The latest report came from Tyler Hamilton. Hamilton is a former teammate of Armstrong who was forced to retire after failing multiple doping tests. He went on “60 Minutes” and said that Armstrong promoted, encouraged, and participated in doping in preparation for the Tour de France in 1999.

Mark Fabiani joined The Dan Patrick Show to talk about why Lance Armstrong needs representation, whether or not he thinks Tyler Hamilton is credible, if he has ever asked Lance Armstrong about using steroids, and how much he thinks the 60 Minutes interview will help Tyler Hamilton sell books.

On why Lance Armstrong needs representation:

“Because there is an investigation going on that was started by Floyd Landis who’s got to be one of the most discredited people out there and for some reason the Federal Government is deciding to spend money on this investigation even though now they have their main witness trying to sell books by going on television which is a fiasco for any investigation. Nonetheless, because of the investigation, Lance needs people to help him out and that’s what I’m doing.”

On the idea that Tyler Hamilton is credible and has specifics about this:

“You’ve got to look at a couple of things. First of all, he is a confessed liar. For years and years and years he maintained that he did not dope in any way shape or form. Second of all, he is now trying to sell a book and he has scammed ‘60 Minutes.’ Somebody on Facebook called him Tyler Scamilton. That’s a good name because he went on ‘60 Minutes’ in order to try and get a publisher for his book. If these were his allegations then why all these years, he was talking about 1999, so 12 or 13 years later, he’s finally making these allegations? Or is it because he is trying to sell his book or is it because he is trying to save his Olympic gold medal with a backroom deal with US Authorities? We’re going to find out all these things in the next couple of days and I don’t think the answers are going to be very good for ‘60 Minutes,’ for Scott Pelley, and anyone else who thinks Tyler Hamilton is a credible witness.”

Why this is any different than the Jose Canseco situation:

“This is a totally different situation. Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of the world. He has passed nearly 500 tests in and out of competition over 20 years and never failed a single one. Tyler Hamilton has failed tests, Floyd Landis has failed tests, and lots of cyclists have failed tests. The testing works and Lance has never failed a single test and that’s the bottom line here.”

Whether or not he has ever asked Lance Armstrong if he cheated or used:

“Absolutely and he has been very clear on that publically. He said it over and over and over again over the years and that’s why this is so frustrating. To have people coming out of the woodwork, confessed liars, trying to sell books, going on TV and making allegations on TV that there is no way to disprove, he was saying he was there, he’s saying he saw something, well why hasn’t he talked about this for 12 or 13 years? Why is he only talking about it now? Is it because he is trying to sell a book? Is it because he is trying to save his Olympic gold medal with an underhanded deal with US authorities? You’ve got to look at the motivations of these people. That was what was so disappointing about ‘60 Minutes.’ I’m a big fan of the show but I’ve got to tell you the last couple of weeks were very discouraging. They promised Lance that they would tell us who they had on camera in order for us to prepare to have Lance interviewed by ‘60 Minutes.’ Lance wanted to go on ‘60 Minutes’ and they promised repeatedly ‘we will tell you who we have on camera so that you can prepare to rebut what they say.’ Then last Monday they reneged on their promise and said we’re not going to tell you and it was very disappointing.”

On how much Hamilton’s book will actually boost in sales because of this:

“I would think very little but that doesn’t mean he’s not trying to do it. It’s an open secret around the cycling world that he’s been trying to sell a book for the last several months. What he gets out of the book I don’t know? I would think publishers are smarter than maybe the ‘60 Minutes’ producers are when they look into his background. He has lied about whether he has a college degree for example. He’s lied for years about his doping. He raised money from his friends trying to support him when he was found positive with his testing. This is not someone who is believable. We have a website up for anyone who is interested, facts4Lance dot com. You will get a lot of information on there on Tyler Hamilton’s history of lying as well as the fact that he is out there trying to make money on this. This is trash for cash from a washed up cyclist.”

Whether or not Lance Armstrong will ever admit to using steroids:

“I can’t see into the future but I cannot imagine him doing that. He has said it over and over again. I have staked out my position on this, I have told the truth, there is nothing else I can say, and my position will never change. He said that yesterday to Howie Kurtz of the Daily Beast and I can’t imagine that position ever changing and he’s got the test results to back it up. He’s got almost 500 tests over 20 years and never failed a single one.”

Listen to Mark Fabiani on the Dan Patrick Show here (Audio begins 4:55 into the podcast)

The highlights of the investigation include Armstrong being involved in a possible doping operation as a member of a team sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service from 1999 to 2004. Sports Illustrated is claiming from a source with knowledge of the government investigation on Armstrong that he used HemAssist, which increases the amount of oxygen you can carry into the blood. Former USPS rider, Floyd Landis, came out and said the perk to traveling with Armstrong privately was that their bags of drugs would rarely be searched like they were in St. Moritz. Customs officials wanted to look into their suitcases and were told the substances were “vitamins.” Anti-doping expert, Don Catlin, claims that in 1999 Armstrong was one of the three unknown USA cyclists that had highly abnormal testosterone-epitestosterone levels. The list goes on-and-on. I strongly suggest to get the culmination on what has gone on with Lance Armstrong and his anti-doping allegations over the last 15 years by checking out the Sports Illustrated article.

