the secret race book review

The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton: Book review

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It's been billed as the ‘game ender,' the book that lifts the lid on the systematic and institutionalized doping regime behind the US Postal Service team's domination of the Tour de France with Lance Armstrong at the helm.

Read Hamilton's book, reviews have exclaimed just weeks after the Texan decided not to contest the US Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) decision to strip him of his seven Tour titles, and it will be impossible to believe that Armstrong didn't dope.

Put simply, the book lives up to the hype. Not only does it identify the illegal methods and substances behind Armstrong's wins, it unveils a sport soaked in a culture of performance enhancing drugs through the lens of an entire sporting career.

Hamilton: dragged into a dirty world of doping, denial and duplicity

From Hamilton's first encounters with doping as a wide-eyed and naïve neo-pro, through to his almost blasé use of a banned anti-depressant as he attempted to salvage the wreckage of his career following a two-year suspension for a blood transfusion, doping is an ever present normality for professional cyclists during the turn of the millennium.

The clarity and detail of Hamilton's memory is quite remarkable. The lack of smudges or omissions tempts you to treat the narrative as a work of fiction until Daniel Coyle's explanatory footnotes and interviews with former riders jolt you back down to earth.

Yet limiting the book to a chronicle of cheating misses the most intriguing element; the book is a profound assessment of Armstrong's character, told through the turbulent crests and troughs of Hamilton's complex relationship with his idol, mentor, friend, adversary, and bully.

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What really gives the book its power, though, is that it is not just Hamilton's version of events. It is an answer booklet to the questions and uncertainties that have swelled around cycling in recent months and years. In fact there is only one question it doesn't answer.

Is it still possible to believe Armstrong didn't dope?

Notes on a scandal: Tyler Hamilton on...

Cover-ups, an unwillingness to catch dopers, and a more than cosy relationship between Armstrong and former president Hein Verbruggen; Hamilton is scathing of the UCI throughout the book.

As did Floyd Landis, he alleges that Armstrong tested positive for EPO during the 2001 Tour of Switzerland, but that Armstrong "had meetings with people at the lab and it all went away."

‘Hein' (the two were on first name terms) was often at Armstrong's beck and call. He even allegedly called Hamilton to the UCI's headquarters for a meeting to discuss suspicious blood values on Armstrong's instruction, after Hamilton beat Armstrong in the Mt Ventoux time-trial at the 2004 Criterium du Dauphine.

Floyd Landis

Routinely described as a ‘Mennonite kid,' Hamilton sees Landis as a man of both conviction and resolve, in many ways an equal to Armstrong. He's an oddball who questions the rules, skateboards into town and once drank 14 capuccinos in one sitting, but has a strong sense of what is right and wrong.

"What bothered Floyd wasn't the doping. What he hated - what his soul raged against - was unfairness. The abuse of power. The idea that Lance was purposefully depriving Floyd of an opportunity to compete." It's poetic justice, for Hamilton, when Landis is the one who finally blows the whistle on Armstrong with his email to USADA.

Landis [left]: cappuccino-quaffing individualist

Beating the anti-doping authorities

Hamilton dismisses the ‘arms race' between doctors and anti-doping authorities with tales of evading testers that are almost comical in their simplicity. Even assuming authorities could test for certain substances, jumping to the floor when a tester came to the door and you were ‘glowing' (had used a banned substance recently enough to give a positive test) would delay the test by a day and give you enough time to fudge a whereabouts form and drink enough to flush out your system.

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

Armstrong's dictatorship of US Postal

One incident, where Armstrong ate three slices of chocolate cake at dinner one evening on a team training camp, stands out. As Armstrong chewed away the riders around the table looked nervously at each other; although an easy ride was scheduled for the following day, they all knew Armstrong would force the team to ride hard to burn off his transgressions.

Armstrong wasn't just at the top of the team; he was the team.

Tour boss Jean-Marie Leblanc faces up to festina in '98

Armstrong's belief that he had the right to win

Armstrong, the strong character who had overcome cancer, was unable to deal with the possibility that he might not win a race, no matter how hard he worked.

"He couldn't let go of this idea that he was destined to be champion," says Hamilton, "and he couldn't let go of the power that allowed him to control his performances so precisely."

This accounts for Armstrong's control of the team and his exceptional status at the top of the pile. Along with Johan Bruyneel and Dr Ferrari he maintained a total control over his numbers, his training, his equipment and his bubble of superiority.

Hamilton explains it through Armstrong's motto: "whatever you're doing, those f*****s are doing more."

Doping after the Festina affair

After a Festina team soigneur, Willy Voet, was caught by French police with a car full of EPO and other doping products at the 1998 Tour, doping ceased to be on team programmes where vials of EPO would be stored on team buses and handed out after races.

Riders now had to take the much more risky and unpredictable route of sourcing their own substances, so Armstrong and Hamilton engineered a unique solution.

Armstrong's French gardener, Philippe, followed the 1999 Tour on a moped equipped with a coolbox full of supplies for three riders: Armstrong, Hamilton, and fellow USPS rider Kevin Livingston. ‘Motoman,' as the three called him, was able to zip through the traffic and deliver his packages of Edgar (their nickname for EPO) without delay and without capture.

The empty syringes would then be slotted into a Coke can, crushed up, and stuffed into the backpack of USPS's Dr Del Moral before he walked off, an anonymous figure in the crowds, to dispose of it elsewhere.

Dr Eufemiano Fuentes

A debonair and ebullient Spanish doctor who ended up at the heart of Operation Puerto, Hamilton claims Bjarne Riis recommended Fuentes to him when he left USPS at the end of 2001. Fuentes and his assistant Bartres were to provide EPO, testosterone, and organise blood transfusions.

With code words and pre-paid phones, Hamilton's relationship with Fuentes was fleeting and pragmatic. It worked, until Hamilton tested positive for a homologous transfusion in 2004: someone else's blood was in his system.

It transpired that, although Hamilton had been transfusing his own blood (an autologous transfusion), Fuentes or Bartres may have mis-labelled bags of blood in their Spanish clinic as they froze them for storage - a complex and drawn-out procedure. Unbeknownst to Hamilton before Puerto was the true extent of Fuentes' list of clients and Bartres, a septuagenarian haematologist at a Madrid hospital, was later revealed to suffer from dementia.

Altered Memories: A different perspective

Words: James Shrubsall

I have a confession: I enjoyed Lance Armstrong's Tour de France reign immensely. While many saw the US Postal team, headed by the Texan, as slowly strangling the life out of the race, I saw it as a spectacular demolition.

