A fascinating insight into one of the most well known riders in our sports colourful history.
Tyler is open, honest & transparent about every aspect of his past. He makes no excuses for the "dark days" but instead gives us a rare insight into the Armstrong years.
Talented, troubled and now reborn Tyler is one of the true characters of our sport.
Please support this podcast on www.patreon.com/anthony_walsh
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Crazy access to some of the best physiologists in the world, best coaches in the world. Is there anything from that period now that you think you're still applied to your life? Oh man, you know, it would probably be like my high school coach way back when, like let's see. Might have been 1987, 1988. He was right when the heart rate monitor was coming out. The big question is this, how do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness, and our long changes? That is the question, this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Welcome back to the Roadman Podcast. I've had a couple of surreal moments in my life and this interview that you're about to listen to is definitely one of them. Today I interview Tyler Hamilton and to give some context to this, I was a massive soichland fan my whole life grew up watching Tour de France's and I had a Tyler Hamilton poster on my bedroom wall growing up. He was one of the guys I just loved. He was instantly amazing against the clock and that was something I really just admired. I was intrigued and fascinated about. And I just followed his journey for a better or worse along the way. And yeah, I was even, you know, when you're not invested in someone's journey, when I seen him in a 60-minute interview and you could see he was hoarding, I felt for him. Even though I'd never spoke to him, I'd never met him. I felt for him nearly the way you feel for a long-lost friend because I felt invested in his journey. Today, I get to talk to Tyler Hamilton. It's a little bit of a dream come true for me to be chatting to Tyler. He's a brilliant public speaker now, he's very articulate, I think as I say in this interview. Some people have great stories to tell, some people are good at telling stories but rarely do the two intersect and it definitely intersects with Tyler Hamilton. So we're going to jump into that in one second but before we do. I'm working super hard to bring you guys guests like Tyler Hamilton. I have coming up in the next interview, Steve Cummings, which is another incredible interview. They're difficult to get these interviews, their time consuming, and to keep the show on the road, I've set up a Patreon account. The idea with the Patreon account is if you would buy me a beer, if you would buy me a coffee to say, you know what, thanks for the work you're doing on the podcast. I enjoyed that. That's your chance to do it. You know what, if you don't have a fiver to buy me the beer to buy me the coffee. You know what? It doesn't matter. Enjoy the podcast with no further expectation from me. But if you can afford it and you want to see this show continuing, you want to see this show growing, I would encourage you to check out my Patreon account. It's patreon.com, P A T R E O N dot com forward slash Anthony A N T H O N Y underscore Walsh, patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Walsh. Yeah, you know what, just a small donation of, like I said, Buying Me That Coffee or beer once a month. That really keeps the show going on. It really keeps the show grown. So yeah, without further ado, I'm going to introduce you to the one, the only Tyler Hamilton. Welcome to the Roadman Podcast, Tyler Hamilton. Hey Anthony, thanks for having me on your podcast. I really appreciate it. Tyler, it is an honor. Thanks Anthony. I'm, you know, of many different hats we spoke of earlier where I'm talking to you in a little bit of a low background, the coaching background, but I think overarching team for me. I'm a cycling fan. I'm a cycling anoracian. It's just cool to be able to sit around and talk cycling with legends and sport like you. Oh man, well it's an honor to be on your podcast. You know, thanks for having me. I look forward to talking to you and hearing about your podcast, your coaching business, and yeah, it should be a fun conversation. You know, you're in Dublin. I'm here in Missoula, Montana that we're what eight time zones apart. I was in Dublin a couple years ago. I did a talk over there to a local cycling club and man I had the best time. I went a little bit early and I took the train over to Galway and I rented a bike and did like a five day five or six day bike pack trip. Yeah, I was gonna say like you've done some crazy things in your career and we're gonna get into a bunch of them but you went comp in Ireland in the rain on your own. It doesn't get much crazier. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's great. I don't know. It's kind of a similar story to you. Like I kind of put the bike kind of on the back burner for a few years there. And I really didn't ride at all after some of those heavy days. And what kind of got me back interested in it to cycling again was just kind of bike touring, bike packing. And it's been awesome. kind of the complete opposite of bike racing. It's just enjoying the beauty of cycling, going to cool places, riding to cool places and camping out some of the time. And it was awesome. You know, they're in Western Ireland. It was pretty wet. The ground was pretty wet, so I didn't camp every night, I must say. Yeah, West of Ireland, everyone's a little bit crazy over there as well. They're like, we've a river that divides the country from north to south, like west of the Shannon River. Everyone's just a little bit crazy. The weather is just bad out there. I think it does something to our chemistry. But incredibly beautiful. So it was hard to describe it. Just insane beauty I wrote. What was that? What's that root call that goes on the western side of Ireland? Is it the wild Atlantic way? Yes, yes, I did that thing. It's stunning. North of Galway, it was insanely beautiful. Yeah, there were a few times like, it sounds kind of cheesy, but I felt like crying, it was so beautiful. But you know what, if you don't mind riding in the rain, like I'm assuming as a man who rode the full Tour de France with a broken collarbone that you're already riding in the rain. Oh yeah, it's all right. You know, it's like, you know, it's like skiing or whatever. You know, it's like, the way, you know, I live in Montana, you know, we have pretty strong winter, but it's like, if you have the right equipment, the right clothing, you know. Well, this is what I'm saying to guys at the moment, because just buddies are coaching clients, because we have to ride indoors at the moment, because we got a quarantine going on here. But so it's way too super popular, but some guys are like, I can't tolerate the indoor. And then you look at their indoor setup, and they're like, they've no fan, their bike is stuffed into a corner, it's like they've no TV, they're like doing this wave on their phone.
