Free Tyler Hamilton!

How do I learn that Tyler Hamilton is being accused of blood doping? Not through any of my normal American news sites (though CNN’s sports section did have a thrilling story on new Ryder Cup rules. I have no idea what sport that is). Not through Velonews, though that’s my own fault — if I read the website every day, there’s not much point in reading the magazine, and I haven’t been following the Vuelta that closely since OLN isn’t carrying it this year. No, instead I pick it up while browsing LeMonde, where I occasionally try to pick through the news en francais. In fairness, the New York Times has an article today.

I do not believe that Tyler Hamilton doped his blood. He is the first person to be accused, using this new test, of what is essentially withdrawing blood and then transfusing it before a race so that you have extra red blood cells. There’s still a lot of uncertainty about this testing method, and to threaten a man’s entire career with an unproven test is insanity — but that’s the power of the World Anti-Doping Agency. (Lots of people seem to think that doping and drugging is rampant in cycling — I don’t think it is any more than any other sport, and probably less so than many, but they’re very aggressive about testing, so more of it is caught. You don’t think normal people get to the size of football players without help, do you?)