Lance Armstrong has vehemently denied accusations by former team-mate Tyler Hamilton that they took performance-enhancing drugs.
Responding to the allegations, aired on CBS programme ’60 Minutes’, seven-time Tour de France champion Armstrong tweeted: “20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case.”
A year ago, Floyd Landis, another former teammate of Armstrong, made similar claims of the use of drugs by Armstrong and the team.
Hamilton failed a drug test in 2004 after winning a gold medal at the Athens Games, but he was allowed to keep his gong because problems at the lab meant his “B” sample could not be tested.
However, he was later caught blood doping and was banned for racing for two years. The ban ended in 2007 and Hamilton returned to racing, but he retired last year after admitting that he took an antidepressant that contained banned steroid DHEA.
Hamilton was since banned from racing for eight years.
Armstrong’s spokesman Mark Fabiani released a statement that read: “Hamilton is actively seeking to make money by writing a book, and now he has completely changed the story he has always told before so that he could get himself on ’60 Minutes’ and increase his chances with publishers.
“But greed and a hunger for publicity cannot change the facts: Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports. He has passed nearly 500 tests over 20 years of competition.”