And I'm like, it's the equivalent of the dude who tries to go and do a four-hour ride outside, but he's no gloves, he's no leg warmers. Totally, totally. You know, the key to running inside is having like, like audio stimulation and visual stimulation. And you know, definitely a fan, you know, you got to change your t-shirt every once in a while, you know, nice towel, you got to be comfortable. Have you tried Zwiftia? You know, I haven't tried it yet. I haven't ridden the trainer since I think 2009. I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it looks awesome. I mean, I wish I had Zwift and all those new get all the new gadgets they had today. So what's your relationship like the boy now? What's my relationship with the bike? Yeah, I mean I love it again. There was a few years like almost I don't know if I hated the bike, but it just didn't really like it a whole lot just a negative association with it well, I was it, you know some heavy years there as you probably know and It was just hard. I don't know. I just felt kind of alone and I just I kind of turned my back and kind of walked away from it. You know, besides an occasional like charity event, I couldn't say no to a charity event or something, but, you know what I mean? I got a shape, you know, now I ride probably like, you know, maybe twice a week. Yeah, I like to do other things. And, you know, for so long, my life is cycling, cycling, cycling is all that, you know. Life on the bike, life off the bike was just focused on that. You know, about going fast, going fast, going fast. now it's, you know, taking what three four steps back and yeah, I like to do get out hiking paddle boarding, skiing anything's awesome. Anything outdoors. Yeah, anything outdoors. What's about the new gravel movement? Could you see yourself the under? Oh, man, you know, I think it's so cool. Yeah, listen to your podcast with Ian Boswell. And you know, I I think the gravel scene's just amazing. To be honest, I'm a little bit jealous. I wish we had that when I was racing, at least to have that option of maybe jump into the gravel scene full time or part time. I think it's really neat and I think it's gone. It's not too late, either. Ah, there you go, there you go. There you go. Well, when I think about my relationship with the bike, it changed from something I used to commute when I was in college, because I started that one. I was like, you know, that's two hours to get into college on a bus. I'm like, fuck that. Like a 30 minutes cycle. And I feel fresh when I get there. And then, you know, I tried to do the protein and it turned into a tool that I made my cash out of a little bet I didn't make very much cash. And then, you know, it's something of enjoyment for me. It's, you know, it's the thing I go to to get that bit of, you know, I don't want to use the words. I know you've gone through some pretty heavy depression, but I think the last few years, it's just become a bit more acceptable for everyone to speak about it. I think it was a badge of shame for a long time. And now I think when we look at ourselves, we're all on the continuum somewhere from I'm mildly stressed out over a deadline or stuck in traffic to uncompleately suicidal. And we're all on that continuum somewhere. Yeah, yeah, you know, things have been flow, you know, due to situations in your life. Yeah, yeah, so you do you tell with some depression? You know, I don't know if I call it depression, but I know when I say spatial depression Yeah, I came back and I'd made a few you know, you have this vision for your life What you think your life is gonna look like and I remember I'd stopped riding as much as I was I was trying to build You know a couple of businesses. I bought a cafe I was trying to set up a social media company and I was trying to grow a a one-coach and I wasn't riding much and I was putting on ways and yeah, I definitely wasn't as happy as I had been and it took just stepping away and pressing pause on everything to just evaluate and go, you know what, I have this, I listened to what you all wrote on podcast one day and I'm not sure if it was him or a guest, but he had this great saying where he's like, you need to live your life like you're the hero in your own story. So starting right now, what's the hero's journey? And I just thought that's so cool. I love that. I love that. Like nice. Like looking back on your story. It's definitely one work rate. Do you have kids, daughter? I don't have kids. My girlfriend's got two children. Yep. Eight and six. And we've been together for what four years. And yeah, it's been a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Yep. So I'm like a part time father. So they're around half the time they were their dad who's just up the Did I cycle? They cycle, yeah, they cycle and they get after it. Do you have children? I don't know. It's probably something I'll start and think about now. I know the girlfriend's starting to get a little bit broody so yeah, could be next 12 months. Don't jinx me. Right, Tyler, let's rewind. Let's rewind to your postal desk. you crazy access to some of the best physiologists in the world, best coaches in the world. Is there anything from that period now that you think you're still employed to your life? Oh man, you know, it would probably be like my high school coach way back when, like let's see, might have been 1987, 1988. He was right when the heart rate monitor was coming out. Yeah. And all these people, the school I went to, this high school that I went to had a really good Nordic skiing team and they had a good cycling team. So everybody was getting these heart rate monitors and he was like, you know, don't forget to listen to your body. And I was looked at these numbers. Back then, it was just, you were just looking at heart rate. That was the only real number you could get. And he's like, don't forget to listen to your body. And a lot of times you ask it, the coach and somebody, you ask, hey, how you feeling? And they're like, well, my numbers stay with this. And it's like, well, no, no. I don't know. I think that's really important. I think when you. I think it's more important now with TSS. I think it's important to really step away from the numbers. You know, it's important to use those some of the time, but not all the time. Not all the time. Because, you know, TSS and CTL and Ramp-Rag, so all the shit we use now.
And like, it's a powerful tool, but like, it doesn't know everything. You know, like one example for me, you know, I've had a big travel day flying back from Canada to Ireland for nationals. And two days with zero TSS. Now if I want to look at that chart, it's saying to me you're fresh, but like I'm not fresh. No, no, you've been on an airplane for what, you know, 12 hours and you're dehydrated. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, just learning how to listen to your body. A lot of people don't even, these days a lot of people don't even know how to listen to their body because it's all about numbers. I mean, there's so many numbers. You can, you know, there's a number on how you sleep, you know, there's a no, you know, People are looking at their watch the minute they wake up because they get a score for how well they slept. I'm not anti-numbers, but I used an SRM in the early days. When did you get an SRM? I remember using one in 1994 with the US national team. I wasn't using it really consistently, but I remember using one then. I think I started using it like full time in 1998. I think. Were you working for Ari? I worked with him for a year. Yeah. Was he like as a coach? Super smart guy, like very numbers driven, very numbers driven. Like some of the sessions that we're doing still like 2040s, like they're straight out of the Ferrari label. 2040s or 4020s? 4020s. Yeah, 4020s. Yeah, that was Cucchini, Luigi Cucchini. Those were hit, that was his brainchild. So people that do the 40-20s can thank him. Yeah. Yeah, no, really. He went out and did it himself and realized how effective they were. And so, yeah, that was Luigi. Obviously we've the different lines that you guys crossed back then. One of them is obviously the performance and hands-in-line, but looking back on the cocktails of stuff, the guys were taken. Is there anything now that you would go, you know what, it's on the band list, but I'd still consider taking it because it's such a health benefit for it. No, no, there's on the band list now? Yeah. No, no, nothing, nothing. I've heard guys talking like saying. I mean, I'd still have a coffee before a criterion or something right now. You know, but caffeine's not illegal. But no, no, no, nothing, nothing. Take human growth hormone. I tried it. Yeah, I tried it. Yep. Yep. What was the effect of free? It didn't work well with my body for whatever reason. So that wasn't my some some riders like that stuff. Other riders didn't. So did you feel like waterlogged? Did you have that before you started to open? Parodata? Not a lot, not a lot, not a lot. Yeah, nothing I would say saved on file. So you don't have like a before and after EPO gave me X amount of watts? Yeah, unfortunately not. No, no. You know, I still when I started doping in 1990, in the spring of 1997, I was still in really green. So I was still improving a lot regardless. So it's like I by jumping into the doping world, I didn't really give myself a chance to see how far I could have gone clean. When I look back, that's super disappointing. But yeah, it was the spring of 1997 when I started doping. It was one of the team doctors, postal team doctors came into my room after a a tough week-long state race in southern Spain. And yeah, I'd seen signs kind of around the team that things maybe some shady business was going on, but I didn't really know for sure. But yeah, he offered me like a little red testosterone pill. He said it was time to start. But is there a little bit of pride with all of that as well? Because all of a sudden you're one of the cool kids. when I got invited into the dopey scene? