“The holy grail for disillusioned cycling fans . . . The book’s power is in the collective details, all strung together in a story that is told with such clear-eyed conviction that you never doubt its veracity. . . . The Secret Race isn’t just a game changer for the Lance Armstrong myth. It’s the game ender.”—Outside NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE … WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
The Secret Race is the book that rocked the world of professional cycling—and exposed, at long last, the doping culture surrounding the sport and its most iconic rider, Lance Armstrong. Former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton was once one of the world’s top-ranked cyclists—and a member of Lance Armstrong’s inner circle. Over the course of two years, New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle conducted more than two hundred hours of interviews with Hamilton and spoke with numerous teammates, rivals, and friends. The result is an explosive page-turner of a book that takes us deep inside a shadowy, fascinating, and surreal world of unscrupulous doctors, anything-goes team directors, and athletes so relentlessly driven to win that they would do almost anything to gain an edge. For the first time, Hamilton recounts his own battle with depression and tells the story of his complicated relationship with Lance Armstrong. This edition features a new Afterword, in which the authors reflect on the developments within the sport, and involving Armstrong, over the past year. The Secret Race is a courageous, groundbreaking act of witness from a man who is as determined to reveal the hard truth about his sport as he once was to win the Tour de France.
With a new Afterword by the authors.
“Loaded with bombshells and revelations.”—VeloNews
“[An] often harrowing story . . . the broadest, most accessible look at cycling’s drug problems to date.”—The New York Times
“ ‘If I cheated, how did I get away with it?’ That question, posed to SI by Lance Armstrong five years ago, has never been answered more definitively than it is in Tyler Hamilton’s new book.”—Sports Illustrated
“Explosive.”—The Daily Telegraph (London)
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On the surface, this book is about the doping era (1980s to early 2000s) in professional bicycle racing, and how Lance Armstrong managed to win the Tour de France seven times. It blows the lid off the doping scandal and lays out from an insider’s viewpoint how the doping started, what substances and methods were used, how they worked, and how doping changed the face of pro cycling. It’s a valuable book for that reason alone, and offers a fascinating read.
But on a deeper level, this book is even more valuable as the story of someone who succumbed to the temptation to cheat and then lie to cover it up. Tyler Hamilton was a talented cyclist with an extraordinary ability to withstand pain. He aspired to compete at the top of his sport. But when he got his big break, to ride with Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Service team, he was told that to compete at that level, he would have to dope, and lie about it to everyone except his co-conspirators. He agreed, and the story lays out in candid detail what he experienced on the way up–winning races and Olympic medials–and on the way down. For Hamilton was caught more than once, suspended, and was forced to give up his Olympic Gold and other honors.
Tyler Hamilton’s story resembles that of so many other cheaters and deceivers– embezzlers, fraudsters, swindlers, fixers, adulterers, bribe-takers, crooked politicians, cheaters on tests, resumé inflaters, Wall Street sharks, plagiarizers, hack journalists, science fraudsters, substance abusers, and so on. Whatever the manner and setting of the cheating, the lies grow and grow until they dominate the cheater’s life and bring it down in a crashing heap. This a book that might be read profitably by a young person just starting out in a highly competitive field, whether in sports or business or politics or the academe, where one might be tempted to cheat. Because once you start down the road of deceit, it’s very difficult to go back without paying an exorbitant price.
THE SECRET RACE is a book to keep in your library and to lend out selectively to those who may be in need of timely correction.
If you’re interested in the doping scandal surrounding the Tour de France, this is a good account by a real insider: one of the team riders.
Book really explains why Lance Armstrong is so veilifed. Good book on a subject I knew very little.
I’ve often heard how we enjoy seeing the great fall and rejoice at their disgrace. I am embarrassed to admit that I too have fallen into that category on occasion. In the case of Lance Armstrong that is not the case. I love cycling and I love bike racing. Never having had the talent, drive, or athleticism to participate in bicycle racing myself, I have reveled in the opportunity to do so vicariously as a viewer of the cycling classics and the big stage races, especially, of course, the granddaddy of them all, the Tour de France. Not surprisingly, I was virtually glued to the television during just about every televised race involving Lance Armstrong during his long career. But it was not always an enjoyable or satisfying experience.