Every year I looked forward to the first mountain stage, where the Blue Train would hit the front and take the field apart. An awesome display of power. We know now where it came from.

That Hamilton - whatever you might think of him - is telling the truth can no longer be in any reasonable doubt. For a start, the book is co-authored with respected writer Dan Coyle, who has been diligent in corroborating Hamilton's claims. And Coyle includes his own commentary alongside Hamilton's words, as well as interviews with other Postal riders.

What Hamilton describes, in an utterly matter-of-fact way, is a sport which is run through with doping like words through a stick of rock. A sport in which trying to contest a Grand Tour without blood doping would be nonsensical, unthinkable. Yes, The Secret Race is about Lance Armstrong, but it is more about Hamilton himself. What's more, it is about CSC and Phonak, how doping was essentially institutionalised all the way up to Operacion Puerto.

Armstrong: tarnished icon

There is a poignancy to the first few chapters, as we read about the innocent young guy who simply wanted to race his bike, wasn't interested in dope, or lies. Comparing Hamilton's lot over the last few years - depression, more positives, ridicule, all but cast out of the sport, to Armstrong's - rich beyond imagination, friends in the highest places, loved the world over, and you can't help but feel sorry for Hamilton, who certainly did no worse than Armstrong.

But unlike with some cycling memoirs, there is no bitterness from Hamilton. Just a desire to get some very dark secrets off his chest - something he does so with complete clarity and apparent lack of agenda. He doesn't even claim to feel a huge amount of guilt, except perhaps for deceiving his parents.

The Secret Race answers many questions, but it also throws up a new, unsavoury one. Namely, if cycling was so completely rotten, and so many of the same people are still in the sport - both as riders and management - how clean can it really be in 2012?

This article was first published in the September 20 issue of Cycling Weekly. You can also read our magazines on Zinio and download from the Apple store .

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THE SECRET RACE

Inside the hidden world of the tour de france: doping, cover-ups, and winning at all costs.

by Tyler Hamilton ; Daniel Coyle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 5, 2012

Fascinating, surprisingly disturbing look at the layers of corruption behind the sleek facade of professional cycling.

With the assistance of Coyle ( Lance Armstrong’s War , 2005, etc.), Olympic gold medalist and former professional cyclist Hamilton dishes the dirt on the clandestine culture of doping so endemic to his sport.

“I’m good at pain,” writes the author, who was a longtime U.S. Postal cycling squad teammate of Lance Armstrong. Readers soon learn that this addiction to pain is an absolute requirement to survive his pressure-cooker life as a professional cyclist, a masochistic existence that makes the physical risks run in sports like football and pro boxing look trivial. Hamilton’s story is also partly the story of once-revered cycling celeb (and now disgraced doper) Armstrong, as the two were rivals for years. Hamilton chronicles the entire rise-and-fall arc of his professional career, going from his beginnings as a clean-living anti-doping idealist in the early 1990s to becoming a slave to the intense competitive pressure to ingest a chemical smorgasbord of performance-enhancing substances just to keep up with everyone else. Any notions of cycling as a clean sport go out the window immediately. Hamilton’s unsparing account of the damaging (and often dope-fueled) physical and mental toll that top-level cycling takes on its practitioners, not to mention the constant pressure to evade drug testers and beat the drug tests themselves, is a decidedly bleak and unglamorous portrait of the sporting life. For Hamilton, compounding this maniacal all-or-nothing quest for victory was the fact that he had to constantly deal with Armstrong, who comes off as Stalin on a bike: a sociopathic rage-prone prima donna who went to great lengths to destroy the lives of those who threatened his reputation.

Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-345-53041-7

Page Count: 306

Publisher: Bantam

Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2012

SPORTS & RECREATION

Share your opinion of this book

WHY WE SWIM

by Bonnie Tsui ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020

An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.

A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.

For Bay Area writer Tsui ( American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods , 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).

Pub Date: April 14, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Algonquin

Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020

GENERAL HISTORY | HEALTH & FITNESS | SPORTS & RECREATION

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BOOK REVIEW

by Bonnie Tsui ; illustrated by Sophie Diao

by Bonnie Tsui

by Jeanne Marie Laskas ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 24, 2015

Effectively sobering. Suffice it to say that Pop Warner parents will want to armor their kids from head to toe upon reading...

A maddening, well-constructed tale of medical discovery and corporate coverup, set in morgues, laboratories, courtrooms, and football fields.

Nigeria-born Bennet Omalu is perhaps an unlikely hero, a medical doctor board-certified in four areas of pathology, “anatomic, clinical, forensic, and neuropathology,” and a well-rounded specialist in death. When his boss, celebrity examiner Cyril Wecht (“in the autopsy business, Wecht was a rock star”), got into trouble for various specimens of publicity-hound overreach, Omalu was there to offer patient, stoical support. The student did not surpass the teacher in flashiness, but Omalu was a rock star all his own in studying the brain to determine a cause of death. Laskas’ (Creative Writing/Univ. of Pittsburgh;  Hidden America , 2012, etc.) main topic is the horrific injuries wrought to the brains and bodies of football players on the field. Omalu’s study of the unfortunate brain of Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster, who died in 2002 at 50 of a supposed heart attack, brought new attention to the trauma of concussion. Laskas trades in sportwriter-ese, all staccato delivery full of tough guy – isms and sports clichés: “He had played for fifteen seasons, a warrior’s warrior; he played in more games—two hundred twenty—than any other player in Steelers history. Undersized, tough, a big, burly white guy—a Pittsburgh kind of guy—the heart of the best team in history.” A little of that goes a long way, but Laskas, a Pittsburgher who first wrote of Omalu and his studies in a story in  GQ , does sturdy work in keeping up with a grim story that the NFL most definitely did not want to see aired—not in Omalu’s professional publications in medical journals, nor, reportedly, on the big screen in the Will Smith vehicle based on this book.

Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-8129-8757-7

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015

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Bicycle Thieves: World-Class Cycling’s Drug Trade

By Ian Austen

• Sept. 11, 2012

After Lance Armstrong decided last month not to contest doping charges and a move to strip away his seven Tour de France titles, he left the cycling world anxiously awaiting the release of a report documenting the illicit ways he boosted his performance.

The United States Anti-Doping Agency has not set a publication date for that exposé. But impatient readers can turn to “The Secret Race” by Tyler Hamilton, an Olympic gold medalist and one-time key teammate of Mr. Armstrong’s who has since confessed to cheating and lying himself.

The journalists David Walsh and Pierre Ballester long ago published some of the allegations against Mr. Armstrong that Mr. Hamilton describes. But owing to extensive reporting by Mr. Hamilton’s co-author, Daniel Coyle, “The Secret Race” is much more than just one disgraced cyclist’s confessions and accusations.

