Tyler Hamilton testified at the Operation Puerto trial via video link. at the Spanish Embassy in Washington, DC.
He said he was offered EPO, insulin, testosterone and was treated by Dr. Fuentes from 2002-2004. The introduction was made by Bjarne Riis.
He said that blood transfusions were important but EPO, testosterone, growth hormones and other doping products were available.
“We talked by phone and we met at a rest area on the road in January 2002, “he said. The meeting was to plan for the future. The first treatment was in a laboratory in Madrid belonging to Merino Batres. They met a total of about 15 times where extractions or reinfusions were done. Hamilton was given a calendar by Fuentes with a schedule of when to take EPO and the other products and how much. He claims not to have taken much growth hormone.
He had some problems when he took insulin. He said he only took it once because he felt bad afterwards. He was sweating, his heart rate surged and he felt weird. In July 2004 he also became ill after a transfusion. The blood transfusions were done in various locations including Batres’ clinic, hotel rooms, apartments from blood bags stored in a cooler.
After going from the Postal team to CSC in 2001 he was quickly set up with Fuentes for blood transfusions. He says Fuentes lied about how many cyclist worked with him. He was led to believe that there were a lot.
The first time he had heard the term racing on “bread and water” (pan y agua) which means competing without any performance enhancing drugs was in Spain in 1997. He says he was clean for two years as a professional and then was offered help by Dr. Pedro Celaya in the form of testosterone to speed his recovery. He was injected with EPO the first time that year, which was before Lance Armstrong joined the team. Johan Bruyneel was managing the team after having competed as a cyclist for Spanish team ONCE.
Hamilton went on to discuss the EPO usage during the Tour de Frances he rode with Armstrong and about Ferrari. Beginning in 2000 blood doping began to be self administered and there were no controls to detect it.
In 2001 Armstrong told Hamilton he had tested positive at the Tour of Switzerland for EPO. “He said that his people had been in contact with the UCI, they would have a meeting and that everything would be okay, so I understood that Armstrong positive would be ignored by the UCI.”
Hamilton did a reinfusion in the 2002 Tour de France with Dr Alberto Leon who commited suicide January 2011 after being linked to Operation Puerto.
Dr. Batres, a hematologist, has been excluded from the Operation Puerto proceedings because he’s suffering from Alzheimers.
