Tyler Hamilton
Tyler Hamilton
Tyler Hamiltonis an American former professional road bicycle racer. He is the only American rider to win one of the Five Monuments of Cycling. Hamilton became a professional cyclist in 1995 with the US Postal Service cycling team. He was a teammate of Lance Armstrong during the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Tours de France, where Armstrong won the Yellow jersey. He was a key asset for Armstrong, being a very good climber as well as time-trialist. Hamilton appeared at the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCyclist
Date of Birth1 March 1971
CityMarblehead, MA
CountryUnited States of America
I'm still not at 100 percent since the crash last week.
My chances of racing in this year's Tour de France are slim to none. That's what got me out of bed every morning.
Once in a while, when I was younger, I'd lie, then tell the truth, and I'd feel better.
For me, having the opportunity to go to college was very important. To miss out on an education is a loss.
I knew that people disliked me, and there always will be, but that's the price you pay for being in the limelight, so to speak.
I lied for years and years. And the thing about lies and secrets is that they eat you alive from the inside. I would not wish that pain on anyone.
The truth always finds it's way out, even years and years and years later. The truth always prevails.
If you weren't a risk-taker, you were always going to be a step behind. You could be the best cyclist in the world, but if you weren't a risk-taker, you weren't going to win the Tour de France.
Lies suck; they tear you apart from the inside out.
If you look at my career, I kind of got progressively better and better and better. I came closer to the top.
If you do have a team where every rider has a huge list of results, that means everybody wants to do the race for themselves. The strongest team in the Tour is not the strongest team on paper.
I'd never really experienced the West before moving to Colorado. The East Coast, where I grew up, has a lot of big cities, like Boston and New York, and is more densely populated, and I instantly fell in love with the big open spaces of the West, where you can see not just for a few miles but for a few hundred miles.
Whenever I was on the podium, it felt weird. I was obviously happy to have done well, but it wasn't truly happy from the bottom of my heart.
Once in a great while I miss the racing, the feeling of winning. That rush. That adrenaline.