The infamous "Motoman" described in Tyler Hamilton's book, the man accused of having provided logistics for US Postal's doping program in 1999 and 2000 (and probably beyond) by riding around on a motorcycle with refrigerated panniers and delivering steroids and blood bags to the team at various hotels while following the Tour de France, has been exposed.
He is Philippe Maire, owner of the Stars'n'Stripes bike shop in Nice, France. He carries Trek, Livestrong, Oakley and Giro, for those who find themselves in France with a desperate need to kit yourselves out in the latest Lance Armstrong regalia and will not stand for second-best.
Here he is with Lance Armstrong in a photo on Philippe's Facebook page with the caption that reads "Good Job!!!"
Here is more information from Daniel Coyle on the existence of this shady and mysterious character (excerpt taken from "The Secret Race")-
Here is Philippe earlier this Spring riding around with Sean Yates, director sportif of Sky-
And here they are in front of the ol' Stars'n'Stripes bike shop-
But that's not all, folks!!! Here are some Radioshack riders hanging tough with homeboy. Starting to see the connection?
Jens Voight, Philippe and Frank Schleck-
We don't need to be rocket scientists to put two and two together. Let the apologists rant and rave and say this isn't "proof" on anything. In and of itself it isn't. But someone with half a brain please explain to me how this guy, who started off as Armstrong's gardener when he lived in Nice, France, ends up with a high-end cycle shop and affiliations with the top cyclists and cycling teams in Europe. From humble beginnings to this? That story is about as incredulous as someone surviving cancer and going on to win seven Tours in a row, because certainly that happens all the fucking time.
Yes, again this isn't "proof" of anything. But what we have here are some relationships worthy of further scrutiny by the authorities, especially given the damning testimony given by Tyler Hamilton in his book about this character. That much is merited by the looks of things. So before anyone sends me messages about "guilty until proven innocent" and blah blah blah, I hope the French authorities take action and at the very least take this schmuck in for questioning. He has some explaining to do.
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ReplyDeleteI'll be the one taken in for questioning, eh? That's hilarious!!! I don't own a motorcycle, but I know how to ride a horse. Think the authorities will come and confiscate my refrigerated breeches?
ReplyDeleteYou are dead right. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put 2 and 2 together and seeing the photo of the SKY car in front of that shop does not look good... at...all. But that's just my 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteOk, I have been reading article after article (and I mean countless) regarding all of the UCI shenanigans occurring daily, on what seems to be an hourly basis. From all of the comments and tweets and blogs I have read, you are the only person who has even touched this subject. No mention of motoman or these photos of motoman and company anywhere else (except for those in the USADA "Reasoned Decision). I truly hope others have read this or will soon happen upon this post in this blog because I think what you have discovered is incredibly important and needs to be seen by as many people as possible and be seriously questioned and further investigated (as you have already stressed).
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