The most difficult part in all of this is that Lance Armstrong was such a compelling story winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times after beating testicular cancer, thus starting the LIVESTRONG organization. At this point, cycling can’t find one Tour de France winner who has come up clean with 14 of the last 15 winners of the Tour de France having potentially been involved in drug related offenses if Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong are found guilty.

Cycling Magazine’s Bruce Hildenbrand joined KNBR in San Francisco with Razor and Mr.T to discuss if he believes Lance Armstrong is dirty in regards to using steroids or doping, was it ever believable that Armstrong dominated a “dirty” sport, what is the run down of the Sports Illustrated article on Armstrong, what is HemAssist and how do cyclers use it, how much of a pass will Armstrong get if he admits to using EPO because of the LIVESTRONG organization and does he ever see Armstrong admitting he used EPO if he is guilty.

You believe Lance Armstrong was dirty in regards to using steroids and doping?

“Well I mean I think what’s happening now is enough people have spoken out that have first hand knowledge of what was going on Lance’s team, when he was winning the Tour de France, when he was competing as a professional, that you have to call those peoples credibility into consideration. Why are they doing that? If they got the credibility…I think they do. I think there’s a pretty good chance that something not right was going on with that team and those riders at that time.”

Was it ever believable that a guy in Lance Armstrong could dominate a “dirty” sport in cycling where everyone was enhancing or using steroids?

“That’s really the difficult thing and you know the guy who won the Tour de France last year, Alberto Contador, is now involved in a real sticky affair. If Contador goes down and Lances goes down that’s 14 of the last 15 winners of the Tour de France will have been involved in drug related offenses.”

What is the rundown of this Sports Illustrated article on Lance Armstrong?

“For the person who’s really not up on the Lance doping history this is a pretty good piece of what has gone on in the last 15 years or so. Not much new stuff there from that perspective. I’m guessing that, Jeff Novitzky, the federal prosecutor who’s trying to investigate the case (Interrupted by hosts)…We will see. The rumor is that indictments will come out in this thing after the Super Bowl. Sometime in February will start seeing indictments from his investigation and then the question is “Who’s going to be indicted?” Will it be Lance? Will it be the people that worked with Lance? Will it be people who helped bankroll Lance’s team? So I think that’s the stuff we’re all kind of waiting to see. Unfortunately or fortunately however you believe our justice system should work, there haven’t been many leaks to what they’ve found out or what they’re going to do, so this article is really going backward from what you said, what we already know, putting it into a chronological history and trying to build.”

HemAssist? What is it exactly in regards to the Sports Illustrated article that claimed from a source with knowledge of the government’s investigation that Armstrong had used it?

“It’s a very, very, quick-acting, oxygen carrier in the blood. So say for example you’re in a trauma case and you’ve lost a whole bunch of blood and the person’s about to die, well you can’t get 3 liters of blood back into their body right away, but this particular chemical acts like 3 liters of blood. It transports enough oxygen as that much blood, so it can get the person from the car accident to the hospital, so they can really work on that person. The idea being it’s just a very kind of last minute you know we’ve got this person’s blood oxygenated, so they won’t die kind of thing.”

How do cyclists use HemAssist?

“Cyclist would use it as a blood boosting agent…umm…oxygen carrying agent. Cycling is very unique in the sense that it’s really totally an endurance sport. There’s not much hand-eye coordination. I mean yeah you gotta down at 60 mph and not crash, but for the most part you could really do cycling on a treadmill and see who could go as fast as possible. It’s just all about endurance and that’s how much oxygen you can get to your muscles because of that thing like EPO, which boost the number of red blood cells in your body and something like HemAssist, which increases the amount of oxygen you can carry in your blood are super powerful and super effective to making you a better endurance athlete. So when you start a climb up the Pyrenees you can go faster because your muscles can work harder and you can learn to leave all your buddies behind you and win the Tour de France.

How much of a pass will Armstrong get if he admitted his use of EPO? How will Armstrong be viewed? Armstrong has started the LIVESTRONG organization will that cut him some slack?

“I think that’s a very interesting question because Lance…The way I look at it there are two kinds of bike racing fans and this is not to say one is better than the other. There’s the die-hard fans like you guys are basketball fans and baseball fans because you grew up with the sport and you went to the games and you played the game and all that kind of stuff. We have those kinds of fans in cycling, but also because of Lance’s story. How compelling the survival of  cancer was. A lot of people who didn’t have that kind of background became interested in cycling. So I think what’s going to happen here is the people that really like that cancer story, the survival from cancer, I think their willing to cut Lance a bigger path than the true diehard cycling fans. The true diehard cycling fans may say “He desecrated the Tour de France by cheating to win.” You know I don’t think the fact that he won 7 Tour de France’s makes his cancer story you know that much more compelling. He came back from cancer. It’s great that he was able to come back to a higher level, but he still is a cancer survivor and he’s put it on the map. The people that are drawn to cycling and the people because of the cancer story will probably cut him a lot more slack.”

