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Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France
Ballantine
July 2007
On Sale: June 26, 2007
352 pages
ISBN: 034549962X
EAN: 9780345499622
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
For eight years, the Tour de France, arguably the world’s
most demanding athletic competition, was ruled by two men:
Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis. On the surface, they were
feature players in one of the great sporting stories of the
age–American riders overcoming tremendous odds to dominate a
sport that held little previous interest for their
countrymen. But is this a true story, or is there a darker
version of the truth, one that sadly reflects the realities
of sports in the twenty-first century? Landis’s title is now
in jeopardy because drug tests revealing that his
testosterone levels were eleven times those of a normal
athlete strongly suggest that he used banned substances, and
for years similar allegations have swirled around Armstrong. Now internationally acclaimed award-winning journalist David
Walsh gives an explosive account of the shadow side of
professional sports. In this electrifying, controversial,
and scrupulously documented exposé, Walsh explores the many
facets of the cyclist doping scandals in the United States
and abroad. He examines how performance-enhancing drugs can
infiltrate a premier sports event–and why athletes succumb
to the pressure to use them. In researching this book, Walsh
conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with key figures
in international cycling, doctors, and other insiders,
including Emma O’Reilly, Armstrong’s longtime massage
therapist; former U.S. Postal Service cycling team doctor
Prentice Steffen; cycling legend Greg LeMond; and former
teammates of both Landis and Armstrong. Central to the story is Lance Armstrong’s relentless,
all-consuming drive to be the best. Also essential to this
narrative is Floyd Landis, the unassuming, sympathetic hero
who was the first winner of the Tour de France after
Lance–and the first ever to face the threat of having his
title revoked. More than anything else, this book will
ignite anew the debate about whether there is room in the
current sports culture for athletes who compete honestly,
whether sports can be saved from a scandal as widespread as
this, and what changes will have to be made. With a compelling narrative and revelations that will stun,
enlighten, and haunt readers, David Walsh addresses numerous
questions that arise in that crucial space where sports meet
the larger American culture.
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