Tour de Lance
A Wild Ride Through Lance Armstrong's Comeback
-
- £4.99
-
- £4.99
Publisher Description
Lance Armstrong’s surprise announcement in 2008 that he would return to cycling to raise global awareness about cancer prompted widespread speculation about performance-enhancing drugs, the validity of his past victories and his true motivations.
In Tour de Lance, Bill Strickland follows Armstrong’s 2009 return to racing from January’s Tour Down Under in Australia to the Tour de France in July and asks what drives someone to step back into the glare of the spotlight after walking away from adulation. Is it ego? Is it boredom? Why is it that we love a comeback?
Strickland’s second-to-none knowledge of the cycling world makes Tour de Lance a compelling look at both the sport’s complex dynamics and one of the most celebrated – and controversial – cyclists of our time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Strickland, an editor at large for Bicycling magazine, follows Armstrong after he decides to come out of retirement and compete, once again, in the 2009 Tour de France, cycling s preeminent race and a competition that Armstrong won seven consecutive times. The book weaves between stages of the Tour and other races that led up to it, including the Tour of California and Spain s Vuelta Castilla y Leon, in March 2009, during which Armstrong broke his collarbone. Strickland, who admits that he saw in Armstrong an innate greatness early on, is occasionally fawning and overdramatic, but he had a great deal of access to Armstrong and his team, riding alongside and conducting compelling interviews with spectators and fans. Somewhat less engaging for a general readership are technical explanations of arcane cycling rules and comprehensive coverage of 30s-era cyclists. But cycling fans and readers who already follow Armstrong will find much to enjoy here as they relive his comeback and get a look at the anatomy of his races.