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, definitely there was an element of being invited onto the cool kid's team, or you could call it the A team, or into the fraternity. Yeah, that's what it felt like a little bit. And it started really slowly. You know, knowing, what am I trying to say here? I had no idea where it was going to lead to really, you know, that little red testosterone pill, which was like kind of like a speck of dirt on your shoes versus, you know, years later, it was like up to my neck and mud. I assume before that, like you're like any amateur that you're taking concoctions of, you know, electrolytes, you know, aminos, vitamins. Yeah, yeah. So it's quite an easy, I know we have to draw the line somewhere. Where we draw the line is the world anti-doping code, but as a kid Who your dream is to be a pro cyclist? What's that moment like when it's like oh shit? I know this is wrong because I know I've heard you speak and then you speak very fondly the moral compass that your parents gave you Growing up and you had a just get very you know focused appreciation of what was right and what was wrong? What's that moment like how powerful is that moment? Yeah, it was a powerful moment, you know. Really since that, you know, the minute I took that red testosterone pill in the spring of 97, it was, I started really waking up that night a lot and thinking about it. It was just, it never felt, I mean, although I got really into it and, you know, turned my back to, you know, the honest approach, and I never felt comfortable with it. I always worried about it. Yeah, how many resentments the doctor? You know, my favorite years were the years pre-open, you know, just surprising, surprising people and surprising myself with how, you know, how well I was doing. You won a lot of races. Well, I climbed the ranks pretty quickly. I was in college in, what, 1992. I was a ski racer then. I broke my back. When I got out of bed, they said I could ride a road bike. Little did I know Boulder, Colorado was a big cycling town. I was really lucky in itself that I was in Boulder. Had I been going to college somewhere else. Maybe my cycling career would not have taken off. But I climbed the ranks really quick. And before I knew it, I was a few months away from potentially riding my first Tour de France. And that's when I, you know, that's when this, that was when doping was presented. So I know you're saying you've started. I felt a little bit stressed that it was like, I said no to it that, you know, I wouldn't be selected. You know, they only selected back then. It was nine guys per Tour de France team. So we had a team of 24 or 25 guys. So you were saying you're kind of a part-time parent at the moment. Do you team looking back at that moment now, which are sort of paternal instincts for your kids that you're raising at the moment, for one of them to be in that position.
Do you feel like the doctor should have protected you more? Do you feel like the team should have protected you more? Yeah, the whole system really, you know, I can't really blame it on that particular doctor. You know, you know, people want me to point the finger at one person or one thing one organization, it's hard, the whole system was rotten. I must say it was, you know, that doctor was just doing his, I mean I feel bad for that doctor. It's like he had to do his job, he didn't do his job, they would have replaced him with somebody who could have. Like the riders, doctors, all the staff members, changed teams that maybe worked for a year two on one team then if it wasn't going well that changed teams so every every you know all the teams have the secrets you know but I called up I don't my masters in doping in sports legal masters and I remember I didn't know Paul Cambridge at all you probably know the Irish journalists yeah I don't know them at all but I called them up because I knew he was opinionated on doping in sport I knew he was knowledgeable and I didn't know anyone who knew anything about this otherwise and I called him up in 2010 and I was like you know cycling is a small world so I got his phone number and I apologize for called calling him I was like you know a part of my cyclist I'm doing this explaining what I was doing I was like do you have you know 10 minutes to chat sometime in the next month or so and he's like no but I'll meet you for lunch tomorrow and I met him for lunch and this was 2010 2011 before it all broke and he sat down And he spoke to me and he's like, they're systematic to open at US post. Here's how they're fun, then here's what they're doing. Here's how they're taking it. And I'm recording this and I'm like pausing the tape gone. Like Paul, I'm doing my masters here. Like I'm not, this is a front-page story. Like you, this is loyable. Like you could be sued for this. Do you want me to keep recording it? And it turned out it wasn't at all relevant to my masters. But as a cycling fan, I'm just like, holy shit. But one of the most powerful stories he told me was the first time he doped. Now he didn't do anything particularly heavy. I think he was caffeine was banned at the time and he maybe took some amphetamines both for him his choice was like fuck I need to pay my mortgage. I need to pay the bills like this isn't about winning the Tour de France this is about survival and He said the first time he took it was that was the pure instinct on I can't get another job all I can do is cycle I need to take this to pay the bills What was there a sense that I for you that it's not about winning the tour that it's about I've put a lot of years into this game. Oh yeah, I mean when the you know when doping was presented to me it was like it was 1997 I've been working my tail offer years and cycling you know I put you know I was at University of Colorado I put my final year of education on hold to like pursue this you know crazy dream. I thought honestly in 1997, I thought this is my one opportunity, one, to do the Tour de France. I've made it this far, although I don't feel really comfortable with it. It's pretty clear that doping is very prevalent. It's what people are doing there at the top level. I just had to turn my back to the truth and just accept it and do it. to do it. Do you still have probably looking back at us? I didn't know. I had no idea that I'd do eight Tour de France. You said, you know, to have a success and failure that I would have. I thought it was going to be a short-lived career. It was a great opportunity and I'd be back, you know, finishing up college next year, too. Do you have, are you proud of the eight Tour de France that you wrote? I mean, yeah, they're like an asterisk. I mean, yeah, there was doping involved in all eight tours, you know, but. But the hard works real. It was hard work. I worked my I don't think anybody worked as hard. I mean, I worked as hard as anybody did, for sure, for sure. I worked my tail off. I lived it and I breathed it. You know, I lived I lived like a monk over there in Europe. I was so focused, you know, I heard you talking, I think on one of your podcasts about, you you're mentioning that when you're standing sit and when you're sitting lie down. And yeah, I fully bought into that. I was a month there in Europe. I lived and breathe cycling. I feel like honestly the Europeans were at a disadvantage because they had to go home to their little village in France or wherever they lived. And their families were around, they got sidetracked. Whereas the Americans, we were over there living at our homes, away from home, you know. And we had very little distractions, you know, away from the races. And so we got to really, you know, focus 100% on cycling. Was it exciting? Like it, American kids coming over? Honestly, like, I mean, people think, oh, you had the greatest life is you got to live in Europe and sort of France, all that, but it was like, there were a lot of quiet days, a lot of dark days too. How do you mean dark days? Well, I don't know, you're just sitting there, You're missing your family, your friends, you're missing home. You're there in some foreign country. And yeah, you're riding in the rain, not feeling great. Your numbers aren't what they're supposed to be here too fat, as they call you. You're buying your skin full calibrations are too thick. You know what I mean? So it was just there was all, yeah, that back then they were starting to meet, always measuring your numbers, whether it was your heart, your heart, your power, whatever. Who were you close with when you were a opener? Did you have bodies on the team? What's up? Who were you close with on the team? Was there any one you call a friend? On the postal team, on the postal team, let's see, I was close with George Hincapie for a while there. We were, yeah, we shared an apartment in a couple of different apartments there in Jerome, Spain. So yeah, we were pretty close. Christian Vanneville was always a really good guy to go out and ride with. Levi Leipheimer was a good guy to go train with, super focused, super dedicated. I mean, everybody was super focused and dedicated. You know, especially the Americans, because we were all over there away from home and all that. So we're like, we're over there. It was like, we might as well do a really, really good job.
