The Secret Race - Tyler Hamilton& Daniel Coyle

This is one hell of a book. I could not believe how easily these 'dopers' specially Lance Armstrong cheated everyone. I have to admit that I was a big Armstrong fan back in the college days , even bought 'Livestrong' band. Also read his book 'Its not about bike' with great admiration.  Im a big fan of Tour de France , though i don't know anything about Cycling.

If you were careful and paid attention you could dope and be 99 percent certain that you would not get caught.

I have read many articles on the doping scandals in various magazines and sites, but this book stand out, as Hamilton tried to give full disclosure of the events and things happened during his riding time, which is riveting and heart breaking.  He systematically with details broke down what was going during Armstrong's period. From the time Armstrong won his first Tour title ,his dominance was something never happened before. He was not only winning but winning it in a remarkable manner. That itself arose suspicion.

“People think doping is for lazy people who want to avoid hard work. That might be true in some cases, but in mine, as with many riders I knew, it was precisely the opposite. EPO granted the ability to suffer more; to push yourself farther and harder than you'd ever imagined, in both training and racing”

Hamilton explains how he was introduced to the drugs and blood transfusion and he felt that everyone was doing the same  -'level playing field' and he had no choice.  At first he was bit hesitant but gradually accepted it as a way of cycling life. Hamilton gives a fascinating inside view of how these cyclist used those drugs . The code names they used like red eggs (testosterone) , Edgar (EP0) and oil (testosterone drops) and other code words for locations and hotel- very interesting. Its very painful to read about Hamilton's  recovery to his normal life and one can understand it. He also feels for Armstrong as he mentioned - "Sorry for him as a person, because he was trapped, imprisoned by all the secrets and lies. I thought: Lance would sooner die than admit it, but being forced to tell the truth might be the best thing that ever happened to him."

Here's the secret: You can't block out the pain. You have to embrace it

Armstrong threatened and intimated whoever questioned him , specially the journalist David Walsh, whom he even sued. His characters itself is dominant,self-centred, insensitive, fearless and cruel. He replaced his team mates if they showed signs of resistance and not obeying him. Armstrong is not the first one to dope but he is the one who pushed boundaries and controlled everything. And also he did it better than anyone else as he told to Hamilton ''whatever you do, those other fuckers are doing more".   It was like a ring - driver driving the car / motorbike across the international border to deliver the drugs and do blood transfusion , private jet carrying cyclist across countries to do blood transfusion, money transferred to Swiss account and of course threatening calls and actions.

We'd made it to the top of the bike-racing world, and when we got there we found mostly desolation and emptiness.

The doping laws in different countries made these cyclist escape from tests ,also UCI's archaic doping rules and methods , the testing schedule was ridiculous and in fact there was no test for EPO at that time.  Armstrong had all the backing of UCI.  The UCI used Armstrong's successful come back as advertisement / promotion for Cycling and adamant to handle the doping accusations properly. Its good  atleast now UCI have biological passport program which minimize chances of doping. Credit should be given to USDA too. They were very strict and never yielded to any pressure though at one point they gave up the case.

The writing is fast, clear,gripping and engrossing. A must read for anyone interested any sports.

Tyler Hamilton's interview (CBS)
Armstrong confession video 
David Walsh's interview