While I loved the fact that Lance’s dominance of the sport of bicycle racing raised the visibility and popularity of bike racing in the U.S., I never could shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right about Lance’s cycling success. Maybe it was because my first true cycling idol, Greg Lemond, began to express some doubt about Lance’s racing prowess long before most anyone else. Greg was hammered by virtually everyone in the cycling world for having the temerity to question the great Lance Armstrong. But I found myself sharing Greg’s doubts, though I so wanted not to doubt. But doubt I did, and when the dam finally broke and the ugly scandal finally went public, I certainly didn’t rejoice. I was, however, angry as hell at what Lance had first done for cycling in the U.S. and then had done to cycling in this country. But until reading Tyler Hamilton’s very credible The Secret Race, little did I know just how brazen and bullying Lance Armstrong had become and how much damage he and his greedy and hapless doped up cycling cohorts, including author/cyclist Tyler Hamilton, were doing and have done to a wonderful sport with a worldwide audience and reach.
If you love cycling or if you are just curious about the sport, The Secret Race is highly informative and eye opening. It is very well written, but this is not a happy read.
An excellent tell-all of the professional cycling world. Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle have done an excellent job in their writing. Tyler lays it all out for the world to see, including his own sins necessary to compete in this tainted professional sport. It is sad to think that many other sports probably suffer from the same level of cheating, but for some reason fans/officials/public look the other way.
If you love competitive cycling this is a great read.
This is an interesting insider’s view of the Tour de France and all that leads up to it… and what led up the the Big Scandal. It was also interesting to discover (Although we long suspected, didn’t we?) what a prissy, primadonald jerk Lance Armstrong is.
Interesting but a little slow
The rise and fall of Lance Armstrong was a spectacular story on both ends. The doping scandal that was rampant in the sport of cycling ensnared not only Armstrong, but many of his teammates and competitors. One of those cyclists, Tyler Hamilton, shares his story about his time in the sport and with Armstrong (called “Lance” throughout the book, not “Armstrong) in this outstanding memoir, co-written with Daniel Coyle.
What especially struck me about the book was Hamilton’s attention to every detail about the doping that goes on in cycling. Not just the substances used, but the nicknames given, the undercover nature of communication between athletes and doctors, the methods of taking the drugs and the benefits a cyclist gets during the races. Whether it was Hamilton’s description of taking “Edgar” (Erythropoietin), the details of his “BBs” (blood bags) when getting a transfusion of his own blood, or the conversations between racers on the trail, this is a book that is a page-turner, no matter what the reader’s level of interest may be in the sport of cycling.
The stories of how racers would either avoid or outsmart the drug testers read like spy novels. This level of deceit, lies and evasion could only be told by someone who lived this type of life and Hamilton does it well. This is true when not only talking about his own doping, but also that of Armstrong and other Postal team members. He at times seemed in awe of Armstrong (before Lance’s eventual downfall) because he was always able to find a way to talk his way out of a tough situation.
Hamilton’s story itself is also very interesting, with his own climb from riding for various smaller teams to getting a spot in the prestigious US Postal team, the one that Armstrong raced for during his record stretch of Tour de France wins, wins that have since been stricken from records. Hamilton himself has had the same thing happen to him with his 2004 Olympic gold medal in doubt because of a positive drug test. While relieved he was able to keep his medal when the validity of the second positive test could not be verified, he eventually came clean on his doping.
If a reader wants to learn about the actual sport, this book is a great source to do so. Hamilton’s description of the riders who have to set the pace for the leaders, those who ride in packs or those who have to keep pace with the lead cyclist so that leader can maintain the speed he needs to keep the lead, is full of details that make a reader feel like he or she is on the bike.
This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know more about the doping scandals in the sport of cycling or learn about the story of this Olympic champion whose personal and professional life took many drastic turns. Be forewarned – once you pick up the book, you will not want to put it down.
Fascinating and detailed look at doping in the cycling world
If you want to know what it was like inside the profession pelton in the heyday of the doping scandals read this book.
Tells more about underside of pro bike racing.