Dear Lance Postcard to Lance
Some more advice in the wake of Tyler Hamilton’s interview on 60 Minutes.
Lance Armstrong
Flickr/PatrickStormPhotography
Ken Owen says: Bottom line is that Lance has never tested positive and keep in mind that irregular EPO levels are very easily discerned. Go back a few years prior to Lance beginning his win streak. He was, literally, on his death bed but survived the treatment and had the perseverance and motivation to get back to elite levels of fitness. My point being is that of all the elite riders on the tour, he is probably mentally tougher than any of them. But the real kicker is this. At his peak, his VO2max was significantly higher than anyone else on tour. Elite levels can reach 70 ml/kg/min but is limited by genetics. Lance’s, as a byproduct of great genes, topped out around 83 ml/kg. So, this guy can intake and process vastly more O2 than the other riders and O2 is what "drives the bus". (June 9th, 2011 at 8:53am)
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Dear Lance:
Last November I wrote you a letter titled “LiveStrong, TellTruth,” that basically advised you to, you know, tell the truth to the federal investigators breathing down your neck, looking into whether you had taken performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in your amazing cycling career. You didn’t answer, which was understandable. I was thinking about this tonight as I watched Tyler Hamilton on 60 Minutes, as he became the first person to talk about actually seeing you inject the PED EPO into your b-o-d-y. Yikes. He rode with you from 1999 through 2001 and was one of your best riders. He told Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes, “I saw [EPO] in his refrigerator. I saw him inject it more than one time, like we all did. Like I did, many many times.” Hamilton, who says he said the same things to the federal grand jury investigating you, was pretty convincing, even if he is trying to write a book about this.
Worse for you, CBS reported that George Hincapie has also testified, saying you and he provided each other with PEDs and discussed their use. Hincapie is an even bigger catch for the feds—he rode with every one of your Tour-winning teams and was one of your most devoted lieutenants. As you know, Hamilton was caught doping twice—and suspended for eight years in 2009, which led him to retire. Hincapie, by contrast, has never been caught and has always claimed—like you—that he never doped. Until, apparently, now. He is one of the most respected riders in the world. He is, you have said, “like a brother to me.”
So what are you going to do? Well, I’d start with reading this letter again. Good luck.
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