Using the wit and eye for detail Mr. Coyle displayed in his first cycling book, “Lance Armstrong’s War,” from 2005, they have produced the broadest, most accessible look at cycling’s drug problem to date. The authors limit the tedious technical details as best as they can (doping is complex, legally, logistically and scientifically) and generally avoid a sensational tone in telling the often harrowing story.

“The Secret Race” is essentially a follow-up to Mr. Coyle’s earlier book, which remains the most complete portrait of Mr. Armstrong. It depicted him as willing to use and discard others, sometimes brutally, and to follow rules on his own terms. Not surprisingly, the book’s subject and his associates did not reveal their doping routines to Mr. Coyle. While “The Secret Race” contains some biographical elements, it mainly fills in the blanks about that business of systematic doping.

Mr. Hamilton was as famous for his ability to endure pain as for his race results. In 2002 he crashed near the start of the three-week Giro d’Italia and fractured his shoulder. Mr. Hamilton kept on riding, grinding his teeth as a distraction.

He finished second over all but needed 11 teeth recapped. A year later he further enriched his dentist by continuing to ride, and grind his teeth, after breaking his collar bone during the first stage of the Tour de France.

Where doping was concerned, the turning point for Mr. Hamilton came after his team attracted the United States Postal Service as a sponsor. With a bigger budget, the team moved from the cycling backwater of the United States to racing in Europe in 1996. European cycling had by then been transformed by the arrival of cloned human hormones, particularly erythropoietin, or EPO, which stimulates the creation of oxygen-rich red blood cells, boosting performance by about 5 percent, or, according to the book, “roughly the difference between first place in the Tour de France and the middle of the pack.”

After a series of humiliating results, Mr. Hamilton accepted a “red egg,” a capsule of less powerful testosterone, from the team. He viewed it as a “badge of honor,” a sign that the team thought he was worthy of doping. Syringes filled with powerful EPO soon followed.

Mr. Armstrong joined Mr. Hamilton on the Postal Service team after his recovery from cancer. They became neighbors, flew around in private jets to doping rendezvous, injected EPO together and regularly talked shop about doping, according to Mr. Hamilton.

After a test for EPO arrived, Mr. Hamilton said he was introduced to increasingly complicated, costly and sometimes grisly methods of transfusing his own blood by Mr. Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel, their team director. (Mr. Coyle writes in the foreword that Mr. Armstrong, through lawyers, denied everything Mr. Hamilton said about him. Mr. Bruyneel has denied any involvement in doping.)

The book deals with Mr. Hamilton’s obvious credibility problems through occasional excerpts from Mr. Coyle’s interviews of others. Mr. Coyle also adds analysis and background through numerous footnotes. They are so numerous and lengthy at points that it might have been wiser not to write the book in Mr. Hamilton’s first-person voice.

The dark side of Mr. Armstrong’s personality gets another airing here. Mr. Hamilton saw it in his contempt for rivals or people he simply disliked. He recalls how during one training ride Mr. Armstrong chased down a motorist who passed too closely and pulled the man from his car at the traffic light.

“I kept picturing that guy on the ground, crying and pleading, and Lance pounding away,” Mr. Hamilton writes. “I’d seen more than I wanted to see.”

When Mr. Hamilton tested positive in 2004, shortly after winning a gold medal at the Athens Olympics, he initiated a costly legal and public relations challenge to the test, but not, he contends in the book, because he was clean, as he claimed then. Rather, Mr. Hamilton was bitter that the test showed that he had transfused another person’s blood, one of the few techniques not in his repertory. (Mr. Coyle suggests that the Spanish doctor who drained Mr. Hamilton’s blood and then processed it for storage in a freezer known as “Siberia” may have ineptly mixed it up with some from another cycling client.)

Rightly, Mr. Hamilton notes in “The Secret Race” that punishment has focused far too much on cyclists while minimizing the role of team owners, sponsors, race organizers and cycling’s bureaucracy. Yet for someone who repeatedly preaches the value of speaking the truth, Mr. Hamilton lets himself off lightly.

“I think everybody who wants to judge dopers should think about it, just for a second,” he writes. “You spend your life working to get to the brink of success, and then you are given a choice: either join in or quit and go home. What would you do?”

Many cyclists answered by choosing to quit. Others resigned themselves to riding on less prominent teams or in less glamorous roles. Suggesting he had no real option pollutes Mr. Hamilton’s bid to clear the air.

THE SECRET RACE

Inside the hidden world of the tour de france: doping, cover-ups, and winning at all costs.

By Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle

290 pages. Bantam Books. $28.

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The Secret Race

Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France

Tyler Hamilton, Daniel Coyle | 4.53 | 16,064 ratings and reviews

Ranked #1 in Cycling , Ranked #85 in Sports

Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Secret Race from the world's leading experts.

Dan Stemkoski Just finished “The Secret Race” by @Ty_Hamilton + Daniel Coyle, knowing only the bare minimum about professional bike racing and the scandals of the past. Just an awesome and amazing book. Couldn’t put it down. (Source)

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Look Inside

The Secret Race

Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France

By Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle

By tyler hamilton and daniel coyle read by sean runnette, category: biography & memoir | sports, category: biography & memoir | sports | audiobooks.

May 07, 2013 | ISBN 9780345530424 | 5-3/16 x 8 --> | ISBN 9780345530424 --> Buy

Sep 05, 2012 | ISBN 9780345530431 | ISBN 9780345530431 --> Buy

Sep 05, 2012 | 683 Minutes | ISBN 9780385392983 --> Buy

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May 07, 2013 | ISBN 9780345530424

