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From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France | 
 enlarge | Author: David Walsh
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $4.40
You Save: $20.55 (82%)
New (35) Used (22) Collectible (1) from $4.40
Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 31556
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 034549962X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.6
EAN: 9780345499622
ASIN: 034549962X
Publication Date: June 26, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ex-library, nice reading copy
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Product Description
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 expose, 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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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
 From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France October 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A fantastic read for any sports fan. The title however is rather misleading as the majority of the book focused on lance armstrong which was a little disapointing. I found the begining of the book much more interesting (dealing with the doping culture) than the secend half (armstrong). all in all an excellent read. worth a look.
 eye opener August 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
great reading for those into bicycle racing. walsh delves into the secret world of doping and drugs used in competitive racing.
ARMSTRONG CONVICTED!! July 30, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I strongly recommend this book to those fans who want to look underneath the jubilant stories of Lance Armstrong.
There are other books who celebrate him. If people do not like the opposition of Armstrong, they do not have to read this book. So there is no need to offend the author.
If you read this book open minded and without prejudgment of Mr. Walsh, it will be certain that you come up with a different view of Armstrong.
People may were reading on newspapers that Armstrong never was tested positive....
Rijs, Zuelle, Virenque and so on, were never tested positive. But on other circumstances than UCI-Doping-Tests, it came out that they actually did dope massively. So much about the efficiency of Drug-Tests....
On the very beginning of this book you go right into the action: Boom... Armstrong, despite everything, indeed tested positive in his very 1st Come-Back-Tour! Not as common belief is: He had no prescription for the corticoids which were found.
There is no hearsay in this book when it comes right down to the cold hard facts of evidence: For example; you will be informed that the chance is 0,2 (right, less than a half) percent that the Epo-Test of 2005 could have been manipulated.
In this book Armstrong not only gets exposed by the hard evidence described above, but also on so many other facts. A very good chapter for example comes about Dr. Ashenden. A must read for all those believing in the story of how Armstrong changed to super human after cancer. I can really say: Everything about Armstrong is uncovered.
After reading the book, it may be still up to ones belief in the evidence. But warning, those who think there is not enough evidence against Armstrong and Landis... I wonder what else is needed to convince people. To be honest, it would be only fair then to Vinokourov, Basso, Valverde, Virenque, Pantani and so on... to say there is also no 100% sure evidence against them. To make it clear: Nobody ever saw Basso or Ulrich cheating, they "only" found their blood at a Spain doctors office*. So if you're going to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk...
(* = Using common sense, of course I am absolutely convinced they doped.)
The only negative about the book is: The sources were not given in the back of the book. It made it hard for me to cross-check the evidence. After long nights of researching I got everything together: The facts in this book are portrayed correctly.
So Mr. Walsh improve about the matter of sources the next time. Thanks for the investigative journalism. Otherwise we all would be cheated by yellow-press-journalists.
A Great Read July 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Walsh does a brilliant job of laying out the landscape of professional cycling. The stack of evidence that suggests Armstrong doped at some point in his career, may be circumstantial, but it's piled a mile high. The text message conversation between Frankie Andreu and Jonathan Vaughters is jaw dropping. This book elicits so many negative opinions simply because nobody wants to hear that Santa Claus doesn't exist. We will probably never really know the full story of the Armstrong years, but Walsh certainly lays out a plausible scenario for much of what was happening in the pro peleton at the time.
 A lair exposing a liar? June 30, 2008
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
Can you believe David Walsh? David certainly belives and promotes the thought that liars and cheats should be exposed and punished, after reading his interviews and learning that there is no proof, it was really a matter of whether i believed him or not - Wanting to find out more i came across this very interesting article in "Outdoors" magazine - http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200512/lance-armstrong-1.html it looks at both sides, in it i was surprised to read that David Walsh has lied to the public - from the article..."It's also a fact that Walsh has said in the past that he did not pay Emma O'Reilly, when he actually did. Walsh recently admitted in an interview with Outside that he had paid O'Reilly for her story, despite assuring VeloNews in June 2004 that he had not. His explanation for telling this falsehood is that "I felt at the time if I'd said yes, she would have been absolutely screwed." - end quote. If there is one thing worse than a lair its a hypocrite.
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