during 2003. It quotes Danish doping researcher Rasmus Damsgaard on the amount of organization Hamilton's program would have required. It cites Bjarne Riis, Hamilton's directeur sportif in 2003, denying any knowledge of Hamilton's doping. And the article states that the reporters attempted to contact Hamilton on numerous occasions while writing the article, but were unable to reach him for comment. The article's allegations against Hamilton are based on a copy of the rider's doping and racing calendar obtained by the Danish paper. The calendar was initially seized in Operación Puerto. The doping calendar indicates use of EPO, growth hormone, testosterone, blood doping, and insulin on 114 days over a period of seven months during the 2003 racing season. The racing program outlined in the calendar correlates exactly with the schedule Hamilton raced during 2003, according to Politiken. The calendar includes plans for two blood transfusions during the Tour de France. “The first time before the three stages in the Alps and the second before the twelfth stage -- a 47 km individual time trial,” write the reporters. The article also states that such an ambitious doping program would have required assistance -- “at least four or five people,” according to Damsgaard.

The next day, on August 20, 2006, the Belgian, Dutch language Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper published yet more details of Hamilton's doping diary. Among many allegations, the article claims that he took EPO 30 times between December 2002 and February 2003 (while riding for Team CSC). In 2003, claimed Het Laatste Nieuws, Hamilton used doping on 114 of his 200 racing days.^[11].

On September 14, 2006, USA Cycling announced that it had received information from the International Cycling Union (UCI) "regarding Tyler Hamilton and his alleged involvement in 'Operación Puerto' along with a request to move forward with disciplinary action." USA Cycling referred the case to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.^[12]

On April 30, 2007, La Gazzetta dello Sport published an article alleging that Spanish authorities had just completed a second dossier on Operation Puerto, 6000 pages long and naming 49 cyclists. Hamilton was again named, with the detail that he was #11 on Dr. Fuentes's coded list of clients.^[13]

Hamilton has never admitted to any wrongdoing, and like Floyd Landis his defence has been largely based on his personal integrity; the fact that he is incapable of cheating means that all evidence against him must be mistaken or fabricated. As US cyclist Bobby Julich (who finished third in the Athens time trial that Hamilton won) noted:

"It goes against everything I've ever seen or known from the guy. But the rest of us at the Olympics passed the test. Why didn't he? I'm sick of people who cheat, sick of cleaning up their mess and trying to explain it. There is heavy evidence against him. With that much evidence, I don't know how he's going to get out of it." ^[2]

[edit] After the Ban

Beginning in spring 2007, Hamilton commenced his professional cycling career again, having completed his two-year ban from the sport. He rode briefly as a member of the Tinkoff Credit Systems team. The team initially supported Hamilton in the face of continuing Operation Puerto rumors. However, on May 9 of that year, with rumors circulating about Hamilton's role in the April 30 dossier, the team announced that they would strike him from their list of riders for the 2007 Giro d'Italia.^[14]

On his personal website, Hamilton claimed that on May 3, Tinkhoff asked him to sign a new contract "with very different financial terms than [his] existing contract," and refused to let him ride until he signed. He says that he brought suit in an Italian court and won, that the team appealed and lost.^[15] The dispute is now in civil litigation.

In September 2007, Tyler competed at the US Nationals in South Carolina, earning sixth place in the time trial and twelfth in the road race.^[16] In December, Rock Racing confirmed that Hamilton would ride for them in 2008. Rock Racing is a professional cycling team which competes on the US circuit. Hamilton did not ride in the team's season-opening Tour of California because of that race's particularly stiff rules against riders who have been caught doping.

Wearing his Rock Racing gear, Tyler Hamilton finished 2nd (of approximately 60 cat 1/2 riders), March 9, 2008 at a collegiatelly sponsored criterium in Denver's City Park.

[edit] Major achievements

Medal record
Competitor for the  United States
Road bicycle racing
Olympic Games
Gold	2004 Athens	Time Trial

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tyler Hamilton's Rider Profile
• Tyler Hamilton Foundation Website
• Text of decision by International Court for Arbitration in Sport
• Tyler Hamilton's Last Stand Cycling News, February 15, 2006
• Hamilton and Ullrich linked to Operación Puerto
• [2]

v • d • e Riders on Rock Racing Rahsaan Bahati | Santiago Botero | Austin Carroll | David Clinger | Michael Creed | Brock Curry | Peter Dawson | Cesar Grajales | Tyler Hamilton | Sergio Hernandez | Kevin Klein | Kayle Leogrande | Sterling Magnell | Rudolph Napolitano | Doug Ollerenshaw | Victor Hugo Peña | Fred Rodriguez | Oscar Sevilla | Adam Switters | Justin Williams | Jeremiah Wiscovitch | Manager: Michael Ball

v • d • e Cycling at the Summer Olympics | Olympic Champions in Men's Individual Time Trial 1896-1992 | 1996: Miguel Indurain | 2000: Viatcheslav Ekimov | 2004: Tyler Hamilton

Persondata
NAME	Hamilton, Tyler
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Road bicycle racer
DATE OF BIRTH	1971-03-01
PLACE OF BIRTH	Marblehead, Massachusetts, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH