Cycling: Whistle-blower to speak in Dunedin

Tyler Hamilton.
Tyler Hamilton.
One of the men credited with leading the charge in the downfall of cycling cheat Lance Armstrong will visit Dunedin next month.

American Tyler Hamilton will speak at an Otago Medical Research Foundation lunch on April 17 in Dunedin.

He is visiting Auckland to speak at both the Sport New Zealand annual conference and to Drug Free Sport New Zealand, and has accepted an invitation to head south.

No shrinking violet himself, having been banned twice for drug offences, Hamilton will outline the story behind complicit team doctors, the doping practices he and Armstrong were using on the US Postal team and the sheer brutality of the sport.

Hamilton rode with Armstrong in the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Tours de France, and represented the United States at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, winning a gold medal in the time trial in 2004.

Lance Armstrong.
Lance Armstrong.
Initially banned after failing a drug test in 2004, Hamilton returned to the sport in 2006 and won the US road title a year later.

A second failed drug test in 2009 resulted in an eight-year ban and his subsequent retirement.

Subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury for the use of performance-enhancing drugs, Hamilton admitted he had used banned substances in competition and returned his gold medal.

In 2012, he co-authored a book The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs, which details his doping practices.

Foundation director of development Steve Davie was delighted to confirm Hamilton's presence in Dunedin and paid tribute to Otago Medical School Prof David Gerrard who had been able to help with the visit.

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