Tyler's book

[thom]

my US version arrived yesterday...

Any juicey bits ?

 

[Noodley]

Any juicey bits ?

Only read the first couple of chapters and nothing yet...all I have found out is that Andy Hampsten was clean, Bjarne Riis was not, and that Tyler was hard as nails and seems a decent chap...so nothing we didnae already know really.

I shall report anything of interest.

This is Noodley, for CC Racing News, in my kitchen...back to you Trevor in the studio

 

[perplexed]

Edit:

Bugger, wrong Tyler for the gag I had in mind...

 

[Smokin Joe]

Only read the first couple of chapters and nothing yet...all I have found out is that Andy Hampsten was clean, Bjarne Riis was not, and that Tyler was hard as nails and seems a decent chap...so nothing we didnae already know really.

I shall report anything of interest.

This is Noodley, for CC Racing News, in my kitchen...back to you Trevor in the studio

Get on with it man, I'm waiting for the weather.

 

[ColinJ]

Only read the first couple of chapters and nothing yet...all I have found out is that Andy Hampsten was clean ...

I found a really (long!) interesting interview with Andy Hampsten which includes a discussion about the effect that EPO had on the peloton - here.

schmalz And in the early 90's when EPO showed up, could you just tell, did the speed just increase by so much?

Hampsten It was individuals, individuals and their buddies, and then entire teams openly laughing at people who had much better results than they did in either time trials or climbing. Everyone knows everyone else's relative abilities. Of course, that changes, people get better and get worse, but it was an open secret from the early 90's on.

schmalz Was that pretty disheartening for you?

Hampsten Yes.

schmalz Suddenly people who didn't have the same sort of abilities you had were just shooting up and taking off.

Hampsten It was PHENOMENAL. I only have myself to use as a basis, this isn't scientific other than I had the same doctor who was my trainer, Max Testa, my entire career, and he'd test me every couple of months, so physiologically we could look at what I'd do. I was a diesel, he would call me, wouldn't change year to year, I'd change during the year, depending on how much training I'd done. So I was pretty constant. My training always did get better, I started doing more intervals in the early 90's, working closer with him and training instead of...in the 80's a lot of racers would just race and do recovery rides for training, and it turned into a little less racing and a lot more specific intensity work during the training period. So I was training myself better and better as my career went along.

Certainly since I've stopped racing at 34, so physiologically I was slowing down on some parameters, but nothing drastic. Looking at myself, if I can stay objective about it, and certainly other guys who I knew weren't doing anything, it went, during the 90's, it went from "Wow, I'm not winning. It's getting a lot harder to win a race that's either a time trial or has hills or mountains," to "it's really hard to stay with the first group of fifty guys."

schmalz Right. I think the advent of EPO made a lot of guys retire.

Hampsten It was unhealthy I think, to even try to keep up with the pack in some of these early season races. The pack would just go so frickin' fast over climbs with guys like sprinters outclimbing stage racers who weren't at their peak form. It went from kinda embarrassing for a climber to "Man, I'm pushing myself so hard in February and March that I'm overtrained to try to keep up in races.

 

[Noodley]

USPS doped from the days before Lance arriving. The original "clean" doctor got dumped and a "dodgy" doc arrived...soon "white bags" appeared for the A team - which included Hincapie. Tyler doped in his 3rd year, when he was given testosterone for his "health" by the dodgy doc. Hincapie was using EPO at this time.

 

[Dayvo]

USPS doped from the days before Lance arriving. The original "clean" doctor got dumped and a "dodgy" doc arrived...soon "white bags" appeared for the A team - which included Hincapie. Tyler doped in his 3rd year, when he was given testosterone for his "health" by the dodgy doc. Hincapie was using EPO at this time.

You splitter, you!

 

[Dayvo]

That bloke's 'soul patch' (ziffer) hangs too much to the left!

 

[thom]

That bloke's 'soul patch' (ziffer) hangs too much to the left!

Yes, just makes Motoman look even more sinister (LA's EPO carrier on one of the tours). That is Sean Yates in the background, in Sky kit, earlier this year btw...

 

[Noodley]

I have avoided lnks to the book, so I am only updating my reading, so if it's been posted before I am sorry too bad:

Lance doped.

 

[smutchin]

I missed the story, what's the difference with the US and UK versions?

Here are the specific details:

http://www.veloveritas.co.uk/2012/0...en-the-us-and-uk-versions-of-the-secret-race/

 

[tigger]

Cyling Weekly gave a review this week, dedicating nearly 3 pages. They seem to have been pretty quiet about the revelations generally though I think

 

[Booyaa]

Here are the specific details:

http://www.veloveritas.co.uk/2012/0...en-the-us-and-uk-versions-of-the-secret-race/

Cheers mate.

 

[Noodley]

Having read just over half the book, I think I can safely say that Tyler will not be getting a Christmas card from Lance.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Having read just over half the book, I think I can safely say that Tyler will not be getting a Christmas card from Lance.

What are you reading, a paragraph a day?

You've had it ages, get on with it man.