Simon & Schuster Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong

Revelador, pues lleva al mundo del dopaje y de la evolución de su uso en el deporte profesional. Quizá algo de prejuicio, pero excelente.

Book is amazing and a different point of view.

Genial libro para amantes del ciclismo y el lado oscuro del dopaje. He leído varios libros sobre el tema y este es sin duda de los mejores, facil lectura y muy bien documentado. 100% recomendable!

Excellent book. Very well written. Amazing story. Reveals so much about Armstrongs character...or lack of.

Describing this book as uplifting may seem odd given that it is a story of deceit, cheating and disillusionment with sport but the dogged persistence, courage and integrity of the author to do the right thing and to stand by his values for so many years is an inspiration and manages to salvage a little integrity from that awful era for cycling. This stance was not without cost to the author and in an era when Lance Armstrong was treated as some messianic character and where his influence in the sport and media meant any dissenting carried negative consequences David Walsh deserves huge respect for making his stand. This book is clearly a very personal story, but it was also like looking into a mirror for me personally as it reflected so many of my own feelings and sense of disillusion, that journey from being an awe struck youth enthralled by the spectacle of the Tour de France, watching Hinault and Lemond's great battles, the epic 1989 race, the swashbuckling ride of Delgado in 1988 and the clinical power of Indurain destroying his opponents to one of turning away from the sport and losing all belief in what I was watching, eventually I just stopped watching. That such a wonderfully photogenic and multi-layered sport could become so corrupted is tragic. This is not just a book about Lance Armstrong, it puts him into a wider context and in some ways David Walsh is more contemptuous of the media toadies who embraced a lie for the sake of being on the inside of the sport, the governing body who were a part of the culture of doping and the doctors who made it all possible than he is of Lance Armstrong. And the ever present culture of "omerta" and the peletons reaction to riders "spitting in the soup" runs like a thread through large parts of the book. If this is a story with many villains it is also a story with its own heroes and those fellow independently minded souls who had the courage to make the stand for the right thing are given the credit they deserve throughout the book. In an era where respect for journalists has collapsed as a response to phone tapping scandals and other revelations it is heartening to be reminded of the positive powers of good journalism and the importance of independently minded reporters. Written in a very engaging, almost conversational style that sucks the reader in and won't let go this is a wonderful book. At the end I was left wanting more and desperate for more, this is a 5* book.