You know, but yeah, I had some great teammates. You know, most of them, I don't really talk to a whole lot today, but some great memories. Great memory. How come we don't talk to the guys? Is that off the back of the federal investigation? Or is that just life scowing different directions? Oh, I think just life. I think just life. I don't know. I don't know how to tailwheel towards anybody. But yeah, just let me go. I live in Montana, which is kind of, do you know where Montana is? It's like, I don't. Yeah, it's like up northwest in the US. Like about seven, the town I live in Missoula, Montana, is about seven hours east of Seattle. So in the northwest. Nice part of the world for a ride? What's that? nice part of the world for riding. Oh yeah, great, great. Especially if you like the dirt. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah, and that's where it's all gone to the dirt stuff. The moment. Oh yeah, it's great. It's great. But yeah, Montana, if you ever see that movie, a river runs through it. That's where it's based here in Missoula, Montana. Here's, I was listening to one year. We were talking just off air. I listened to one of your talks on YouTube, which anyone has a chance of brilliant to go back and listen you gave a talk in Oxford to a bunch of white dudes who could be described as. Yeah, I think that was what? That was a few years ago. Yeah, it was a great opportunity to be there and to speak in front of this. Yeah, it was a very prestigious crowd and there were, man, tons of prestigious speakers ahead of me, that's for sure. I had to sign this book out of time. This is old book. It was a great opportunity for me. One of your lines that stuck with me on that, you gave a lyric from a Johnny Cash song where he said, lawyers have to be covered up with the truth, can run around naked. I know some guys from that era as well, and they were talking about just crippling anxiety of them and their misses just literally army dropping to the ground and army crawling along the ground when dope control was at the door and what's that like to live through? Well, I remember when my dad used to bring me to the cinema back in the day to be an intermission in the middle of it and thought it'd be their chance to go and just get a little catch it, get a bit of popcorn, get an extra drink and then you'd settle back in for the second half of the show. Well that's what we have going on here but instead of heading off and getting a drink get yourself a popcorn. What I would encourage you to do is jump over to patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscall Walsh and if you can afford us, if you can afford 5 euro, enough to sponsor me, a point again once this lockdown is over, I would very much appreciate it. If you can't afford the 5 euro lads, I know a lot of people are falling on tough times, now hassle, don't worry about it, we're still friends and enjoy the rest of the podcast, Absolutely free let's get back to Tyler Yeah, not much fun. Yeah, a lot of anxiety for sure Yeah Very who knows about the new old life on this card on I call them committee meetings. That's pretty much, you know, maybe not seven days week, but probably at least five out of a committee meeting in the middle of the night where it's just You wake up in the middle on the middle middle and I you're just kind of stare at the ceiling and stress about you know some of the things you're doing, you know, if it went wrong, how bad things could get. You know, I always felt like this is way too big of a secret, you know, because back in the late 90s, you know, doping was really prevalent in the European Peloton, you know, at the top level. And so it was so prevalent, I was like, this is too big of a secret for it not to come out, you know, how it hadn't come out before, I don't know, but you you know, maybe it has to do with the internet or whatever. But yeah, I was scared the truth was going to come out, honestly. And what are you most worried about? Is it like your parents know the truth? I mean, deep down probably. Yeah, probably my folks. My folks. Yeah. I mean, you're, you know, what do you? Yeah, I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. Like, what do you, you know, as a kid, why do you like try so hard in soccer or whatever in baseball whatever, it's really to make your parents proud, you know. Yeah, I think about that a bit now. You know, cycling took off for me. It's like, yeah, I mean, sure, it would be great to make a living doing it. But at the most first, the most important thing was to make your parents proud. You know, so yeah, I was probably most afraid of telling my folks. When did you break it to your folks? I told my folks the truth, the night before that. I did an interview with a news program here in the United States called 60 Minutes. We get that over here as well. Oh, you do okay. And yeah, I told them the night before that aired. What's that conversation like? Yeah, tough, tough. Yeah, that was probably the worst of it or the hardest part about the whole thing. Yeah, I told my mom, my dad, my brother, and my sister at the same time. Did they feel let down? I think so. I think so, you know, initially, but you know, when I explain the whole thing from beginning to, you know, it's a long story. It's not, you know, you can just say, yeah, you dope your bad person, your asshole, your cheater, you suck, you know. But if you, you know, paint the whole picture, it's not as, it's not, it's complicated, it's complicated. And there's a lot of gray and there's a lot of, there's just a lot to the whole story, really. So when I explained the whole thing to them, I think they had, obviously they were disappointed, but they did understand. How have they forgiven you? I mean, there's a lot of people cut corners all the time in every walk of life. It's insane. Do you think your parents and your siblings have forgiven you? Yeah, they've all forgiven me. My dad's more proud of what I've done since I ended my career than my career for sure. There's a big one for you, Todd. This is about to get heavy. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Have you forgiven yourself for it? I have forgiven myself, but I do take it very seriously what I did. So I do talk about it openly, quite a bit. I still feel a lot of emotion from it. I still feel bad for it, but no, I forgive myself. I was a young kid then.
