Lance Armstrong’s former teammate Tyler Hamilton appeared on Today with Matt Lauer this morning to promote his new book “The Secret Race”, which is sadly not about Blasian females. Instead, subtitled “Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs”, it’s a book about his cycling career, and the only thing more boring than watching cycling is reading about it.
But Hamilton, who is a proven cheater after testing positive for PEDs three times while a member of the U.S. Postal Service team, now conveniently claims that he has the “smoking gun” when it comes to proving that Armstrong cheated just like the rest of cycling’s biggest stars. Hamilton said that he knows why Armstrong has allegedly lied for so long, because he’s an expert liar and can smell his own.
“This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,’’ Hamilton told Lauer Wednesday. “I lied for a long, long time. There was sort of an omerta. People really encouraged me not to speak. I planned to take this secret to the grave. There was a federal investigation, and I sat up there in front of the grand jury and told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’’
Armstrong has already released a statement about Hamilton’s new book, and the abridged version is: “How convenient.” Whatever.
Yesterday, I was listening to a stand-up comedy station on Pandora and treated to a clip from George Carlin’s 2008 TV special, “It’s Bad for Ya!”, and I was a little upset that I hadn’t thought about it when the big Lance Armstrong news broke on Aug. 23. Then again, I’m happy if I can remember last night, let alone something I watched 4 years ago. Either way, I think Carlin perfectly summed up how some people feel at this point.
(NSFW language.)
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Actually I think the majority of us either don’t give a sh*t or are on Lance Armstrong’s side. It’s kind of hard to hate a guy, cheater or not, whose raised almost $500 million for cancer research
So what you’re saying is that the ends justify the means, and that Lance Armstrong is Ozymandias.
does that make Carlin Rorschach? he did die shortly after this special aired…
I appreciate and respect what he’s done for cancer research. But I also appreciate Carlin’s point that people can’t tell me who my heroes are. Unless I missed the part where he said, “… and his cancer research.”
He raised $500 million for cancer awareness, not research. $480 million of that money went into livestrong, which in turn propped up Lances image. Livestrong was getting completely out of research, it spent most of its money on marketing. That charity was terrible. Awareness charities are cop outs.
Livestrong is a vanity charity which is all about Armstrong. As has been said, not much goes to research; and I think I can safely say we have all heard of cancer already.
Evil Twin hit on it. Everyone hates Barry Bonds (who gave money to charity) and a long list of other proven dopers, many of whom gave millions to charity. But Lance successfully tied his cancer and his career to one of the most recognizable charities on the planet. He passed a magical point where he basically bought the good will of many people. The allegations against him go far beyond the words of one proven liar. But many people don’t care because he’s Lance. Barry Bonds, A-Rod, Alberto Contador (hahaha no one knows any other cyclist than Lance) are bad because they doped. That was their mistake. They should have gotten cancer first, survived, founded a charity, and built a career on wins, some of which were likely obtained through doping.
Actually a lot of us know a lot of cyclists and a lot about cycling, that is why we have known Armstrong was a doper for a decade or so.
He bought the goodwill with stolen currency. @bernad (like hinault) what amazes me are the people I ride with who have been following cycling for years and still believe.
I just feel bad for all those poor clean cyclists OH WAIT, THERE ARE NONE. And fuck cycling in general. You have to work hard to be more boring than that.
Here’s a list of the top five in each of Armstrong’s wins:
[www.brettluelling.com]
Eddie, that list is hilarious. Just strike the late 90′s early 2000′s from history. Just say there was another world war or something.
Yeah I couldn’t give a fuck if you cheat at sports as long as you use your fame and money given to you by stupid hero worshippers for good in the world. As far as I’m concerned Lance is a fucking Saint.
a saint? really? i think he’s just about broke even on this one. he’s not a fucking pauper. he’s done very well out of his career. and raising $500m for “awareness” whatever the fuck that is. i was well aware of cancer before this guy. where did the fucking money go? charity, my fat ass.
You could ask his various ex-wives and girlfriends what a saint he is.
Comedy is comedy, and I think that no thing or person is off limits when it comes to good comedy. That said, fuck George Carlin. Who told him that Lance had to be his hero?
I used to love Carlin, but the more I watched him toward the end, his whole schtick seemed to be “I’m a crotchety old man who TELLS IT LIKE IT IS.” Fuck Dr. Phil? Edgy.
THANK YOU!
I remember when Carlin was funny. His last two specials, including this one, were just atrocious. An old man griping about things in the way your grandfather would. The biting caustic look at society that made him famous was gone, replaced by someone whose mind had slipped.
Oh yeah, all his pro-guilianni stuff was jaw-dropping.
I guess that’s the thing, though, his mind really did seem to have slipped. I found it sad, more than anything.
carlins the truth
Oh, I dunno. I think you can cheat all you want, so long as you give to charity.
“You were sleeping with her, weren’t you!”
“Look, I gave $100 to Cheater’s awareness.”