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D-day for Armstrong with Thursday the final day to appeal ban to CAS

By Cycling News

published 26 December 2012

Hamilton fears "Lance will hit back"

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Lance Armstrong waved goodbye to his 7 Tours de France(Image credit: Bettini Photo)

Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team(Image credit: Bettini Photo)

Tyler Hamilton in 2004(Image credit: Fotoreporter Sirotti)

Lance Armstrong (United States) on the podium for the time trial at the Sydney Olympics(Image credit: AFP)

Thursday marks the final day in which Lance Armstrong can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the UCI officially notified his lawyer of his disqualification of all results dating back to August 1, 1998 including his seven Tour de France titles.

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The notice came on December 6, with Armstrong and his legal team given 21 days to appeal. Should no action be taken by Armstrong, the International Olympic Committee will then move to recover the bronze medal won by the American at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

At the same time, Tyler Hamilton says that he believes that the current silence from his former teammate is only temporary.

"You hear very little from Lance, but I think this will not be a permanent state," Hamilton told German magazine, Stern. "I fear Lance will hit back."

Hamilton was one of 11 former teammates to blow the whistle on the systematic doping within the U.S Postal team, spurred on firstly by the Jeff Novitzsky-led Federal investigation and then very publicly in his co-authored book, 'The Secret Race'.

While Armstrong challenged the United States Anti-Doping Agency's jurisdiction over "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen," he chose not to fight the case against him. That lead to USADA issuing a lifetime ban.

"I think he is suffering terribly," continued Hamilton. "Lance is a very proud man, he believed, he was like an atlas and he could carry the world on his back and now everything is gone, the glory, the honor, it will be too much... Money, yes it personally cost him. It will tear Lance apart that he is not a hero anymore. "