For me, having the opportunity to go to college was very important. To miss out on an education is a loss.

— Tyler Hamilton

One day I'm a normal person with a normal life,” he said. “The next I'm standing on a street corner in Madrid with a secret phone and a hole in my arm, and I'm bleeding all over, hoping I don't get arrested. It was completely crazy. But it seemed like the only way at the time.

— Tyler Hamilton

Slowly, inch by inch, I felt myself recovering. After a few weeks, the darkness began to recede; my appetite for life returned. Haven was wonderful; she understood and nursed me through these weeks until I felt strong enough to go out in public, to get on my bike again.

— Tyler Hamilton

The peloton was Facebook on wheels-and during this period, information was flying.

— Tyler Hamilton

We got through it. Haven made excuses for me to friends, and made an appointment with a terrific doctor, who put me on Effector, 150 milligrams a day, enough to get my brain straightened out.

— Tyler Hamilton

What people don't understand about depression is how much it hurts. It's like your brain is convinced that it's dying and produces an acid that eats away at you from the inside, until all that's less is a scary hollowness. Your mind fills with dark thoughts; you become convinced that your friends secretly hate you, you're worthless, and then there's no hope. I never got so low as to consider ending it all, but I understand how that can happen to some people. Depression simply hurts too much.

— Tyler Hamilton