Sep 05, 2012 | ISBN 9780345530431

Sep 05, 2012 | ISBN 9780385392983

683 Minutes

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About The Secret Race

“The holy grail for disillusioned cycling fans . . . The book’s power is in the collective details, all strung together in a story that is told with such clear-eyed conviction that you never doubt its veracity. . . . The Secret Race isn’t just a game changer for the Lance Armstrong myth. It’s the game ender.”— Outside   NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD The Secret Race is the book that rocked the world of professional cycling—and exposed, at long last, the doping culture surrounding the sport and its most iconic rider, Lance Armstrong. Former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton was once one of the world’s top-ranked cyclists—and a member of Lance Armstrong’s inner circle. Over the course of two years, New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle conducted more than two hundred hours of interviews with Hamilton and spoke with numerous teammates, rivals, and friends. The result is an explosive page-turner of a book that takes us deep inside a shadowy, fascinating, and surreal world of unscrupulous doctors, anything-goes team directors, and athletes so relentlessly driven to win that they would do almost anything to gain an edge. For the first time, Hamilton recounts his own battle with depression and tells the story of his complicated relationship with Lance Armstrong. This edition features a new Afterword, in which the authors reflect on the developments within the sport, and involving Armstrong, over the past year. The Secret Race is a courageous, groundbreaking act of witness from a man who is as determined to reveal the hard truth about his sport as he once was to win the Tour de France.   With a new Afterword by the authors   “Loaded with bombshells and revelations.”—VeloNews “[An] often harrowing story . . . the broadest, most accessible look at cycling’s drug problems to date.”— The New York Times   “ ‘If I cheated, how did I get away with it?’ That question, posed to SI by Lance Armstrong five years ago, has never been answered more definitively than it is in Tyler Hamilton’s new book.”— Sports Illustrated   “Explosive.” —The Daily Telegraph (London)

“The holy grail for disillusioned cycling fans . . . The book’s power is in the collective details, all strung together in a story that is told with such clear-eyed conviction that you never doubt its veracity. . . . The Secret Race isn’t just a game changer for the Lance Armstrong myth. It’s the game ender.”— Outside   NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD The Secret Race is the book that rocked the world of professional cycling—and exposed, at long last, the doping culture surrounding the sport and its most iconic rider, Lance Armstrong. Former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton was once one of the world’s top-ranked cyclists—and a member of Lance Armstrong’s inner circle. Over the course of two years, New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle conducted more than two hundred hours of interviews with Hamilton and spoke with numerous teammates, rivals, and friends. The result is an explosive page-turner of a book that takes us deep inside a shadowy, fascinating, and surreal world of unscrupulous doctors, anything-goes team directors, and athletes so relentlessly driven to win that they would do almost anything to gain an edge. For the first time, Hamilton recounts his own battle with depression and tells the story of his complicated relationship with Lance Armstrong. This edition features a new Afterword, in which the authors reflect on the developments within the sport, and involving Armstrong, over the past year. The Secret Race is a courageous, groundbreaking act of witness from a man who is as determined to reveal the hard truth about his sport as he once was to win the Tour de France.   With a new Afterword by the authors .   “Loaded with bombshells and revelations.”—VeloNews “[An] often harrowing story . . . the broadest, most accessible look at cycling’s drug problems to date.”— The New York Times   “ ‘If I cheated, how did I get away with it?’ That question, posed to SI by Lance Armstrong five years ago, has never been answered more definitively than it is in Tyler Hamilton’s new book.”— Sports Illustrated   “Explosive.” —The Daily Telegraph (London)

The Secret Race is a definitive look at the world of professional cycling—and the doping issue surrounding this sport and its most iconic rider, Lance Armstrong—by former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton and New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle.   Over the course of two years, Coyle conducted more than two hundred hours of interviews with Hamilton and spoke candidly with numerous teammates, rivals, and friends. The result is an explosive book that takes us, for the first time, deep inside a shadowy, fascinating, and surreal world of unscrupulous doctors, anything-goes team directors, and athletes so relentlessly driven to succeed that they would do anything—and take any risk, physical, mental, or moral—to gain the edge they need to win.   Tyler Hamilton was once one of the world’s best-liked and top-ranked cyclists—a fierce competitor renowned among his peers for his uncanny endurance and epic tolerance for pain. In the 2003 Tour de France, he finished fourth despite breaking his collarbone in the early stages—and grinding eleven of his teeth down to the nerves along the way. He started his career with the U.S. Postal Service team in the 1990s and quickly rose to become Lance Armstrong’s most trusted lieutenant, and a member of his inner circle. For the first three of Armstrong’s record seven Tour de France victories, Hamilton was by Armstrong’s side, clearing his way. But just weeks after Hamilton reached his own personal pinnacle—winning the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics—his career came to a sudden, ignominious end: He was found guilty of doping and exiled from the sport.   From the exhilaration of his early, naïve days in the peloton, Hamilton chronicles his ascent to the uppermost reaches of this unforgiving sport. In the mid-1990s, the advent of a powerful new blood-boosting drug called EPO reshaped the world of cycling, and a relentless, win-at-any-cost ethos took root. Its psychological toll would drive many of the sport’s top performers to substance abuse, depression, even suicide. For the first time ever, Hamilton recounts his own battle with clinical depression, speaks frankly about the agonizing choices that go along with the decision to compete at a world-class level, and tells the story of his complicated relationship with Lance Armstrong.   A journey into the heart of a never-before-seen world, The Secret Race is a riveting, courageous act of witness from a man who is as determined to reveal the hard truth about his sport as he once was to win the Tour de France. Includes an audio exclusive introduction from Tyler Hamilton.

Listen to a sample from The Secret Race

Also by daniel coyle.

About Daniel Coyle

Daniel Coyle is the New York Times bestselling author of The Culture Code, The Talent Code, The Little Book of Talent,… More about Daniel Coyle

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"The Secret Race" by Tyler Hamilton review

A must-read for those who wish to understand the Armstrong era

laura weislo

"Secrets are poison" and Tyler Hamilton's biography, "The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs," is cycling's equivalent of sucking snake venom out of a bite and spitting it out for the world to see.

Hamilton's co-writer Daniel Coyle, also the author of "Lance Armstrong's War," distills meticulous research and hours of interviews with numerous individuals into a clear, gripping, unabashed expose' on cycling's lost decade of doping.

It is an indictment of Lance Armstrong, to be sure. Any anti-doping official can read through this volume and find rule violation after rule violation. But it is also an indictment of the system.

Hamilton makes a fool of the UCI and its anti-doping efforts, demonstrating how simple it was to avoid positive tests. "In fact, they weren't drug tests. They were more like discipline tests, IQ tests. If you were careful and paid attention, you could dope and be 99 percent certain that you would not get caught."

He lays bare the seedy underbelly of cycling, entering just as the UCI rolls out the 50% haematocrit limit in order to keep riders from pumping themselves full of so much EPO that their blood becomes sludge. He has his "thousand days" of being tortured by meaty sprinters hammering up alpine ascents at abnormal speeds before finally caving in at the hands of US Postal Service team doctor Pedro Celaya in 1997.

He describes an atmosphere where doping is not only rampant but openly discussed in the peloton, confirming anecdotes told by David Millar in his memoir "Racing Through the Dark."

While David Millar's memoir was a story of his personal journey from doper to advocate for a clean sport, Hamilton's bio focuses mainly on squeezing out every single bit of detail in order to counter his years of blatant lies. By the end, you sense that he has wrung out everything he could, and the complexity of the tale makes it hard to call his claims false.

