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 review:1 stars (Lance is A Star, This Book Is Not!) - The writer spends time with Lance Armstrong during the 2007 season, but spends most of his pages covering other racers, and nothing that I can recall about Lance's struggle with cancer, his early racing years, etc.
I did find some of the statistical information interesting - eg. there are about 5 serious injuries/week during cycling season, spread among the approximately 400 professional cyclists. In comparison, for NASCAR 2002, there were only 5 serious injuries the entire year.
Lance's maximum heart rate is 185 beats/second, and can sustain an output power level of almost 500 watts for 30-60 minutes. (Try one of those 100 watt light-bulb power displays - damn tough, though only arms are used.) According to the author most can only sustain 500 watts on a bicycle for about ten seconds. A TV report stated that Armstrong's heart was about 10% larger than average upon birth, and is now about one-third larger than average; still another source stated that his lungs can consume more than double the amount of oxygen of a normal, healthy man.
"Losing weight is the most important thing you can do," according to Lance. Each ounce adds about a second for an eight-mile climb.
Trek sponsors Lance, and builds his bicycles - the new one for that year involved about $250,000 in expense, and it didn't help him so he threw it on a trash-pile. His tires are glued to the rim after being aged two years in the darkness of a basement.
Finally, I'd always heard that riding behind someone takes less energy - the author reports that its about 30% less. Quite a lot, and hence the logic of bicycling teams.
Armstrong's "It's Not About the Bike" is a much, much better and more interesting work5 stars (Inspiring and Captivating) - I began this book with very little knowledge regarding professional cycling and the Tour De France. I was unaware that competitive cycling is to Europe what boxing is to the United States; a sport where most of the participants come from working class backgrounds with histories of personal tragedy and struggle.
This is one of those books where they can be easily finished in a day because the story is so captivating. Coyle properly situates the reader into Lance's state of mind and the atmosphere that surrounds the Tour De France. If stories about people who rise against all odds, in the arena and outside of it, bring you inspiration then I highly recommend this book.5 stars (Great Book) - This book was very good. It gave different perspectives from many other riders and gave a lot of information about the races themselves. The book kept me interested and gave a lot of insight.
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