Tyler Hamilton (1) (1971–)

“People think doping is for lazy people who want to avoid hard work. That might be true in some cases, but in mine, as with many riders I knew, it was precisely the opposite. EPO granted the ability to suffer more; to push yourself farther and harder than you'd ever imagined, in both training and racing.”
― Daniel Coyle, The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs

This is a sort of unauthorized Bio on Lance Armstrong. I must admit to being fascinated with this subject. And I found the book to really interesting in a rather unpleasant way.

While I enjoyed reading it, it did sure paint Armstrong out to be an unmitigated jerk which he very well may be. I've no idea. But what really stunned me in this book, was how NORMAL the doping is. It also made me realize I know nothing about the world of sports.

I have always known alot of doping goes in in fields like modeling and in Hollywood. Sports, particularly this sport, always struck me as the opposite. I am not a major fan or anything so I never asked myself how these guys were able to do what they did. This was for sure an eye opener.

It isn't a very long read and I'd say the writing is pretty good and seemingly authentic although honestly how in the world would I know? When this scandal broke, I remember I just could not believe that Armstrong, a cancer survivor would be this stupid, as to put this garbage in his body. The book sure opened my eyes and yes I would recommend it.… (mehr)

I was in a bit of an odd mood trying to decide what to read next so I decided to have a quick look on the kindle store and this caught my eye. With everything that has been in the news recently about professional cycling and Lance Armstrong I thought it would make an interesting read. Whilst reading it I discovered that it has been long-listed for the 'William Hill sports book of the year'. Last year the winner was A Life Too Short by Ronald Reng, a book which I thought was fantastic.

The first thing I want to point out about this book is that although he does feature often in this book it is not primarily about Lance Armstrong. He does feature, as do all of Hamilton's team mates but the main focus is what Hamilton and the wider professional cycling circuit did in regards to doping. Hamilton is very keen to make is known that everyone was at it and that there are no real heroes or villains, just dopers.

Everything is explained in a very simple and easy to understand way, there is very little in the way of technical jargon. This, coupled with the writing style makes this a very easy book to read and I found it hard to put down. Everything is laid bare and its fairly obvious to me that Hamilton feels genuine remorse for what he and others did but he also feels that the UCI needs to be held accountable as well. Rightly or wrongly he feels that the UCI knew what was going on and helped to keep it under-wraps and protect its biggest stars.

He also goes into some detail about riders who refused to dope under extreme pressure and as a result lost their rides and ultimately their careers. These are the real victims in this whole sordid affair and its these people who probably lost most.

Although Hamilton says he holds no ill will towards Armstrong I thought it was clear that he wishes that he would admit his part in the doping. Whilst not attacking him directly he does describe what happened to him and others who got on the wrong side of Armstrong and the bullying tactics he also used towards journalists who questioned the validity of his tour results.

I don't know if this will win the prize this year, I haven't read the other books but it is very well written. Whilst it isn't up to the standard of last years winner it is a very good read and would make a worthy winner. I enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in sports in general… (mehr)