Matty, If you are doing this because he is your friend that speaks well of you as a person, but I am very surprised you hired him.

The problem with Tyler are not the rumors, nor the stories, nor the faxes nor the finger pointing, nor the twin lines, nor the tugboat stories, the problem is that the World Anti-Doping Agency imposed an eight-year suspension on him as punishment for second doping positive offense.

I guess most of us respect your decision, but be aware that hiring a doper is not good for your image. It is obvious that he needs help, and all that consider him a friend should help him, but there are other ways to help him without making him part of your sporting career.

I can imagine what some people at the WADA are thinking.

Sergio

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Note: English is not my first language. Please read this translated post considering that.

The evidence isnt exactly full proof against him is it? I dont know the guy on a personal level so will not take sides but with any doubt hanging should we not assume he is telling the truth??
Anyway, people make mistakes. Tyler is not the first (if he did it) and will not be the last (Danish guy yesterday?). Cycling has been a mess with doping for years and it is still not clean (in my mind anyway). I am pretty sure that many many of the top athletes over the last 20 years who people think were clean were in fact not. Linford the 100m sprinter who coould have take on any body builder?? he claimed to be clean didnt he? Maybe by helping out in this sport he can clean his image up a little and also help others out. If he offered to coach me I would chew his arm off! Maybe his experiences will help to clean things up?
I have one of Tylers old TT bikes (LOOK Team) from when he was in Denmark. getting hold of it made me look a little into his history and the guy was a hell of a cyclist.

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http://longwaytogo-ironman.blogspot.com/

Maybe by helping out in this sport he can clean his image up a little and also help others out.


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Not a reply about this guy in particular.

Ideally what you said is true. But the concern is always there that certain people who have used PEDs in their sport goals, don't see there use as not immoral. And as such to truly 'root out' the problem we would have laws to prevent them being involved in the sport again. It becomes very complicated though when there is some doubt surrounding their guilt or innocense.

If a person is found without doubt to have used PEDs, done it knowingly and all the rest then they should be banned for life from that sport. Hell it is in there best interests also as they are likely damaging their bodies. Obviously thoses suppying them knowing what is going on should be banned for life also.

It is very cleary 'bad sportsmanship' to use PEDs in a sport and as such the offenders should be 'outed'. Very likely the best athlete will not win if others are suing PEDs especially in very one dimensional' sports like cycling. One dimensional in that it is only your legs and heart in contrast to triathlon which is very multi-dimensional.

G.
www.TriathlonShots.com

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http://www.TriathlonShots.com
Full event coverage of triathlon/ironman in photos.

Maybe by helping out in this sport he can clean his image up a little and also help others out.

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Mark McGwire, an admitted 'roid' user, is taking that approach as the batting coach for the STL Cardinals. Seems to be working for him.

Exactly. If Tyler did it then at least he will be helping out in the sport and helping others. If he tries to get someone involved in doping then he should get a boot on the nose and banned for life but that I think is very very very unlikely. The guy has fought this all the way. If he didn't do it (which I side towards) then he is the victim of someone else's mistake (and yes even doping testers can make mistakes) but at least he will still be involved in athletics and will be helping people.

Also, in reply to an earlier post, we Europeans (love the very wide brush stroke there!) don't feel indifferent to drugs use and doping in sport. I am against it as much as any of my western cousins but I am also a human being and have in fact made mistakes in my life and so know that it doesn't make you evil and if there is a way to redeem yourself or at least try to put right the wrongs then you should have a go at it.

I agree that people should be banned from the sport if there is no shadow of doubt but I take this to mean that they can no longer compete. I wouldn't stop them coaching..its up to the athlete to chose his/her coach not anyone else.
My oh my I am feeling opinionated today! sorry...ill sod off now.

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http://longwaytogo-ironman.blogspot.com/

Sergio,

His second doping suspension was for a non-performance enhancing anti-depressant type drug...which considering the miserable situation TH has lived in for years is hardly something worthy of an 8 year ban. WADA is a very vindictive organisation it seems. Just my thoughts...

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"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot | Cycle2Tri.com
Sponsors: SciCon | | Every Man Jack

except that to call it "non-performance enhancing" is not really accurate

He owned up to it after failing an out of competition drug test. What courage!

I gotta agree with jackmott on this one. Matty, is there really no other cycling coach willing to take you on who has the same level of cycling experience? One that didn't make a career on cheating, I mean.

The fact that Reed believes Tyler's story actually seems crazier than taking him on as a coach to me...

Matt: makes sense to me. You have so much vested in your career and you need to do what you need to do. (I for one always liked tyler--in the way fans like athletes they don't know and am pleased he is still around and involved with the world class sceene). Anyways, let's hope it pays big dividends--good luck!

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Randy Christofferson(http://www.rcmioga.blogspot.com

Insert Doubt. Erase Hope. Crush Dreams.

I say good for you. Use the best you have available and despite Tylers woes he will help you. You are right that you are responsible for your own career and know what is right and wrong.

I'd like to hear about what you're doing on the bike to improve upon what you have now. That would be an interesting read.

jaretj

Anyone is free to do as they wish but in general I don't think it's a good thing to get former drug users back into the sport in any sort of capacity. How can you get a change in the system if you keep recycling people into sport that have repeatadly broken the rules? You really think they will teach others not make the mistakes they did? Most athletes caught doping are remorseful and swears to do things differently the 2nd time around, but of course this only happens after getting found out so one has to ask how genuine those intentions are. I'd be a little more impressed if someone came clean before being caught and then worked actively against doping..

