As the Toto Turns 133

Tuggie and the Chimera

Tuggie and the Chimera

31 Comments

Anonymous

with basically nothing to lose may break the Omerta and tell the whole story? Deep down inside I feel bad for the poor bastard. He’s Nothing. Bust. Empty.

Anonymous

I don’t think Tyler can ever admit to using considering that he went around asking for contributions to his legal defense fund. Kinda hard to say to those people that you took their money when you knew you were wrong. It borders on fraud.

Baldwin

I remember that Lemond pleaded with Landis to come clean and admit doping, because, Greg said, the psychological pressure was one day, sooner or later, going to catch up.

Lemond used as examples of that pressure very personal and painful childhood trauma from his own life that he had only come to terms with in adulthood. He said the fact that he had kept silent for so long had ground his marriage into dust and come to dominate his life and personality. He said that only with treatment, therapy and a lot of soul searching was he finally able to get right with his family and get his life moving again.

The circumstances of Lemond’s trauma and silence are obviously different than Hamilton’s, but I think everybody here fully sees that there is a clear link, if legally hypothetical and alleged, between Hamilton’s first doping ban and the events of last week.

That said, Hamilton has lost a career, a wife, a reputation and a dog in the past four years. Any one of those things can be incredibly stressful, including, as silly as it sounds, the loss of a family pet.

Immediately prior to that he won the Olympics, Liege Bastogne Liege, the Tour of Romandie, took 2nd in the Giro and won a long breakaway stage in the Tour de France. All very exciting events in a career, and each one also tremendously stressful, however positive that kind of stress can be.

In the imagined psychological background we all must picture for Hamilton, those victories and triumphs must ring increasingly hollow with each year as more and more information comes to light showing not only Hamilton, but an entire generation of the American peloton, as willing and serial dopers.

And those anecdotes of tooth-grinding agony and broken-shoulder suffering only muddle the final picture we end up with. A picture of men with enormous strength and endurance, champions in an alternate reality, who are in the end tainted as much by their doping as by their terrible, terrible lies.

Anonymous

Ah man, toto just crossed the border between dark&hilarious and dark&stone-cold-depressing. A good one, but it’s tough to see the funny.

Anonymous

This was over at the Ashenden article. What’s up with this?

Mountains of evidence. Tyler will reveal all after he gets over Pharmstrong cuckolding him.
Reid Rothchild

Also, anyone hear anything about a brawl at the Belly Up in Aspen?

Anonymous

@ 04/21/2009 – 05:52:

Tyler is still hiding from the Omerta Mafia, he’s on their list. I suspect he’s heading to the Omerta Mafia witness protection program, hence the lack of a fight this time.

Anonymous

I had to go look up the definition of hagiographer.
hagiographer – the author of a worshipful or idealizing biography

Anonymous

But now he CAN admit to using, albeit with explicit reference to something else. But that’ll blur in time

Anonymous

That was painful and yet so compelling and a bit fun to read. (And funny, the pic of LA *Palinized* is genius!) Yes, another great installment of ATTT. Long live TOTO!!

Oh, and Baldwin/10:44 succinctly captured it well. Yeah, LeMond has been calling it all along. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop in regards to Lance. In any case, it’s still just bike racing….

Anonymous

I hope Tyler talks. Tells all. I want so badly in my lifetime for one of two unlikely things to happen: the Cubs win a World Series, and Lance Armstrong gets unequivocally busted for his horrible, shameful past.

Anonymous

@Tue, 04/21/2009 – 16:48:

I also hope Tyler talks but I am not buying the book. Maybe he’ll put it on a Tee Shirt, ala:

Anonymous

He still wants to work in the industry. Spoke nipple salesman or chamois cream rep, working the floor at the trade show. As such, he won’t talk. Will never talk. Damn…

Anonymous

He may want to work in the industry but if he is in any position that deals with us (cycling fans), he’s in for a rude awakening, he will be asked a million times the same question before a question on his product he may be pushing. It will not die or rest, we shall seek closure.

Anonymous

You seriously think cycling fans will give Hamilton a hard time for denying the obvious? Just take a look at the “Great moments in Classics history” feature on Cyclingnews last week:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2009/springclassics09/index.php?id=/features/2009/top_ten_ardennes_moments

where you’ll find the exploits of Vandenbroucke, DiLuca, and Vinokourov celebrated. Or for an even more depressing example, look at the thousands of dittoheads who fawningly respond to every tweet from their idol Lance. Heras, multiple grand tour winner, has fallen so low he now does goofy races on Brompton folding bikes wearing a suit and tie. Hasn’t made him talk.

Anonymous

Uh, not to mention Merckx, Anquetil, Coppi –

It is true. A sport can clean itself up but there will always be a giant gap between the people who care (a few) and the people who just want to enjoy it (most). The dirty secret is it’s financially good for sports – steroids basically saved baseball in the 1990’s.

Anonymous

…and the guy who made the “You can’t call yourself Il Pirata, you’ll always be Elephantino” remark at the Courcheval rest day.

Anonymous

@Wed, 04/22/2009 – 02:32

Well its up to us, those seeking the answers who will always ask, the sheep are good to use to get close to ask the questions of importance. Tact and determination will see us through, or get us thrown out of the venue by a bouncer, ouch…

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