Tyler Hamilton, depressed, desperate and retired

Tyler Hamilton has achieved far more in cycling than most of us, and at 38 he can feel proud of what he has done athletically. Many will say he underachieved, and that may be true... He has also incurred the wrath of officialdom and his peers, firstly for succumbing to blood doping, and now for what seems a fairly innocuous and desperate attempt to restore his mental health at a time of personal pain. Whilst we all go through pain and loss in our lives, not all of us take medication to deal with it, nor do all of us need it. We can't see inside Tyler's head and feel his pain, or know why he weakened and took a product that he knew would in all likelihood end his cycling career. But he did it, and he accepts his fate. Having denied the blood doping, he now is open about the DHEA. It's almost trivial, but in some way it's fitting that by his own hand he moves on.

His latest offence and some background:
"Hamilton claims he took the suggested dosage for two days prior to the out-of-competition urine test. USADA's legal limit of DHEA found in the urine is 100ng/mL. Hamilton's urine sample was tested at UCLA where lab technicians found 130 ng/mL of DHEA in his urine sample. Dr. Paul Scott, founder of Scott Analytics, reviewed the testing procedure for the B sample...

"Dr. Charles Welch, at Mass General hospital in Boston diagnosed Hamilton with clinical depression in 2003. He was prescribed Celexa as an anti-depressant for the next six years. According to Hamilton, he took amounts double the prescribed dosage for two weeks in January when his mental health declined further after his mother was diagnosed with cancer."

Tyler doesn't need further pain with this result, he needs some distance from pro cycling and continued support from family and friends. I hope he gets exactly that.

Hearsay and rumour

It's just talk, but there was talk about Ricco too, before he fell off the doping cliff. Via CN, El Pais reported that Italian Leonardo Piepoli, the winner of stage 10, confessed to his directeur sportif Joxean Fernandez Matxin to using EPO. After his team-mate Riccardo Riccò was taken away by police after testing positive for EPO, Piepoli reportedly said to Matxin, "I have done the same as Riccardo." No positive doping control has been announced yet for Piepoli, but the team's manager, Mauro Gianetti, pulled the entire squad out of the race. Riccò was indicted on the same charges as Duenas in a court in Foix, but denied using EPO.

No, not Piepoli, please!

Slight irony in that blood-doper, Tour star and denier Tyler Hamilton's continuing comeback is reported on in the same page of CN: Rock Racing's Tyler Hamilton looks set to take the overall victory in the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China tomorrow after he successfully defended his lead in the second to last stage through the high Mountains on the Tibetan Plateau.

Cipo on Tyler, Botero et al - and 2nd chances

SuperMario Cipollini is back in the pro peleton at almost 41 years of age and has this sober assessment of rule-breakers and consequences:
Any sort of lead-out train like the days of old will be limited because Team Rock Racing only started with five riders. The team was not able to start with Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla or Santiago Botero due to their links with cycling's Operación Puerto. "I had said to [Team Owner Michael] Ball there months ago that cycling has taken a new direction," Cipollini continued on the exiled riders. "Now, he has the proof. He is a young go-getter that would like to turn the world upside down. ... You are not able to put yourself against the UCI [International Cycling Union] and the rules. I can say that I agree with the fact that those who make a mistake deserve a second chance, but the reality is this."