May 24, 2011 by Irish Peloton
And Ekimov is calling Hamilton a liar?
No doubt over the coming weeks and months, as the federal investigation into Lance Armstrong comes to a climax, there will be plenty of riders, past and present who will be asked to comment. Now more than ever it is important to scrutinise carefully what each of them say and not allow what they say to easily pass into the realm of what is true.
Armstrong himself has been a master of proof by repeating over the years. A major case in point is his tired old line ‘the most tested sportsperson in the world’. This line has been repeated so often by Armstrong and his entourage that it seems to be taken as fact by millions. This, despite the fact that Armstrong himself has no way of knowing whether this is true or not.
There is also his mantra that he has ‘never tested positive’ which is also quoted as fact in an alarming amount of journalistic pieces. This is simply not true, he tested positive for a corticosteroid in 1999. But Armstrong’s constant repitition that he has never failed a test has millions believeing it.
These thoughts came to mind having read a recent comment by Armstrong’s former teammate Viatcheslav Ekimov. Speaking to the Associated Press, Ekimov labelled Tyler Hamilton a liar. He also said the following:
“He was there [at US Postal] when I was there for maybe two years but we raced in few races together, because he was like a Grand Tour guy and a stage-race guy and I was doing all the classics. I was never there with him. Maybe twice at the Tour de France, but that was it.”
Ekimov is clearly trying to distance himself from Hamilton and his allegations and it suits the Russian to be able to say that he didn’t often race with Hamilton. But what he has said here must not be immediately believed and considered to be true, because it isn’t.
Ekimov and Hamilton rode together on the US Postal service team for four years, not two as Ekimov would have us believe. They were teammates there in 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001. In addition, they also rode the Tour de France together in each of those years. That’s four Tours de France, not ‘maybe twice‘ as Ekimov tells us.
Furthermore, having only browsed around the cycling history sites for about five minutes this morning, I discovered that they rode together at the Tour de Suisse in 2001, the Route du Sud, San Sebastian and the GP Eddy Merckx in 2000 and the Volta a Catalunya in 1998. Finding startlists from the 1990s is not easy, so I have no doubt that Ekimov and Hamilton rode more races together that I didn’t come across this morning.
Whether by accident or by design, Armstrong and his defenders must no longer be allowed to imprint comments upon the public that are simply not true. It’s gone on too long.
Sarah - May 24, 2011 @ 12:28 pm
I know it’s a bit ‘Godwin’s Law’ to say it, but it makes me think of the quote about “If you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes truth.”
Irish Peloton - May 24, 2011 @ 1:17 pm
Absolutely. It’s what Armstrong’s PR team has relied upon so much over the years. Where’s the evidence backing up their claim that he is the most tested sportperson? There is none.
As a big fan of the TV show QI, it’s amazing how many ‘facts’ people think are true just because everybody thinks that they are true, if you know what I mean!
Irish Peloton - May 24, 2011 @ 1:18 pm
Also, interesting that you should mention Godwin’s Law, as I think cycling has its own version of this law, replacing Hitler with Armstrong.
Ilan Vardi - May 25, 2011 @ 1:49 am
That test you quote was not a positive. It was some result that showed trace amounts of corticosteroids that was not against the rules as part of a general research project and was shown to be reasonably explained by a cream prescription for saddle sores. Testing positive means breaking a rule, that is committing a punishable offence.
-ilan
Ilan Vardi - May 25, 2011 @ 1:55 am
Sorry for the second comment. One should also scrutinise the media which is also making factually false statements. In particular, VeloNews implies that this 2004 medal would be Ekimov’s first: “Viatcheslav Ekimov could find himself with a gold medal following startling admissions by Tyler Hamilton that he doped to win the 2004 Olympic time trial championship.” http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/05/news/ekimov-reacts-to-hamilton-statements_175067
CyclingNews wrote that Ekimov won a gold medal in the 2000 Olympic road race in their first edition of this story http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ekimov-denies-hamiltons-claims-of-armstrong-doping
-ilan
Irish Peloton - May 25, 2011 @ 9:31 am
Fair enough, the level of corticosteroids was not enough to trigger an actual positive at that time, however upon reading David Walsh’s various works, I don’t agree that the trace amounts were reasonably explained.
Also, I feel that the whole notion of ‘testing positive’ is being used by Armstrong and his people in a linguistically disingenuous manner. To them, ‘testing positive’ means the A sample containing an illegal amount of an illegal substance and the B sample containing an illegal amount of an illegal substance. I think they are deliberately using the term ‘tested positive’ rather than ‘failed a drugs test’.
But what of Armstrong’s supposed failed test in the Tour de Suisse 2001? If we are to believe what we read, the A sample tested positive and was covered up. So there was no official verdict that he ever tested positive, therefore he can continue to trot out the ‘never tested positive’ line and he probably believes it himself. Time will tell….