I was wide-eyed, green, and excited, not really knowing what was really around the next corner. I chose to take this path thinking I was doing the right thing and I obviously wasn't. I kept pushing back the truth and just burying it down deep inside. I was convinced I was going to go to the grave with all these secrets. Even after being caught and sitting in my own state for so long. But I didn't want to complicate anybody else's life because obviously if I told the truth other people were going to be affected. Would it be fair to say you only came clean because of the federal investigation? Possibly. I mean I wasn't planning on coming clean. That's for sure. I mean I had backed up and backed up and backed up and I was really almost like at the edge of a cliff and it was either like you tell the truth or you jump off. And so I felt, I mean honestly I felt very lucky. It was just like a slap upside the head. It was like boom. And when I finally told the truth, I sat there in front of a grand jury for seven hours and told the truth. And man, it was amazing. It was amazing. It was probably that was for me that turned my turning point. You know, up to that point, I was just miserable, miserable. And I told all the truth and I came out of that grand jury courtroom and it was like I'd lost it, you know, a hundred kilogram backpack. But you know what, like we're not the worst of our actions, like you don't a pretty shit thing. Like I don't want to excuse it. But also if I think any of our listeners are myself, if we put a microscope on the worst thing we've ever done in our life, and then that drama is played out in public, like fuck, I don't come out, I don't come out looking pretty well. And I know most of the listeners don't come out looking pretty well. Yeah, I mean, I don't know some. A lot of people, it's easy to say, I'm a shitty person and I'm a, you know, to make terrible choices. But a lot of people who are the same, she was me at that moment in time, might have done the same thing. Maybe Anthony could have been you. Even you don't know, you don't know. It's often something I wondered that FY did though. Like how far, you know, do it, can I win amateur races in France? Like if you're winning, you know, the TN one. But what if you're about to be in the Tour de France, You might have, I don't know. Well, like here's the kind of equation. Oh, you had a lot of good. They made poor choices like, which is like, so the way I kind of think about the open and let me know what you think about this. So you have your reward for doping. So it's your contracts, your prize money, whatever, then you have your percentage chance of getting caught, your percentage chance will both agree. It's not a hundred percent. It's not you're definitely going to get caught. And then you have the suspension. you do get caught. So you have at the moment this huge reward if you don't get caught, you know fame, huge contracts, money, endorsements, you have a smallish percentage chance of getting caught. But if you do get caught, it's only a two year ban. So like the equation doesn't make any sense. It almost makes more sense to dope than not to dope. In back then, it seemed like they had the cheat sheets too. A cheat sheet meaning if you fall these rules, you're not going to get caught. It seemed like the team doctors were always two steps ahead of the anti-doping controls. How did you get caught? Let's say 2004, Tour of Spain, I think it was a second week of the 2004 Tour of Spain, did a, had a, had a, an in competition test. I think I won the time trial there. And they said I had a second blood type in my blood. So I've been blood doping with my own blood. I don't know possibly got mixed up or possibly got manipulated. My blood bag, I'm not sure. But I did not it for a long time. I denied that I was blood doping. And I thought it was good for myself and for all my old teammates to not tell the truth. And yeah. Do you know what? It's a huge mistake, huge mistake. I wish I had just come clean and just told the whole truth back then and just, you know, taking my lumps and moved on in my life. But instead I chose not to, you know, just dragged on for a long time, not till, not till speaking to in front of the grand jury for the first time was really one. That was the first time I ever really told the truth to, you know, a group of people. And in the peloton when you came back, like, it was, you were with fun, like when you came back, was it? No, I came back with Tinkov. Oh, think of. So when you came back, I'd attitude on the peloton towards you changed after the ban. Yeah, it changed a lot. Certainly persona, non grata. Yeah. Yeah. You know what, as a cycling fan, what looking back on all of it, like, to me, Armstrong always looked like a wanker. He always looked like a bully, you know, Irish, we've Emma O'Roylee, and she'd be a massively popular person here. And she came out. Yeah, Emma's awesome. You know, there's some things, you know, I, some elements of the arm shrunken, I potentially don't agree that you should have had a lifetime ban for dope and when other people only got four year bans and things like that. But as a person, you know, I just don't have much time for him after, you know, listening to some of the stuff that your encounter in Aspen, where he grabbed you at the restaurant, but also like the cars outside your house, phones being tapped, like that shit's psychotic. Yeah, you know, there's some tough years there. You know, I'm sure Lance isn't proud of everything, you know, isn't proud of all the all his actions, you know, on and off the bike, you know, but that's just, for me, it's water under the bridge. It's a dark here in my life and I don't know, kind of moving on from it and try not to, you know, you know, people sometimes do shitty things, you know, but that doesn't mean they're shitty people. He was going through a tough part in his life, you know, tough time in his life. Yeah, I mean, his MOs always fight back. Yeah. But the one that caught me out of all the dope and things, it wasn't your one, it wasn't armstrong so on it wasn't the postal scandal or the operation port though. It was the Floyd land this one. Like because Floyd you know I was I don't know maybe I was too naive at the time but I remember reading Floyd's book and after he got popped and he had the Floyd Fairness Fund and as a student I contributed like I think a week's wages for my part my job into the Floyd Fairness fund and looking back on that I was like what the fuck like you get caught like but to set up a fund to fight your case and take people's money out of style that's so fucked up.
