Tuesday 27 November 2012 17:59, UK
After he blew the lid off the Lance Armstrong doping scandal in cycling, we sit down with American Tyler Hamilton.
What about the peloton today? Is it clean? It's really hard for me to say. I'm totally out of the sport now. I don't really talk to anyone at the top of the sport anymore. It's a lot cleaner than the dark days. They are still catching guys but I believe in Brad Wiggins and I believe we finally have a clean Tour de France champion and that's nice to see. I'm a big supporter of him but I still believe there's still room for improvement. There's still denial. We have directors and managers today who were racing back then and are still racing now and are still denying. I denied for a long time so I can't really fault them. It's part of the process. The UCI, I'm not so confident in them but hope they will figure out a process for riders and staff to come forward and say what they know, small suspension or no suspension and if they choose to do it in this four-to-six month period then they will be rewarded for it and if not, then they may suffer consequences. What are your thoughts on Bradley Wiggins? I've always believed in Brad Wiggins, he's always been an advocate for anti-doping. I have no reason not to believe in Brad Wiggins. Riders like Cavendish and Wiggins are annoyed because they're tainted by your generation. It's not fair but it's reality. That's what it is. It sucks, it stinks for them. I feel bad. I feel worse for the younger guys. I feel bad for Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish but feel worse for the younger guys who had nothing to do with those guys. I did race with Brad and Cavendish so they overlap a bit but the young guys like Taylor Phinney who are brand new in the sport who had nothing to do with us. It's worse for them. The whole thing stinks. The quicker we can move on from this, the better, but we're in a turbulent time at the moment. You probably agree with me, we need changes in the UCI. You know Lance Armstrong. You were part of his A team. Will he ever confess? I hope so. I think denial is the first part of the process. When it all happens you are started and I hope it's just part of this process and I hope he's going through thinking about maybe telling the truth. He's obviously a tough character. Mentally and physically strong. Probably thinks he can shoulder the weight and go to the grave with these secrets but I was planning on doing the same thing but luckily I got the opportunity to tell the truth and it changed my life. It really did and I think Lance is in a tough situation right now. He's got to be torn up inside. I think eventually we will see some of the truth come out. I hope so for the sake of cycling. We need some closure for that period. The best thing he can do for the sport of cycling, if he truly loves the sport, he needs to tell the truth. Do it for us. Do it for his kids. It's got to be awful. What of the picture of Lance Armstrong and his yellow jersey? Someone showed me that picture and it's clearly part of the denial process but he's clearly trying to show everyone he's relaxed and still believes. What will he be going through? I'm sure he's real angry inside. Probably I'm sure he's real angry at me that's for sure. I'm not sorry at what I've done. I back up everything I've said in interviews and in the book. He must be real angry and torn up inside. He's probably on a rollercoaster ride at the moment. I'm sure he's had major mood swings. I wouldn't want to be around that guy right now? Is he the villain? What's sad is everyone is pointing the finger at Lance Armstrong but it's way bigger than one individual rider. It's way bigger than me. It was the whole culture of the sport The whole sport was rampant, rampant with doping . At least 80% of the peloton was doping then. The majority of teams if they weren't doping themselves they knew what was going on. In 1997 you'd finish a race and they were handing out little a white lunchbags to you full of doping products in - like kids with a lunchbox. What needs to happen now? We need to figure out what happened, why and how to prevent it. If we don't figure it out then in five and six years we'll have it happen again - I guarantee that.
