On 2010-01-27 R. Gerwin, Chicago IL wrote: Lance Armstrong provokes strong emotions from both his supporters and his detractors. His supporters focus on his Tour victories and recovery from cancer and tend to put him on a pedestal--a one or two dimensional cartoon hero. His detractors, including many in the cycling community, also see him as one dimensional, but in a different way. For reasons only they and their psychiatrists can ever fully explain, they have a hatred of Armstrong that is almost pathological and so they describe him as the embodiment of all that is evil.
This makes it difficult for the average reader to discover a picture of the true Lance Armstrong. As Coyle writes in his book, because professional cycling is still a minor sport in the US, Armstrong has maintained an almost unprecedented control of his public image among the American public. When the non-cycling mainstream press covers Armstrong, it is little more than hagiography, an endless retelling of the ´script´ as written by Armstrong himself. None of them know enough about cycling to ask him honest questions, and none are willing to risk tarnishing the halo and endure the wrath of Armstrong´s fans. The cycling press has its own shortcomings. Whether they are zealous ´crusaders´ or embittered ex-riders like Kimmage and LeMond, they allow their emotions and prejudices to get in the way of their own objectivity and seem predisposed to give credibility to any conspiracy theory about Armstrong, no matter how ludricrous.
This is the void that Coyle fills with his book. He tries to present Armstrong as the complex human being that he is. He does so in a fairly objective and entertaining way, injecting just enough Tom Wolfe-style stream of consciousness to convey the atmosphere surrounding Planet Lance. Personally, I don´t expect people to be comic book figures. Learning of someone´s human weaknesses doesn´t necessarily lower my respect for their accomplishments (OK, I´ll admit the Tiger Woods stuff is a little yucky). As I said, Armstrong is a complex individual. I think he is one of those people for whom everything that is said about him--positive and negative--is probably true to some extent. The same drive that allows him to win a demanding event like the Tour de France also makes him controlling, arrogant, self-centered, and unnecessarily combative. Every time I read the book, I am struck at how appropriate it was to use the word ´War´ in the title.
For non-cycling readers, Coyle provides enough information about professional cycling and race tactics so that you can understand the context of the Armstrong narrative. His description of Armstrong´s performance advantage as being ´equivalent to the strength of a 3 yr old´ graphically points out the tiny differences in elite athletes that separate winners from non-winners.
But best of all are Coyle´s entertaining descriptions of people and events. Some of them -- the Belgies, the woof-shrugs, the ass check (esp the description of Valverde checking out Armstrong and Ullrich), the Dead Elvis Grin--still make me laugh out loud. But my favorite is Coyle´s description of the atmosphere that surrounds the Tour, specifically on the first day -- the Prologue. First of all, he exposes the smugness and shallowness of the ´dudes´ and ´bros´ that make up Armstrong´s entourage. But then he also points out that Armstrong has an advantage over his rivals because ´He was the only one for whom the Tour, in all its frantic, fantastic craziness, bore resemblance to everyday life.´
It´s good stuff. With Armstrong now in the second year of his ´comeback´, and with Armstrong and Bruyneel intent on continuing this staged ´soap opera´ with Alberto Contador, it still is a relevant read. . And summed up by saying The closest thing to an objective book about Armstrong. Currently Lance Armstrong´s War: One Man´s Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
Lance Armstrong´s War: One Man´s Battle Against Fate, Fame, Love, Death, Scandal, and a Few Other Rivals on the Road to the Tour de France can also be found in the following searches:
claimed Lance Armstrong´s War is the extraordinary story of greatness pushed to its limits; a vivid, behind-the-scenes portrait of perhaps the most accomplished athlete of our time as he vies for a historic sixth straight victory in the toughest sporting event on the planet. It is the true story of a superlative sports figure fighting on all fronts—made newly vulnerable by age, fate, fame, doping allegations, a painful divorce, and an unprecedented army of challengers—while mastering the exceedingly difficult trick of being Lance Armstrong, a combination of world-class athlete, celebrity, regular guy, and, for many Americans, secular saint. With a new afterword by the author, featuring in-depth reporting on: Armstrong´s unprecedented seventh consecutive Tour de France victory New blood doping allegations Armstrong´s continuing personal and legal battles, and his retirement A fascinating journey through the little-known landscape of professional bike racing, Lance Armstrong´s War provides a hugely insightful look into the often inspiring, always surprising core of a remarkable athlete and the world that shapes him.
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