I mean you know Floyd went you know it's the same thing with Floyd you know he he probably did some things that he looks back now which is he did things differently but you know when you're In a period like that during your life, like he makes important decisions, you know? I don't know. I don't know much about the Floyd there in his pond, but you know, I know Floyd's a really good person. He's got a big, big heart. I know he regrets a lot of things that he did, like me, you know? But I know him, you know, I consider him a friend, and he's a good person. But yeah, but maybe it's like myself. Let's shift gear a little bit, get away from the dope and stuff for a second time. Yeah, you can cut it as much as you want. Atno-limp, atno-limpics 2004. Go metal in the time trial. How the fuck does a small little climber win the time trial? I know, like, I know you're obviously... You get that metal's been subsequently handed back. Even given that, you know, there's most of the guys in the top 10 I have subsequently been, if not caught up in an investigation, have been implicated in some way. I think it's fair to say most of that top 10 were enhanced in some way. You're such a small dude. We don't see dudes like you time trial. Was it just something you practiced a lot? Man, I picked up the bike. I was a good time trialist. Always. Yeah. I started the cycling late or later than I think most professional cyclists. The first thing I was good at was, you know, go from point A to point B as fast as you can by yourself. You know, so that was good. At time, traveling straight, kind of straight away. And so something, I don't know, I do feel like I have a pretty, an ability to deal with pain pretty well, you know. So in time, traveling is all about suffering. So just getting into that like, into that hurt locker or that pain cave or whatever you want to call it and just get comfortable there and stay there. So for someone trying to break there. I was always a good time triers. I was always good. So for a dude listening now to strong breakers, PB. I wasn't always good climber. It took me a while to become a good climber. I had to lose a lot of muscle mass that I had as a ski racer, so that took some time. Time trialling was, I don't know. I've got to get myself into that zone of suffering and just sit there. I think I could suffer better than most people. So if you're giving a voice now to someone listening, and they're looking to do a 10-mile time trial, personal best, what advice are you giving them on the? Yeah, ride your time trial, Mike. A lot of people, it's like, you know, even some, plenty of teammates, like they'd get on their time trial, like, you know, in the stage race, and you know, during the time trial, and they'd look so awkward on the thing, because they weren't riding it, you know. Ride it, ride it. A lot, and get comfortable on it. You know, for the Athens Olympics, I was probably more comfortable on my time trail bike than my row bike, at a time you went to the Olympics. What does the training week look like for you in the run up to a big target event like the Athens Olympics? Oh, I mean, it all depends on, you know, what week you're talking about. But yeah, we did a lot of hours, a lot of structure. I mean, every day I had a list of intervals I had to do. But yeah, some big weeks 30 to 40 hours. These days, it seems like they ride a lot less. It's probably a lot more, even more structured, in fact, when I was riding. But yeah, we did some big hours. Sometimes you ride a little extra long just to keep the kilograms off your frame. But yes, I was super skinny. I weigh probably, I don't know, 20, 30 pounds heavier now. I feel like I'm now at my natural weight, but I was way under my natural weight then. But that helped me climb, it helped me go up, helped me be at least a contender in a race like the Tour de France. Do you think the same grace, anyone that hasn't done a time trial, I'd describe it as you need to be comfortable being uncomfortable, like you're just taking it to the limits of comfort and slash on comfort and holding it there. Do you think that same sort of talent for dealing with pain? Got you true that Tour de France with the broken collarbone? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely without a doubt. What the hell is that like? I've broken my collarbone and it's game over for me. Yeah, but it was still in one piece. It was like a V-line fracture, so it had like a double fracture kind of thing, but it was still together. So if it had been completely displaced, I think that would have been impossible. So, yeah, I don't know. I grew up in just north of Boston. I'm a New Englander. We're pretty kind of tough people. Sometimes, you know, not for our own good. But, yeah, you know, I don't know. My parents are both pretty tough and got an older brother, older sister. Yeah, I don't know what it is. I don't know. It's a blessing in the curse. know, it's not always a good thing. But you know, I don't know, looking back to that, you know, riding through the torto france, I ground down a lot of my teeth. I have all like fake teeth now. You know, so was it worth it? I don't know, you know, but you know, I just I do feel like maybe I wasn't born with like, you know, some of the natural talent of some athletes, but I did, I was born with it just, you know, ability to deal with pain and just inability to like never give up never give up you know I mean ask my brother if we did have an older brother and he once in a while we get in a fight as kids and you know he I never gave up fighting so he talks about that to this day what a voice would you give to a kid that wants to make it as a pro now yeah work hard listen to your but like my coach said in high school listen to your body. Yeah, get a good coach. Yeah, make sure you're having fun. Make sure you're doing it for the right reason or reasons. Yeah, I mean, I'd say fun is the most important thing. You're not having fun. It's not worth it. Again, you know, asking a lot of questions and watching out for, you know, watch out for like stepping into the Greg, I guess. You know? You know, I just think we're so lucky now. Like even when I was kind of getting started, like I didn't have the internet. I couldn't even figure out where my local club ride was on.
Like it was like, yeah, I knew a guy who knew a guy who knew where they met on a Saturday morning and that's how I figured out where the club ride was on. Now it's just, you know, Strava, we talked about Swift. It's like, on YouTube, channels, GCN, like, there's just so much information there. But it's the problem, the opposite now, that there's nearly too much information and you don't know what's always the trust. There's a lot of information out there for sure. And sometimes I feel bad for the cyclists out there today, just because of the, like, it's, like, you're, and you're always being compared, right? I mean you can't even go out for a train ride with peace and quiet because it seems like you got to upload your You know, Strava stuff or whatever. I don't know. It's like a lot of very I don't know But you know, they're also lucky too like you know that they're having you know I didn't I started cycling there way before the internet was out there You know, I didn't I didn't know how prevalent doping was in Europe, you know when I was I I raced my first two years as a professional, mostly domestically, mostly in the United States. We do a few trips over to Europe. But I had no idea that going to Europe to become a European pro was going to involve doping. Once in a while, there'd be a small little clip in the cycling newspaper called Vella News. of the small little glip about doping or something. But, you know, I didn't really know what to expect. Nobody warned me. Not one person warned me. But you know, I remember going back to do my thesis on it. You know, it opens just being there forever. They were open in the Forest Olympics. And they were open the gladiators and the Colosseums were dope. And like, as long as there's been an incentive to cheat, there's been people throwing the cheese. Yeah, still, I mean, it happened way back mine and still happens today. Like we're in a whole new era of it now we're gonna hit Jean Dope and Motor Dope and fuck knows what direction we're going now. Yep, yep, absolutely. And I was over in Toronto, I was riding a lot over there, I was good friends with an expudy of yours teammates, Mike Barry and what I noticed was there was a group and they actually treated me different as well because I was friends with Mike. The guy who's seen themselves as Mike's peers growing up and they in their head, whether this is the reality or not, in their head data, me and Mike were the same growing up. Then he doped and he got the big contracts, Sky, T-Mobile, HTC, Tour de France and the lovely house downtown Toronto. I'm a fucking bike messenger and they seen that choice for him to dope as a life of fortune and fame. They didn't dope and their life of rags and runes. Did you get any of that? Oh tons tons tons tons tons. Yeah it's just you know you just have to accept it you know you have to to take your lumps and, you know, when appropriate, apologize, but a lot of these individuals didn't make it to the level to get accepted into that opportunity. I don't know when Michael first dope, but I'm sure there were other individuals involved in it saying like this is the right thing to do at this moment in time. I think he was already a lot of well done. But a lot of the individuals that are pissed off, you know, and rightly so, you know, they, but