He describes a bumbling anti-doping system, constantly behind the curve. When the EPO test was introduced in 2000, the cheaters were way ahead of the game, although the efforts forced the inner circles of doping become more closed. They employed well-paid advisors such as Michele Ferrari, who, Hamilton alleges, were happy to provide methods to cheat the tests. It is glimpse into a world of powerful men with enough wealth and influence to apparently cover up a positive test, such as Armstrong's alleged EPO positive at the 2001 Tour de Suisse, when those methods fail.

Hamilton's time in Armstrong's secret club doesn't last long, and after he crushes Armstrong's record time on the Mont Ventoux during the 2000 Critérium du Dauphiné, he is slowly ostracized, and eventually leaves the team for Bjarne Riis's project, Team CSC.

There, he is introduced to Eufemiano Fuentes, now famous for being busted by the Spanish Operación Puerto, the man who would eventually become careless and prove to be Hamilton's downfall.

Hamilton confesses everything about his years of blood doping, admitting to taking transfusions prior to his major victories in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour de France and Vuelta a España. The latter would ultimately expose Hamilton as not only a cheater, but a liar.

The book is a must-read for those who wish to understand the current events surrounding Lance Armstrong, and it will keep you in your seat for hours. However, if you are a cycling fan, read at your peril: it may be hard to enjoy watching the sport after getting through this book, because every stand-out performance, every heroic breakaway, every amazing ride will trigger a little doubt in your mind. After all of the blatant, bare-faced lies told by an affable rider like Hamilton, it will be difficult to trust any rider's claims of racing clean.

Hamilton does not give the fans a happy ending. Armstrong's war may still continue in the courts, and more details of the era are sure to surface. Hamilton may walk away into the sunset to his happy home in Montana, but he leaves behind the snake-bit patient shivering, delirious and feverish on the ground.

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Book Review: The Secret Race

The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle

This is a guest review by a reader known as The Race Radio on Twitter, the go-to source for information on the USADA action and much more .

“ The truth really will set you free “: the last sentence of Tyler Hamilton’s new book is a fit ending. For 300 pages Tyler and Dan Coyle trace Tyler’s journey through the madness of professional cycling during one of the sports most complex times. Coyle’s elegant style allows the story to flow effortlessly through Tyler’s career, capturing the ebb and flow of enablers, teammates, doctors, and DS’s.

Former USPS team doctor Prentice Steffen once said “ Unpleasant people like Lance Armstrong dope and nice people like Tyler Hamilton also dope “. In a sport filled with questionable characters Tyler was always the nice guy. Thoughtful, polite, eager to please, Tyler was not the guy you would expect to be in a Madrid gynaecologist’s office transfusing blood to be used for the Tour. Tyler’s pleasant nature is evident throughout his book. While he gives massive amount of details of organized doping programs he spares the individual settling of scores. Even the often erratic, insecure, Armstrong does not come off as badly as he could. Tyler focuses on facts and details instead of character assassination.

There are a couple of central themes. The ease of doping is key. Riders talk about it. Teams support it. Doctors are there to help. It is normal, accepted. Bizzarro World. Far from pushers, Tyler talks of team doctors who gently encourage and enable doping. When it is decided that transfusions are the next step Bruyneel pitches the plan with with ease, nonchalance. Tyler points out that  Bruyneel makes “ The outrageous sound normal– it may be his greatest skill “. In his first meeting with new boss Bjarne Riis the topic quickly shifts to how great transfusions are and what his doping program was at USPS. CSC soigneurs eagerly helped with saline transfusions to get his blood values right while a tester waits downstairs. The sport was a frictionless environment for doping.

Another key theme is the sense of being caught up in a whirlwind. Private jets, big money contracts, adoring friends and fans. This environment made it easier to ignore the increasingly irrational Armstrong, the escalating complexity of doping methods, and the challenge of telling the truth. Eventually Tyler is so deep in the lie he sees no exit and continues the charade.

Throughout the book we get a better look at some of the characters of the sport. The investment banker behind the US Postal team Tom Weisel is gruff, demanding results, pushing always pushing. Doctor Fuentes is scattered, chaotic. US coach Eddie “B” Borysewicz is spooked from the 1984 Olympics fiasco and warns riders against “ Getting involved in that shit “. Dr Luigi Ceccini is a gentle friend who warns against doping but understands the need to keep the haematocrit high. On the sidelines are the guys who questioned the chaos. Frankie Andreu, Jon Vaughters, Christophe Bassons. All questioned the accepted norm, all were marginalized. Prematurely pushed from the sport.

It is disturbing to see the apparent extent of the UCI’s complacently. I am not a fan of conspiracy theories but Tyler makes a very compelling case for a special relationship between Armstrong and the UCI. The book claims they ignored his doping and did his bidding if the competition got too close. It is perhaps the most disturbing part of the book and warrants further official examination.

I do take issue with the consistent refrain that “everyone was doing it” as if it was a level playing field. As the book explains, it wasn’t level. Fuentes charges $50,000 per year plus large bonuses. Far outside the reach of a Neo-Pro. It is made clear that Ferrari is the best doping doctor there is and the USPS support staff was way ahead of the rest. Tyler’s program rapidly becomes far more chaotic once he leaves the team. In addition there is always the possibility of something new. While on US Postal Tyler had great support but there was always the idea that Lance had more, a higher level program.

Over the years there have been many books on doping in cycling. “Rough Ride” “Breaking the Chain” “Lance to Landis” but none come close to the level of detail that “The Secret Race” gives. It will be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand that era and wants to minimize the chance of a return. Ultimately Tyler captures the essence of his experience “ It all happened so slowly and organically. You start out tiptoeing through a little bit of mud and before you know it, you’re up to your neck. If I had known where it would end up, I would have been on the first plane back to Boston. ”

• Guest pieces are rare but so is Tyler Hamilton’s new book. Or at least it was as the publishers made reviewers sign legally-binding “non-disclosure agreements” to keep the contents secret until today. When Twitter correspondent The Race Radio offered to write a review whilst the book was still under embargo it was an obvious yes. Thanks .
• Also the book and its place the sport and the maelstrom engulfing Armstrong, the UCI and others is something I’ll probably return to soon.

A list of previous book reviews is available here .

93 thoughts on “Book Review: The Secret Race”

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This book review is well-enough written, but it’s unfortunate that Race Radio’s personal vendetta against Armstrong comes through during the review process. I have wondered more than once exactly what happened between RR and Armstrong to cause such animosity.

