Hamilton, Armstrong meet; FBI wants surveillance tapes

LOS ANGELES - The FBI has contacted a Colorado restaurant to get surveillance tapes of a conversation between seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and former teammate Tyler Hamilton over the weekend.

Armstrong and Hamilton ran into each other at a restaurant in Aspen on Saturday night, a few weeks after Hamilton went on “60 Minutes’’ to accuse Armstrong of doping and encouraging his teammates to use performance-enhancing drugs as well.

Hamilton’s attorney Chris Manderson said his client was rattled by some of Armstrong’s comments.

“It was aggressive and intimidating and we thought it should be reported to federal investigators,’’ Manderson told The Associated Press.

Armstrong and one of his lawyers said the conversation was uneventful.

A co-owner of the restaurant, which is called Cache Cache, said Tuesday that the FBI was coming to take the restaurant’s surveillance tapes. It’s unclear whether the conversation was captured on video.

Federal officials are now in their second year of investigating doping in cycling. Armstrong is a target of their work and a Los Angeles-based grand jury is hearing evidence that could lead to charges of fraud, conspiracy and drug trafficking against the cyclist and others on his Tour-winning teams.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, declined to comment. Manderson said it was well known that Hamilton would be in Aspen; he believes Armstrong sought his fellow cyclist out for a confrontation.

Armstrong told Outside Magazine the incident was “certainly awkward for both of us’’ and “truly uneventful.’’

AP