From the Library: It's Not About the Bike...

Soon after certain revelations were made about Lance Armstrong's cycling career, it became quite easy to pick up copies of those books which detailed his exploits in the peloton, on the cheap. Disillusionment and outright disgust caused many, fans and non-fans alike, to throw out their copies in protest. I imagine workers at used bookstores shaking their heads "no" each time another one came in the door. While I can sympathize with the sentiment, I think there are enough reasons to keep this one on the shelf.

First, though cycling does play a part in this particular story, I think it takes a back seat to Lance's role as cancer survivor - that is the bigger, greater story being presented in this book. Second, and concerning that cycling aspect, if nothing else the words written here document an era of the sport, a dark era perhaps, but still a part of the sport's history. We may wish that it did not happen, but it did and there is no hiding from it. Books like this, and what they tell about individual culpability and a wider-spread, flawed system, are a part of that history.

Armstrong, Lance with Sally Jenkins   It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life   New York: Berkley Books, 2001