Re: “Irresponsible Fairchild”. Lol– Race Radio’s personal vendetta against Lance Armstrong–let’s see that list is sure long. USADA, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Greg LeMond, Cheryl Crow, Michael Ashenden, Michael Anderson, Dick Pound, Jeff Novitzky. they all must be lying and have vendetta’s againt Lance! I don’t know why anyone would dislike Armstrong when he’s such a great guy–maybe it’s because everything single thing that comes out of his mouth is a lie? Why is he suing the USADA? Aren’t they the ones who protect sport for clean athletes? Do yourself a favor and read up on your hero.

If you have the slightest awareness of the evidence against Armstrong and USPS then you would realise that your use of the word ‘vendetta’ is both facile and meaningless.

I use the term vendetta in the following sense: “A prolonged bitter quarrel with or campaign against someone.”

Whatever the truth, non-truth, evidence, or no evidence happens to be doesn’t affect the fact that RR has little use for Armstrong. He makes that very clear in Twitter, which he certainly has the right to do. But leave that commentary out of a book review. Review the book – don’t use it as just another opportunity to criticize.

RR says in his review, “Tyler focuses on facts and details instead of character assassination.” It would have been good advice to follow…

Struggling to see what you are referring to here. There are two sentences in the review that could be construed as contributing to a vendetta – describing LA as erratic/irrational. Hardly a big deal though, and besides its unclear from the review if those are THs words or the reviewers. Odd.

i’ve never heard of this Race Radio person before reading this. This is as bland and straightforward as a book review gets. Vendetta against Armstrong? Hardly apparent.

Seems as if fairchild may have a bit of his own vendetta.

I Denmark there is a lot in the online media right now, about Tylers years on Team CSC (now Saxo-Tinkoff) and the alleged drug use, with team owner Bjarne Riis in charge. Many of the Danish news papers, use it almost as evidence against the Team and the owner. But is not easy to find out was is right and wrong, in this story, when I have not read the book. So what do you think, this story about alleged systematic doping use on Team CSC, as the Danish reporters tells it. I know perfectly well that you can not know about Tyler tells the truth or not, but maybe you can give a little more objective view than the Danish reporters who tend to judge Bjarne Riis, too fast and hard

It’s interesting much of this is now causing pressure for Riis rather than Bruyneel or even the Phonak managers who are now at BMC.

With Riis, several CSC riders are known to have used Fuentes: Schleck, Basso, Hamilton. Is this all just a grand coincidence? I’ll quote Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books: “Once is an accident. Twice is coincidence. Three times is an enemy action”.

Riis seems to be a Zelig-like figure, a human chameleon, who responds to the system in place, he goes in the direction of the prevailing wind. If he knew about what his riders were doing, the chances are several other team managers did too.

There isn’t actually much management overlap between the old Phonak team and BMC. The BMC team has its own roots. It’s not an offshoot or reinvention of the former team.

Ochowicz was a consultant for Phonak. Lelangue was a manager, Luchinger did PR stuff.

Not to mention the money guy is still Andy Rihs… It certainly consider it a reinvention

Let me make this clear first: As much as I cheer for SaxoTinkoff, and as much as I realize the team’s importance for Danish cycling, I sincerely hope this case will turn out to be one too many for Bjarne. I can forgive him for lying once or even twice, but the amount of insinuations and circumstantial evidence against him for organizing doping on his team is simply too heavy now.

Nonetheless, I can’t help to think that Hamilton’s ‘confessions’ are treated in a quite naive and starry-eyed way. I certainly believe that many of Hamilton’s allegations are true, but at the same time, we’re dealing with a man who has lost everything, from his career to his wife to his credibility to all his money.

To be frank, I’m afraid I think it’s well below the standard of this otherwise fantastic blog to run a piece like this. Sure, Lance doped, sure USPS was among the worst teams out there, sure Riis knew what was going on within his team. But why this unconditional belief in the belated memories of a notorious liar with so strong incentives to exaggerate his story?

My best guess is that Hamilton had a great story to tell, but in the midst of misery and grediness, he was seduced by the endless possibilities for creative additions.

Peter does have a good point. Memories are faulty, especially in the details. Expect that there will be disagreements from other witnesses of the events. That doesn’t mean that they are lying, just that what they remember differs.

Ripping off scabs, and hearing the truth are always hard. Let the dust settle, and Lance will have another book in him to give us his story.

Don’t believe every thing you think”

Hamilton’s co-author -New York Times best-selling author Daniel Coyle (who actually did the writing) checked everything that Hamilton told him with multiple sources. So it’s not just Hamilton babbling away.

Hamilton is not without his faults and does have credibility issues but any way you look at it this book is a major point in our sport and needs careful consideration. This is not below the lofty standards of inrng but in fact right in the sweet spot. Only a Lance apologist would say otherwise.

As for all the talk about a vendetta, I couldn’t care less as to whether there is a vendetta against Lance. The issue is: what is the truth? Most people with a rational mind will find it hard to continue to believe Lance after these allegations.

Riis is as big a scar on this sport as Lance. If it was okay to go hard after Lance (and it was btw) then the next in line should be Riis. Armstrong shouldn’t banned for life while he remains in.

i think we can expect an admission from riis sometime soon, say 2023….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne_Riis#Doping_admission

I would not say that it was systematic but it certainly was approved of. Riis is open with Tyler about doping in their first meeting. Riis wants to know what USPS was using, talked about transfusions and how great they are. The team itself did not run the program, Tyler went to Fuentes for most of it. Tyler does write about team staff helping him with Saline infusions in order to get his blood values correct.

There are a lot of hype theese days about Mr. Hamiltons book. But the question is: are the book fiction or the truth. I certainly hope Mr. Hamilton also deliver bulletproof evidence for the allegations. Ugh.

Don’t worry, given that a lot of what’s in the book is what Tyler told the Federal Grand Jury, I think we can safely say that there isn’t any fiction in the book!

The evidence for his eyewitness statements are that he says them, of course – but let’s see what USADA release as evidence in the weeks to come.

At this point it might be good to realise that people can sue for libel and slander if they believe they have been, and given the allegations you could expect, if successful, to receive a large settlement. However in most jurisdications for cases of public interest truth is (I believe) a reasonable defence. The question then is not so much whether the accusations are bulletproof but why don’t those accused seek legal redress? Since truth is a defence the silence I think says a lot.

1. In the US, Armstrong would almost certainly be regarded as a “public figure.” Hence, the truth would not be sufficient for him to win. Not only would he have to show that what Hamilton and Coyle claim is false, he’d have to show malice or negligence by them in making their claims. This is why defamation suits by public figures are are hard to win in the US.