Do you ever see Lance Armstrong coming out and admitting he did EPO if he is guilty?

“Until he feels that the LIVESTRONG organization will be able to maintain an even keel I think it would be hard for him to say. If he was convinced if somehow for example one of the team directors this year said “Look anybody involved in a doping situation in the last few years come clean to me and it will not effect your employment. You still got a job.” If somehow Lance was convinced that his foundation would go on as it had before if he came clean, I think he would do it if he is indeed guilty. Again I just think the foundation is such a big part of what he’s about that he’s in a very protective mode about making sure that is still a viable entity.”

Listen to Bruce Hildenbrand on KNBR here

“I think this is a terrible, terrible idea. I don’t mind those one lanes, but you get in Rock Creek Park and 3 or 4 of these people start riding abreast, and I swear to you it’s all you can do to not run them down, like Wile E. Coyote’s, run them over. Just stay on the right. Stay on the right. I’m happy to share the road with you, but by share the road what I mean is you have room on the right and I have room on the road. Get the hell out of my way… And they all wear, with the little water bottle in the back and their stupid hats and their shiny shorts, they are the same disgusting poseurs that come out in the middle of a snow storm with cross country skiing on your block. Run them down… They don’t share the road. They dominate the road. They dare you to run them down.”

Well, word of this rant quickly made its way to France where the most well-known cyclist of all-time, Lance Armstrong was preparing for the Tour de France. As you may imagine, Armstrong had some things to say about Kornheiser’s message and started Tweeting. Ultimately, the two were connected on the phone and then followed that up with an interview on ESPN 980.

Lance Armstrong joined Tony Kornheiser on ESPN 980 in Washington D.C. to discuss the relationship between cars and bikes, kids riding bikes, social media, and unretiring.

On the relationship between people on bikes and people in cars:

“To your point on this interaction or this relationship between people on bikes and people in cars, it meets a wall sometimes. Obviously, it’s a relationship that needs to coexist for now and forever, because, as I mentioned yesterday to you, we are both going to be around forever. It’s one that is going to require mutual respect. Cyclists cannot go around five abreast through Rock Creek Park. I go on rides all the time and people start lining up next to me wanting to chat and I say, ‘Hey we got to single up here. We got some cars back.’ But at the same time there is no need for a car to come by and brush a cyclist, especially considering they are human beings on bikes, which makes it a special case in my opinion. Not everybody is used to riding with cars. You could get a 40 year-old lady on her first bike ride and she’s out on the streets. If some guy comes by and brushes her and taps her with his mirror. Trust me, she’s never going to get on a bike again because she is so scared. And that’s a shame. I know it’s a volatile situation sometimes, but both sides have to understand each other.  And the other thing that I should say after this all blew up yesterday; cycling lost a guy yesterday who was well-regarded and loved by many, many people. He got hit by a car in the Carolinas – a guy by the name of Adam Little. I think it touched a nerve for both of those things to come out in the same day.  Sometimes it’s heated.”

On drivers’ frustrations with bikers:

“I have seen cars do all kinds of crazy things to avoid squirrels and cats and dogs and tractors and horses and sheep and runners and everything else. I am not nearly smart enough to figure out why it is that a single cyclist or two cyclists or a group of cyclists even gets people so angry sometimes. But it is what it is. I think the cycling community can do a better job of awareness.”

On lack of children riding bikes:

“40 years ago, 40% of our kids rode their bikes to school and the obesity rate was 14%. Today, do you know how many kids ride their bikes to school? 3% of kids ride their bikes to school. Do you know why? Because parents are afraid to put their kids on a bike. They are afraid that their kids are going to ride a mile and get run over.”

On power of Twitter and social media:

“It’s just become a small world. You are never out of sight or out of mind or out of reach. And listen, this is 2010, god knows what is going to happen in 2020. In 2020, actually we’ll be doing this in a couple of years, you are going to be watching people live do the stupidest things you could imagine – including harassing assaulting people on bicycles. That’s going to hold people accountable. That’s kind of scary, I have to admit. We all get caught up in it as you were talking about. But it’s not going to change.

And on why he unretired:

“I came back last year for two reasons. First of all, all of the work that I had done with the team and the foundation to try to establish Livestrong in our local community of Austin and to establish Livestrong around the United States, we saw the opportunity to take that message around the world. The best way to do it, or the easiest and perhaps the most efficient way, was for me to be on a bike actually racing. So that was the primary reason. And second, I rediscovered the joy of it. Going back to what we have been talking about, I would go out for bike rides and I would think, ‘Gosh, I like this. I enjoy this.’”

Listen to Lance Armstrong on ESPN 980 in DC with Tony Kornheiser.

Landis joined Scott and BR on XX Sports Radio in San Diego on Tuesday.  Here are a sampling of his comments:

“It was an experience I wouldn’t wish on anybody.  I’ve had to focus on science and legal issues rather than bicycle racing.”

“I’m not as affected by people saying things about me that I know aren’t true.”

Listen to Floyd Landis interview

What's with the stuffed animal?

He's baaack!

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