they didn't quite make it to that level to get accepted into that fraternity. You know, it's not like, I don't think, well, I certainly didn't, I don't think Michael did either. Like seek it out himself, you know, it was, you know, present, I think most of us, it was presented to us. This is what happens at this level, at this, you know, I mean, we don't need to talk about other sports, but I do know it happens at a lot of other sports, you know, It's rampant like here like we've sports here in our runs But up to a certain level you do it is you know I've raised you know two plus years clean as a professional But then I made it to a certain level then it was like boom. This is how we operate and so you know a lot of those individuals Are angry, you know, they didn't make it there and so they didn't get that opportunity so So, Tyler, you- Doesn't make it right what we did, but it's also a little bit different. It's a little bit different, you know. Tyler, I know you've had some direct times, but you've also, the sport, it's given you a lot, like we said, you spoke on Oxford, you've got your own podcast, which we'll get on to in a second and give it a bit of a plug. You've built a worldwide reputation. You know, people who are romantic about the sport still hold you in very high esteem. Going back to that moment with the wacky doctor and the fish invest, and he gives you this red egg shaped hablis. If you have the choice all over again, would you do it again? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Yeah. Not a chance. Not a chance. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I wish I'd give myself the opportunity to see how far I could have made it clean, you know. But no, I didn't give myself that chance. So yeah, there's no way Jose. Do you have a do you have a talk in your head? How far you think you could have made a clan or impossible to know? It's impossible to know like I'll never know. I'll never know. You're gonna know when you make this back. I will come back. I was a pretty good site. I was still I was. You know, in 1997, I think I was probably the greenest one there at the Tour de France for sure. Meaning, the newest, I felt like I still didn't even belong in a race like the Tour de France, just because I was so new at it. And yes, I still felt like I had a lot of improving to do, of improving to do without doping. Not a ton, a ton, a ton. But yeah, I listened to this doctor, and I just accept it as this is what I'm expected to do. And I'll do this for maybe a few years, then go back to my normal life. You got to rip up the gravel sand, don't you? I didn't know it was going to last for as long as I did. And yeah, there's tons of regret. But I can't really change anything now. All I can do is share my story and I share it a lot and hopefully other people can learn from my mistakes. I do talk to a lot of younger kids because I think those are the people that I can affect the most really. I get a sense, Chantontae Tyler, that your story with Eichland is not finished. I don't see your story with Saiklin as telling this story over and over again.
I think there's another chapter that you still need to write. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know every day I wake up, it's a new day. I'm figuring out really what to do with my life. I do a bunch of different things. Sometimes I love it, sometimes it stresses me out, but it is what it is. I missed a lot of those, I missed most of my 20s and 30s in the real world, because you're in a bit of a bubble. So, when you come out of cycling, it's a hard adjustment. It's a hard adjustment. You know, figuring out what you want to do. It's not the easiest thing in the world, for sure. So I do encourage people who are professional men and women that spend some time thinking about life outside of cycling and what you want to do. Yeah. Well, I kind of have this philosophy where I kind of look at my life and I go, well, there's four or five areas that are important to me. So I have family and actually I would like to relationship my girlfriend and I have sports, I have like progress. I'll just throw in like, you know, learning new stuff, reading languages into that category, like spirituality is something different for everyone. But four or five different areas, I think they are important to me. And then I look at my week and I go, right, what, have I 60, 65 hours for the week? How do I divide up this week so I spend enough time in each of these areas? So for me to go and say I'm going to work 50 hours a week out of shit job that I don't get any satisfaction out of, it only leaves me 15 hours to do all the other stuff and I was like, that's not going to bring me much happiness. Yeah, yeah, good for you for realizing that. Yeah. But do you think you don't something incredibly difficult? Whether your hand was forced or not with the federal investigation. But I know a lot of our listeners right now don't have a federal investigation hanging over their head. But they've gone down an equally difficult road where they've taken a job, where they've said, you know what, it's only for a couple of years, it's only to get the car paid back, it's only to X, and now they find themselves. They're just not that happy in life and they're stuck and they're down to the way out. and their happiness is just eroding. Is there any lessons you can learn from the tough shit you've been through for those sort of guys? I mean, you got to be truthful to others and truthful to yourself and like, you know, and yeah, sometimes it's hard to realize that maybe it's your job that's making you unhappy or maybe a relationship or whatever, and sometimes hard to come to terms with that. with that. Maybe you're making enough money, maybe you're making pretty good money with your job, it's hard to overlook that. But you're really unhappy. But yeah, you need to be honest with yourself. Change is hard, but change is awesome. But it's hard to make that first step, for sure. But usually after that first step, it gets a little bit easier. I don't know. I like making change in your life, making positive change. It's certainly important to me. I'm far from perfect, but I like making positive change and seeing how it affects me and how it affects other people around me. For sure. You know, one like, you know, it's kind of silly, but like something like yoga, I picked up yoga five years ago and it's like, man, what a great activity, you know, for your mind, body and soul just off it makes you know for sure that 1000% yoga makes you have me a better person for sure and I would think for a lot of others as well. How often do you yoga? You know now I do it at home but I don't know three times a week kind of thing. Yeah yeah. You got to get us the DVD toiler we want to boy the toiler Hamilton yoga course. There you go. Oh I'm awful I'm awful but it It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But it's a lot of fun. You've always come out feeling 10 times better than when you went in, for sure. Any plans to go back to Ireland? You get some really clear thinking as well. What's that? Any plans to go back to Ireland? Oh, man, I'd love to. It's definitely on my bucket list to get back there. I'd love to do some more of eye packing on the West Coast there, the Wild Atlantic way. I mean, that was just so beautiful. And I'd love to spend some more time in the Dublin area. We started with 98 tour there. But I didn't really get to hang out a whole lot and see the city. Yeah, what a great country and super friendly people. I loved it, I loved it. And I wish I stayed longer. Tyler, I'd love to see you back. gravel racing, I know I speak for a chunk of cycling fans out there, the ones who are still real romantic about the sport. We'd love to see you back more involved, whether it's doing your gravel thing and just showing people it's not all, there's a life after pro cycling, it doesn't have to be hang up the whales. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Well, let's, maybe we can combine forces on something. definitely over there or yeah it would be great to meet you someday Anthony sounds like you sound like a really good person and certainly a strong bike rider that's for sure I don't know about that I don't know I got behind on your wheel no no no no things have changed a lot I got like a hair big hairy legs now did anyone recognize you when you're riding around Ireland you know I mean now I for there were a couple years I was getting a little heavy like my I I had a little extra baggage in my midsection for sure. But yeah, but I've, through cycling, you're just kind of focusing more on health. You know, I'm back to it. Like a good weight and all that. But I'm certainly not, I'm no, I'm no five grades or any more. Yeah. We're gonna hook up as with challenge. That's how we're gonna get it to happen. Hello, man. Oh, okay, sir. Is there a group head-o? The whole is with this group. So what's going on in Swift is even more of a story when it was going on in cycling during the 1990s. The cheating is unbelievable. So obviously you can't cheat your power. So your power is your power. It picks it up by Bluetooth. But there is something that's calibrating their parameters wrong, but that's minor. But the amount of cheating people do with their weight. So like I'm back doing a bit of trying on a buddy of mine. I'll tell you the full story someday, but a buddy of mine was a pro athlete over here and he lost his eyesight and then he went through a shit time of depression and addiction and he pulled himself out of that and he got back cycling.