2. The truth is a sufficient defense for those *defending themselves* against a defamation suit.

3. The form of inference you’re making here is logically dubious. Person S makes harmful allegation P against person L. L does not immediately reply to S by denying P. So, P must be true, or is probably true. The problem here is that this form of argument assumes that the only reason L could have for not replying immediately or at some particular point (when exactly?) is because P is true. How do you know what Armstrong’s values, motivations and plans are?

I saw the Bush administration deftly exploit this dubious form of reasoning at least twice. A charge would be raised by the political journalists. “Did the administration do X or not?” The Bush folks wouldn’t reply at all. For days. In one case I think it was a week. Silence. Meanwhile, the pundits and pol journos start falling prey to this form of reasoning. More and more people are talking about it on news shows and implying the charge must be true. Then, Wham, the admin. comes out with decisive evidence against the charge, making the pols and journalists look like fools.

(This is not a defence of LA, but rather it’s a defence of public rationality. So, unsnarl your fangs, you rabid LA-hating dogs. I believe LA doped.)

4. What do you need this argument for? There’s good evidence already available that LA doped.

I have a bit of traveling ahead, and this book seems like a definitive read. Great review!

“It is disturbing to see the apparent extent of the UCI’s complacently”

Should it not read “…the UCI’s complicity”?

It could easily be both. Supposedly they are threatening to sue anyone who says they are corrupt so I thought lazy would be the better adjective.

then it would be ‘complacency’ …

Thank you lower depths. I noticed that too.

Been waiting for this for ages but need to get an American copy rather than the edited British copy.

PayPal me some bread and it will be on it’s way Friday(next day off). Let me know.

JimW If you’re up for mailing a US edition to a Brit, let me know what this would cost – get in touch via twitter cheers @dwbeever

I am reading it right now and cant put it down. Amazon has a great price of $16

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345530411/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

$13.99 for the e-book … and i agree, can’t put it down …

Can someone please explain if and why there might be 2 versions of the same book, one for USA and one or UK. libel laws?

Yes, apparently there will be a number of redacted names and scenes in the UK version, because of the stricter libel triggers.

It’s interesting that people can purchase, say, a kindle version from the UK or Ireland and that’s ok, but the print version needs editing to cover the libel laws. I’m no copyright lawyer, but the whole notion of national boundaries in the age of digital press is surely defunct. If I were to purchase the British version, I wouldn’t be happy to know that I was getting a watered down edition.

One thing that has struck me more and more is the constant refrain of “all of a sudden one day I woke up and… ” and I wonder. I’ve heard this from Vaughters, Hamilton and Landis. But other people like Millar are very clear on when they crossed that line. It makes me wonder how much “everyone was doing it” and how much the management of USPS told their cyclists “everyone was doing it”, and what else they told the riders to normalize the process and desensitize them.

The reaction from Frankie Andreu when JV said that he went to CA and they were racing on bread and water? “That’s crazy!”

The whole IM exchange from http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/landis/instantmessage.html is interesting, but this part is the most interesting:

Cyclevaughters: once I went to CA and saw that now all the teams got 25 injections every day

Cyclevaughters: hell, CA was ZERO

FDREU: you mean all the riders

Cyclevaughters: Credit Agricole

FDREU: it’s crazy

Cyclevaughters: So, I realized lance was full of shit when he’d say everyone was doing it

FDREU: You may read stuff that i say to radio or press, praising the Tour and lance but it’s just playing the game

Cyclevaughters: believe me, as carzy as it sounds – Moreau was on nothing. Hct of 39%

FDREU: when in 2000-2001

Cyclevaughters: so, that’s when you start thinking… hell, kevin was telling me that after 2000 Ullrich never raced over 42%— yeah moreau in 2000-2001

THAT is the problem. Everyone thinks and says “everyone else is cheating” so the easy answer is “why not us?” As long as (exceptions for sociopaths, etc.) the general idea is everyone else is getting away with it, cheating will continue. JV made it clear that somehow, some way, that idea has to be discarded and racers have to believe they can WIN without cheating. Given the situation with JV and Garmin one would think Hesjedal was clean during Giro d’Italia 2012. That message needs to be driven home to all involved while at the same time anyone still involved in doping needs to be driven OUT of the sport. Mr. 60% simply outsourced his team’s doping schemes so he could always claim the riders did it on their own with no help from him, whether it was Basso, Hamilton or whomever. He’ll skate away from any sanctions while his Belgian friend, due to his control-freak nature will probably be sanctioned for his involvement – there seems to be way too much smoke for there not to be a roaring fire. A copy of Secret Race is on the way to my mailbox – should be an interesting read.

“I do take issue with the consistent refrain that “everyone was doing it” as if it was a level playing field.”

Landis also confirmed that Armstrong did not take anything that he and Tyler were not taking. It was really a level playing field amongst the top guys. But the neo pro isn’t going to have access to the best clean coaches and staff either , so the field is never completely level in that sense.

This book help explains why all the riders from the era, including Vaughters himself, continue to believe Armstrong was the best guy of his period. You can smear Armstrong all you want, but you will never be able to change the minds of people in the know.

I don’t want to pour gasoline on this fire, but “in the know” folks simply can NOT know how BigTex would have done in a world without doping. Didn’t he himself approach the team docs about getting on a “medical program” as they say? When high-priced dope docs like Ferrari, with their exclusive deals are involved, it’s tough to believe thing were not tilted in one direction or another. “Smearing” BigTex makes it seem that there is a vast conspiracy of folks out there wanting to destroy Tex…how and WHY would they ALL take these risks to “smear” this fellow if none of the allegations are true? I’m starting to think “in the know” means “don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up”. If one wants to believe Tex was the best of his era, no problem, EXCEPT because of the doping, we’ll never really know. That should be reason enough to want to get rid of the cheating, no?

That is a regular anti armstrong talking point, but it neatly forgets the reality that the top teams were already doping when Armstrong was impressing in single day events. If Greg LeMond had started his career in the 1990s then you’d be saying that he was a great one day rider but was not suited to winning a tour.

I’m always amazed at how poor the thinking is surrround Armstrong. Listen to the pros that rode with him, even testified against him. Not bitter two-bit haters who blame Armstrong for their own lack of elite talent on the bike.

