Lance Armstrong's War: One Man's Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France [ペーパーバック]

Daniel Coyle deserves a high place on the podium for his account of Lance Armstrong's successful attempt to win the 2004 Tour de France. Cycling fans will find the book to be like Samuel Abt on steroids, or perhaps Tom Wolfe on a bike. Coyle has even out-rolled Bob Roll, which is no mean feat. Nevertheless, there is a delicate balance at work here that won't be over the head of a casual reader.

He has a wonderful writing style that rollicks along without being over the top. There are serious, compelling moments and others that are nothing short of hilarious, like the belly-pinch, the ass check and the Belgie woof-shrug. Now and again we encounter a perfect pearl of prose, as when an apparently emaciated Iban Mayo climbs onto a tiny bike and quickly melds with it into a magical, lissome and powerful thing that stuns spectators into a reverent silence.

For much of the book we get the idea that Armstrong's world is one in which nothing can go wrong and everything is above taint and suspicion. He is an all-seeing, all-knowing, implacable and virtuous master of the universe. Even the notorious Dr. Ferrari gets an exculpatory portrait. He makes an appearance, not with the mysterious super-dope that much of Europe believes he is giving Armstrong, but with a piece of cheese. And a very nice cheese at that. Nothing to worry about there.

As he approaches the finish, though, Coyle gives us something much more nuanced. He takes up the allegations of Walsh and Ballester, however unsubstantiated, as well as those of Mike Anderson, Armstrong's former personal assistant. He describes the bitter split with Floyd Landis and provides perhaps the only first-person account of Armstrong's on-bike intimidation of Fiippo Simeoni. Most telling of all is the picture of Armstrong's obsession with the "trolls" who bedevil him with criticism and allegations of impropriety.

Still, there is little danger that Coyle will be branded as one of the trolls. This is a book that Armstrong should be very pleased with: a superb and laudatory portrait of a driven man who has become perhaps the greatest of the many great champions of the Tour.

I am a life-long cyclist -- rode my first century ride at the age of eight and had boyhood dreams of growing up to ride in the Tour de France. I've been fascinated with the stars of the sport ever since hearing stories of Jacque Anquetil and Tom Simpson as a young boy.

Daniel Coyle has certainly captured the mad subculture of cycling in all its rich variation and humanity. His book "Lance Armstrong's War" is not so much a Lance Armstrong book as it is a psycho-sociologic essay on this beautifully insane sport. It is evident that Coyle did his homework as the details are convincing and relevant, and his characterizations of the key players, Armstrong, Hamilton, Ullrich, Landis et. al. ring true. Many such books are afraid to become fully immersed in the cycling world for fear of alienating the larger audience of the general population. Coyle, however, draws the reader into that world, explaining and defining the slang, the nuances, the tactics, the traditions, as needed. In so doing he has created a book that will be as entertaining and thought-provoking for the cycling aficionado as for the casual fan who only knows Lance's face from Subaru ads.

Finally, I consider this the best cycling book of its kind because of the author's apparent lack of an editorial agenda. This is written as a somewhat bibliographic narrative, just reporting the facts as perceived and experienced by the author. I contrast it with William Fotheringham's excellent book about Tom Simpson "Put Me Back On My Bike", which suffered from a need to draw some sort of moral or make conclusions for the reader. Daniel Coyle's book mirrors its subject in that it is what it is. You will either fall in love with it or be indifferent, you will either "get it" or you won't. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is that the inner cycling slang and terminology sort of takes over the text by the end of the book, apparently the author is presuming that everyone who reads that far will "get it". Sometimes the hipness gets in the way.

I heartily recommend this book for all cycling fans and for anyone else who wants to try to understand either the Tour de France phenomenon better or its enigmatic superstar, Lance Armstrong.

"In bike racing, as in poker, looking cool and impervious is the same as being cool and impervious. Racers thus spend a lot of time studying each other for what card players refer to as "tells": the imminent signs of cracking, the moment of supreme vulnerability when one good push can decide a race. Some tells are so obvious as to be considered amateurish"

The tells that were discussed in this book that I thought were the most fun were the tells that occurred on the first day of the European race, the Tour of Murcia. The belly pinch is one. Under the guise of a handshake, a rival or coach will grasp the target's hand, and tug them forward twisting their bodies lightly for access to their belly, to test for fat. The ass check is more of an art. You look from a distance. Riders in top form have asses that become small and vaguely feminine. After a while you have your rival memorized, what is big for them, small and somewhere in the middle.

These facts, these are the ones that make this book so valuable and so readable. I have been reading this book during the 2005 Le Tour. I now know the real Lance, his rivals and teammates, his loves, his mother, his step-fathers, his children, his friends, his likes and dislikes and so much information about the Le Tour 2004. This book has given credence to my love of Lance Armstrong as a Cancer Survivor, cyclist and all American hero.

Daniel Coyle, the author, has been able to find the right touch; to discuss what Lance Armstrong is all about. And, he has also allowed us into the inner world of the racing cyclist. Just what happens on tour? How do the cyclists prepare? What does it take to be a world class cyclist, and the best cyclist in the world? He has been given access into the inner workings of Le Tour teams. He has provided us with data and statistics of what cyclists endure. Is a cyclist like Lance Armstrong born with the talent or does he have to train his entire life. How does someone overcome this mystique, and how does one answer the questions of doping?

We learn of the lives of Le Tours major players; Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton, Alexandre Vinokourov, Iban Mayo, John Landis and Basso. Why is Lance Armstrong called the greatest athlete of our time? How does Sheryl Crowe measure up with Le Tour group? Linda Armstrong, what is her role, and how has she helped to shape this man we love?

What about the injuries, how does one protect themselves against harm? And, Le Tour, what are the stages, how does a Peleton work, what about the Pyrenees and the Alps? What does Le Tour mean in Europe, and why are not more Americans as enthralled as we are with our hero, Lance Armstrong, and our love of the cycling sport?

"The average pro cyclist will pedal far enough in training each year to encircle the globe. The daily metabolic rate of a Tour de France cyclist exceeds that of Everest climbers and comes close to matching the highest rates found in any other animal species." Does this impress you as it does me? Then this book is for you. I have found this book the most informative and most fun read of any Le Tour book or any Lance Armstrong book.

So highly recommended, I have given books to friends and family. prisrob