The Secret Race: Lance Armstrong Doping

The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs

Tyler Hamilton had become one of the world's best-liked and top-ranked cyclist-fierce competitor known among his peers for exceptional durability and epic tolerance for pain. In the 2003 Tour France, he finished fourth despite breaking his collarbone in the early stages and eleven teeth-grinding all the way to the nerve. He began his career with the U.S. Postal Service team in 1990 and quickly rose to lieutenant largest Lance Armstrong and members of his inner circle. For the first three of Armstrong's record seven Tour de France victories, Hamilton was beside Armstrong, clearing the way. But only a few weeks after Hamilton reached his personal pinnacle-winning Olympic gold in 2004-career comes to an end, suddenly embarrassing: He was found guilty of doping and was exiled from the sport.

   

From the excitement of the early, naive days in the peloton, Hamilton chronicles the ascent to reach the top of a sport that is unforgiving. In the mid-1990s, the emergence of a powerful new drug called EPO increases blood changed the face of world cycling, and, without stopping win-at-any-cost ethos rooted. Psychological toll will encourage many top players sport for substance abuse, depression, and even suicide. For the first time, Hamilton tells its own battle with clinical depression, talk frankly about the painful choices that go along with the decision to compete at a world class level, and tells the story of a complex relationship with Lance Armstrong.

- First, the co-author, Daniel Coyle, knew his way around a pro bike racing. He wrote War of Lance Armstrong: One Man's Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and Other Rivals on the Road to Some of the Tour de France, and showed his experience. More than just a story about Hamilton, "The Secret Race" weaving in all significant doping scandals of the last 15 years. Despite the publicity surrounding the book is driven by the interest of Lance Armstrong, the book exposes the culture-wide sport where doping is expected and the infrastructure to support it is easily accessible by the best riders.

- Second, the level of detail adds credibility boring. It's more than just a chronicle of what the drug is taken - but also details about how they work, how they are hidden, how the test is beaten, the logistics for getting to and from doctor's doping, and the time of blood doping strategy session to adjust the key stages of the race . Hamilton even schedule details bonuses paid to its doping doctor for every big win. Although I've read the previous books on the topic, I was surprised by the intensity of doping activities described here. It's the difference between having a story told by "outsiders" (researcher, journalist, assistant team) vs. "insider" (someone like Hamilton are finally willing to tell the story).

- Third, Hamilton's personal story is believable. He helps explain why cyclists decided to dope, why lie about it being very central to their day to day lives, and what it takes to turn the corner and start telling the truth. The main challenge co-author of the book is to make readers accept the story of someone who lied for so long, and inevitably we have to wonder, "he later lied, if he was telling the truth now?" The context provided here allows the reader to make that leap.

Two others that are worth mentioning. The first is David Walsh, the London Times, the journalist who wrote, From Lance to Landis:. "Lance Armstrong Era" In the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France, described way back in 2007 what happens in racing pro for Tak None of the recent doping scandal has been a real surprise to anyone who read the book Walsh. "Race Secrets" has a lot more detail, because it was told by the person in the right, but without David Walsh, Paul Kimmage and some people continue to tell the story of these facts will likely never come out (One thing is clear from the "Race Secrets" that the body governing the sport, the UCI, will never blow the whistle on himself).

The second person to mention is Andy Hampsten, another American cycling hero who ride in the Tour of Italy 1988 is legendary. Hampsten was competing at the top level of international cycling before the EPO era but then found himself out-muscled by the back-of-the-pack contender suddenly transform themselves, turbocharged by the EPO and blood transfusions. For anyone who thinks that it's OK for a reason coverups continue because "it is a level playing field, they are all doped," it's worth reading this quote Andy Hampsten:

"In the mid-eighties, when I come, racers doping but it was still possible to compete with them ... In essence, a clean rider can compete in the three-week race. EPO changed everything ... all of a sudden the whole team was ragingly fast, suddenly I was struggling to make the 1994 deadline, I will be on the rise, work as hard as I've ever worked, producing exactly the same strength,. at the same weight, and right next to me this would be a big-assed people, and they would talk like that is flat! It's really crazy. As the season passes 1996 ... everyone knows what's going on, everyone is talking about EPO, everyone could see the writing on the wall. '
Hampsten retired from pro cycling race at the time. Another rider making a different decision, and sign up for the deep doping regime, their story is told here. To believe that anyone running clean and then won the Tour de France seven times in a row at the top of the doping era seems to defy reality. To use a term often repeated in "The Race Secrets," it would be "out of the earth."

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