He's on the tandem now and it's one of the reasons I came back cycling is to pilot the tandem for him and we're trying to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics at the moment. So that's fantastic. Yeah, it's cool. You know what? It's a completely new challenge for me and it's the time that I've ever ridden tandem. Oh man, just like a recreational one but something like that would be fun. To help somebody else I'd do something like that. You know it's a great feeling but it's also so frustrating because we're you know cyclists were so used to being in charge of our own destiny. Like if you get dropped on a climb you know it's hard to blame anyone else maybe you're positioned into the climb or something but if you just clean get ridden off a wheel you're just like fuck I didn't have it but if you get clean ridden off a wheel on the tandem you're just like you just want to blame the other guy And he wants to blame you and it's this weird dynamic of all right we're in this together like Yeah, yeah That's great. You're doing that. How's the training going? It's going good. We wrote the world championships over in Canada The individual pursuit on the track and we were due to write the world road race championships in Belgium in June But obviously that's been kicked back in the olympics have been kicked back. So So my retirement has been kicked back as well because all this, so I was kind of planning on stopping down intervals after Tokyo and kind of stopped taking a serious spot. I'm going to do one more year with him and see, you know, it's like I'm not going to win the, you know, I'm not sure how much you follow the track stuff, but Great Britain are just so far ahead and stuff like the individual pursuit. So like, you know, on a good day, we might do a 417 for the pursuit, but you know, the GB are going to do a 404, 404 or 404 or something stupid. So, you know, the road race is the road race. You know, everyone's got a fighter's chance in that. So I'll target that and see what we can do. Good for you. That's exciting. Valley is exciting. It's pretty fun. So we might, we'll definitely get a ride hooked up at some point, Tyler. But I know there's going to be a shit ton of people listening to the podcast now. gonna want to just know more about your follow your journey a bit more. You've got your own podcast, is that the best place for people to check you out? You know, I just started podcast. Yeah, it's even more really just a hobby. Yeah, it's called adventure audio of good buddy of mine who lives up in Canada, Calgary, Canada, Peter. He's been wanting to do it for years and trying to convince me and finally last fall, like I was like, yeah, let's do it. I just it's just a hobby and just enjoying learning about other people and what makes them tick and like kind of what gets them out of bed in the morning and you know Yeah, adventure audio and Yeah, all sorts of different kind of athletes people getting out getting getting after it I've got a coach in Disney as well I want people to talk to you fun people talk to and I every interview I take Something out of it and usually that motivates me to get outside You know, I mean, let's be honest. We all feel better when we get outside 100% especially in right now right you know especially today with what's going on the world today it's like I mean it's my medicine it's my medicine now for sure and if someone wants to get your book get in touch with you about coaching what's the best places to do them oh yeah I have a small coaching business it's Tyler Hamilton training so yeah you're gonna check that out yeah I do some public speaking once in a while I'm kind of share the good the bad mostly about the ugly. Yeah. Yeah. And the book is kickass. If anyone hasn't read the book, the secret race, you need to go and check that out. It's it's the best account of that whole period that I've read. Really enjoyed it. It was hard to hard to write that book. It was probably probably the hardest thing I ever did was to write that book and took about two and a half years to ride it. Luckily with a great co-writer by the name of Dan Coyle. I'm not necessarily so proud about what's in the book that I'm proud about writing it. You know finally, Holy Cow and Queen. But yeah, I think it gives a pretty good account of the years that I was racing of what was going on. You know, obviously there's many other stories but you know this is one of them. Where do we go to boy a copy that I don't know where everybody books yep Amazon it go to your local bookshop fuck Amazon yeah yeah it was brilliant chat here Anthony great talking to you yeah keep up the good work and that's awesome what you're doing I hope everything your preparation for Tokyo goes well you know make sure you're having fun with it but with your partner's name it's Peter Ryan okay great yeah good luck you guys your legend brother appreciate it nice talking Anthony oh what can I say goosebumps goosebumps goosebumps Tyler Hamilton it was a dream come true I followed that journey for so long and yeah I'm just so excited to finally bring you guys that interview I hope you loved it if you did love it don't be afraid to check out my patreon, it's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch, Boing your coffee, Boing your beer there, keeps the show rolling, helping you upgrade the sound equipment, helping you keep securing these guests and cover their expenses. I am gonna see you next week for Steve Cummings, Tour de France double stage winner, Vuelta stage winner, Olympic silver medalist, again another man who's done enough a lot in this sport and he's gonna give us tips on health, happiness and longevity. Thanks for tuning in, roadmen.
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In todays episode Anthony sits down with Dr Allen Lim. Dr Allen has been one of the key actors in helping cycling emerge from the dark "Armstrong" days. In his role as the team physiologist for Team Garmin he didn't even entertain that doping should be a solution, this sparked innovation because he...
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Anthony chats with former US Postal rider Tyler Hamilton about one of the defining periods in our sport, the US Postal days. It was a dark era defined by doping and deception but it has paved the way for change and re-birth.
A Spanish hotel room. A red pill. A team doctor who said it was for his health, not doping. The first step into the apparatus that would eventually break US Postal apart. Tyler Hamilton on what the system actually felt like from inside.
This episode dives into some of the most debated topics in cycling—from the myths of marginal gains to the never-ending ERG mode debate. Should you swap your 172.5mm cranks for 165mm to gain 15+ watts? Is upgrading to aero wheels or a waxed chain worth the investment? We break down what really...
Anthony chats with former US Postal rider Tyler Hamilton about one of the defining periods in our sport, the US Postal days. It was a dark era defined by doping and deception but it has paved the way for change and re-birth.
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