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.
