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by: Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins

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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: Rating: - Yes, Lance, you are a hero. The word "hero" is defined as a person noted for acts of courage or nobility of purpose. Being a hero is something decided by others, not by oneself. For example, when Lance Armstrong told Kelly Davidson (another cancer patient from Texas) over the airwaves from the Tour de France that "this [race] is for you", that simple but profoundly noble act certainly was certainly heroic to her. This is probably the most notable example of heroism to be found in this book, but it is not the only one. The loyalties exhibited between the author and the people closest to him as he fought to save his life are examples of heroism that we all experience. Despite the book's title, the description of the author's progress as a racing cyclist (both before and after cancer) is every bit as riveting as the story of his battle with cancer. My only disappointment with the book was the relatively little attention given to the need for a new training regimen after the cancer treatments--a focus toward maximum aerobic effort and reduced anaerobic effort. While the effect of cancer treatment on Armstrong's muscular system necessitated this change in training, it proved to be just the thing he needed to win a long, grueling contest such as the Tour de France. By maximizing aerobic effort, Armstrong was able to minimize the production of lactic acid--a definite advantage over the competition. Rating: - No, It's Not About the Bike or Cancer. It's Pure Lance. I know I'll catch it for this review. The book itself gets 5 stars from me. I enjoyed the read, I shed a few tears and I kept hoping that somewhere it would eventually turn Lance Armstrong into one of my heros. It never did. In fact, I pray to God I never meet Lance Armstrong and never get in his path, and I pray anyone who ever has to does survives the encounter. Sally Jenkins gets kudos on pulling off what was a difficult task. How to write his biography and story with him watching over her and to tell the truth. She did it. She pulled it off by writing between the lines like no other. She is truly the hero here. Make no mistake, the book is good, the hero is not. He is, without a doubt the single most arrogant and egotistical person I've ever read about in my life. I wanted him to be my hero so bad too. I have just gotten into cycling and was looking forward to having someone to watch, follow and emulate. Lance is not that guy. You'll read things that will blow you away. How he fully expected his French sponsor to pay him his 5 million dollar contract even when he was taking chemo and was not riding for them, they even offered to give him a contract, just not 5 million and he was outraged. He freaked on might having to sell his $300,000 worth of furniture and "art" to pay for his treatment. Why oh why have all forsaken poor Lance he wonders. Supposedly a boy that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in Plano, Tx, but give me a break, there is no "wrong side" of the tracks in Plano. Even though he was only raised by his mother, it's obvious people took care of Lance. Riding his expensive cycles that were given to him out of the goodness of one man's heart, and then he doesn't speak to this guy for years on end. I could continue, but I think the world needs to read this book to learn about this. Lance's story is not over, he still hasn't learned what he probably was meant to learn. I do not suggest buying this book for someone with cancer or a teenager. It's not inspiring in the least, no one can afford what Lance had to get him through his terrible cancer ordeal. And, if a teen reads this, he or she will expect the world to give them everything on a silver platter just like Lance expects. One curious note I can't yet figure out. Never once does Lance tell the world he didn't check himself monthly for testicular cancer and that if he had, he could have caught it before it spread to his brain and lungs and recovery would have been comparably easy. With many pages devoted to pictures of he, his wife, his baby and mother not one single page printed a diagram on how to check yourself for testicular cancer. Seems a hero would have had that thought first and foremost in his head, especially since testicular cancer never has gotten the same PR as checking for breast cancer. I might read his other books. Maybe he's learned something along the way, but that is highly doubtful. Rating: - Invulnerable? Better read this I'm a bike tourist, and I have never felt drawn to bicycle racing -- either for myself as a racer (ha!) or in following the accounts of others. So the title first attracted me to this harrowingly personal book. Lance is a Texas tough-guy whose daddy did him wrong; his step-dad was no prize, either. He lays it out honestly, and describes his move into the persona that could win one-day classic races on anger and defiance, but not the long-haul tours (which demand strategy and a willingness to lay back and let your team do some of the work). Cancer changed that for Lance. It changed his attitude, his place in life, his relationships, his focus, his mind, and his body. In allowing a medical team to bring him to the edge of death in the interest of destroying the cancerous cells in his body, Lance gained the ability to rely on others in accomplishing a goal. Tourists and racers who think that their team or group is everything would do well to study the relationships that deepen between Lance and his mother, his wife Kik, and his new son. It may be true that "everything is bicycle" when we're riding one, but we live in much larger networks, and most of us depend on those networks to sustain us in the parts of our life when we're not up on two wheels.

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