Then there's the credibilty and image problem with having those kind of people still involved in sports. Of course they should have every chance of getting back into society and have as normal of a life as anyone. It's just that I'm less than thrilled about seeing those guys working again in the sports which they once cheated their way through and should have burned all their bridges in by doing so.

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BA coaching http://www.bjornandersson.se

Fantastic posting Sergio, thank you.

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CAMPAGNOLO GRAN FONDO NEW YORK

Hey Matt,

Not that it is any of my business since you can do whatever you want. :) But I am curious if all your sponsors know about this current relationship with Tyler? Did any of them have any concerns?
Mark

While Ben Johnson was a confirmed doper, and OJ was and is a criminal and a major a**hole, I must point out that OJ Simpson still holds a track world record that will never be officially broken (just what that record is shall be left as an exercise to the reader :-)

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I don't condone it either, but where do you draw the line? David Millar, Ivan Basso, Valverde, Flandis, Rasmussen, even Nina Kraft, all served bans & are now more or less accepted back in their sports... Bjarne Riis admitted it and he runs CSC, Eric Zabel admitted it and he's a major part of tutoring Cav at Columbia HTC. David Millar was even applauded when he didn't argue his suspension and now he's spoken of in reverence by the cycling media! After he got caught with the bottles in his possession!

So while i certainly don't think doping is good/right/moral, in my opinion I dont think anyone should knock Matt Reed for getting advice from someone who is a darn good cyclist, who got busted on his second offense for using anti-depressants if i remember correctly. WADA didn't ban Tyler from coaching anyone, as far as i know.

I disagree. I'm tired of the image card.

We pay way too much attention to image. MR has said over and over that he's a big boy and I'm sure there was a conversation with Kelly about what "image" damage may or may not be done and they obviously don't care. Good on them, cause I sure as hell don't.

I'm a fan of the sport, and I don't care about image. I'm a fan of this sports athletes, Matt included. It's not my job to police doping, so I don't. I cold get involved in USAT or write letters to the editor, but I don't care that much. Someone else is already doing that job. I care about what happens from when the gun goes off to when the athletes have all crossed the line. Everything in between is moot. If you dope and get caught, then you wont be on the line will you. Caught after the race? you get your titles taken away and you wont be on the line in the future.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of PEDs, but I'm not the one doing the testing, so I don't hold athletes to any other standard than is imposed on them by WADA. Matt is clean in their eyes, so he's clean in mine. During Tylers suspension, I was not a fan of his simply because there was nothing to be a fan of. He wasn't on the line. Once he was back I was a fan agian because he did his time, guilty or not, and the sport went on without him.

As for image...I vote for less attention. I don't care that Tiger cheats on his wife. I don't care who's gay. I dont care how big the logos are on your uniform or where the zipper is or if your belly button is showing. I don't care about anything other than who's on the line and how they place, and even then, it's just a silly race and a hobby of mine.

We're always going to have cheats, drug controls, poor sportsmanship, miss-quotes, jail time, extramarital sex, Faris' baby bird, and Phelps' bong. I just don't care.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch? I don't care. Which one of you is going to win today?

[side note: an athlete (Sergio) posting a concern for another athletes (Matt) well being is a totally seperate issue.]

Good response! Let the results speak for themselves! See ya in Kemah!

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Every day is Race day

Check out what the link was. :)

-Jot

That's probably why the UCI banned him from competition for two years.

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coming soon...

Very much agree, Bjorn. Good post. The fact is that he was/is banned. End of story. Bad PR move when there are plenty of excellent cycling coaches out there. But I remember Peter Reed going with a cycling coach and what happened as well....
Bad PR and questionable choice of "advisor".

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Gary Geiger
http://www.geigerphoto.com Professional photographer

TEAM KiWAMi NORTH AMERICA http://www.kiwamitri.com, Rudy Project http://www.rudyprojectusa.com, GU https://guenergy.com/shop/ ; Salming World Ambassador; https://www.shopsalming.com

No. They banned him because of his choice of training decisions/techniques. The ones Matt Reed is now paying for.

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I think the question is "*should* he be? I don't know that there is a clear cut answer to that. Same with McGwire as a Cardinals' hitting coach.

On one side, I think it's great because you have folks who know exactly how one ends up going down the road that leads to PEDs. So they can - though it's not sure if they will - counsel players why NOT to make the same mistakes that they did. If they can - and will - do that, then I think they can be really huge influencers.

There is also the possibility that they never broach the subject of PEDs either way, which is also fine, though I would hope that they would advise their coachees to at least be careful about what they put in their body.

Ultimately, I don't have any sort of personal issue with these folks filling the role of coach, mentor, etc. I think it's up to an athlete if they personally feel comfortable working with that person, simply in the same way that you might question someone who hires an ex-con busted for grand larceny as your CFO. Nothing that says he can't do a great job. Just perhaps some questions about character that *SOME* people might prefer to avoid.

Ultimately, Tyler is allowed to coach. Matt is allowed to hire him as a coach. And everything after that is a personal decision. Tyler certainly knows a lot about cycling. He wouldn't be my choice for a cycling coach because of *MY OPINIONS* about what he was accused of doing, but if Matt feels differently (as he has said he does) wants to learn about cycling from him, more power to him.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

I think that's the point ;)

Best of Luck to you,
Let the results speak for themselves.

Forgot you will be in Kemah this weekend.
Little cool this weekend ( at least for us Texans) but should be a great race day.

WELCOME to the country of TEXAS.

fal7

What's your point? I don't care if Matty is gay or screws the neighbor's wife.

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CAMPAGNOLO GRAN FONDO NEW YORK