Tyler is an admitted liar and Coyle is an opportunist just like when he wrote his book about Lance. We all know Lance doped, but it doesn’t matter because he was still the best rider of that era. Who would we give all of his victories to? It doesn’t matter at this point. What matters is that the sport cleans up its act and we can believe what we see when we watch these races. If the truth is so important then I suggest we be honest with the next five year old that comes to us with their next finger painting and tell them that it is an absolute stroke of genius and they should do more painting when the reality is that they have no talent and should find another hobby altogether. That’s what we’re discussing here when we give a guy like Hamilton the time of day in regards to what really happened during his time in pro cycling. Get lost Tyler. You had your chance to tell the truth and you blew it. Same goes for any other fool who says they were not doping during that era. They were all on dope and if they weren’t they should have been so the playing field would have been leveled. As for Moreau, he rode for Festina, another bunch of doped up fools.

There is NO level playing field with performance enhancers! Seriously. That is a false argument. If lance didn’t have a pile of money would he really have been the best? He couldn’t even finish Le Tour at Motorola when “everyone was doing it”.

How do you propose cleaning up cycling without telling the truth? You think leaving it all buried will help anti-doping? There are no lessons to be learned there? Giving the biggest liar in the sport a free pass while all the others of his generation were caught sends what type of message?

In conclusion. I think it is a stretch to determine a five year old’s future potential as an artist by ONE finger painting. It takes time to develop a sufficient understanding of the emerging creative voice that struggles with rudimentary motor skill and the conceptualization of depth of field. I would suggest a more comprehensive evaluation considering aptitude with building blocks, understanding the interplay of light and shadow and of course temperament(is the sippy cup half empty or half full?).

“We all know Lance doped, but it doesn’t matter”…

If it doesn’t matter, why doesn’t Lance admit it? If it doesn’t matter, why do people get so worked up about it? If it doesn’t matter, why are dopers punished when caught? If it doesn’t matter, why haven’t we ‘legalized’ it? If it doesn’t matter, why won’t my doctor prescribe me any? If it doesn’t matter, why didn’t USPS share their methods with every other team?

Adam, it’s illegal, unfair, and unsafe. It matters.

Tyler backs me up again in the velonews interview:

“Lance is one of the best athletes in the world. You can’t take that away from him.”

Actually, that’s precisely what many douchebags are trying to do, Tyler.

Interestingly, when asked by the interviewer to clarify these remarks, Daniel Coyle intervenes to stop Tyler answering the question. He instead parrots the anti Armstrong talking points about “best doctors and access”.

One thing to clarify is doping transformed Lance from a world class one day racer to a world class grand tour winner…a “miraculous” transformation indeed. From a strong, power rider to a mountain goat… Yes, he was a talented rider… but they are a dime a dozen in the pro ranks… He reached a new level via (superior) doping. Doping is not level…people respond differently…doping doesn’t level the playing field, but is skews it in a very convoluted way. I am completely confident that without doping, (and the systematically doped teams) LA would be just another great rider with a handful of stage wins to his credit …

You are missing some key points:

1) Lance didn’t become a Grand Tour contender until after he had cancer. Some have contended that the cancer (and perhaps the treatment) changed him physiologically. I don’t know if this is credible or not, but it is worthy of consideration.

2) The Andreu’s claim that Lance admitted to doping to his doctors while he was in the hospital for his cancer treatment. If true, this means he was doping prior to becoming a Grand Tour sensation.

3) One day specialists & sprinters benefit from doping too. See Museeuw, Zabel, etc. They were never GT contenders.

4) US Postal helped re-inent how teams contest Grand Tours; the complete focus on the GC leader, forgoing all else also aided Lance. The complete specialization and focus on incremental gains was also a factor.

To claim Lance’s transformation was because of doping ignores too many other factors. He was an incredibly talented athlete even prior to focusing on cycling (remember he was a triathlete first), regardless of his doping history. He also had one of he best support systems the sport has ever seen. Combined, this alone can yield strong results. Supplement this with the alleged medical assistance, and you have what we have.

It’s believed he doped as a triathlete too. Steroids I think.

That is a regular anti armstrong talking point, but it neatly forgets the reality that the top teams were already doping when Armstrong was impressing in single day events. If Greg LeMond had started his career in the 1990s then you’d be saying that he was a great one day rider but was not suited to winning a tour.

I’m always amazed at how poor the thinking is surrround Armstrong. Listen to the pros that rode with him, even testified against him. Not bitter two-bit haters who blame Armstrong for their own lack of elite talent on the bike.

Getting tired and resorting to cut and paste. Surely you can muster a better argument or are you running out of material?

Actually posted it first under the wrong comment.

So anyone who disagrees with you is a douchebag (sic), whatever that might be? Fine standard of argument, probably turning even more people into douchebags.

I was a domestique for a multi TDF winner. I don’t find anything untrue in this book. We all hated LA from the beginning. Our biggest problem with LA was that he found a way to beat riders that were naturally better than him through very sophisticated methods. My numbers naturally were much higher than LA…yet he won 7 times. The TDF winner that I rode for had natural numbers higher than me. Had we both used LA’s technology…God knows what we could have done. We all knew the truth from the beginning. But perhaps…we were the dumb ones…for not persevering long enough to find people like Ferrari that could turn us into Superman. Unless you were as deep as I was in this….I understand how difficult that it is to understand.

We would all love to hear the truth from a legitimate source. Feel free to tell us because true cycling fans would appreciate it. Anybody who thinks LA was doing it on bread and water is brain dead, but when we look at those who stood behind him on the podium it is hard to believe that the best of the best were not on some kind of program. Tyler is not a credible source!

Fascinating Julian. InnnerRing, perhaps you could ask Julian to do a guest article with more details?

Very interesting to hear from someone involved (I’ll ignore the fact none of us can check that you are who you claim to be). What i can’t quite get from this short post is whether you are claiming you and the ‘multi TDF winner’ were clean or on inferior products. I’ve always been curious whether anyone, ever, won the TDF without doping.

Well, a multi TdF winner whose domestiques are contemporary can only be the preceding one (Induráin) or the following one (Contador). “God knows what we could have done” would mean we it can’t be Contador (because he hasn’t finished doing). If it’s Induráin (who surely had better natural numbers than Armstrong), his domestiques were mainly Spanish, with a few Frenchmen aorund (two nationalities where writing in anything close to proper English is rare, especially among cyclists, even nowadays, let alone in the 1990’s). Well, Hampsten had a spell with BigMig in 1995, but it can’t be him…

Could be Ullrich if you award him some of Lance’s tours………….

Pretty easy to figure out who this guy is/(or who he claims to be). Won a Tour stage; some of the big Basque races; domestiqued in 92, 93; never broke a bone cycling; DSed at Euskaltel..

Julian Gorospe

It sure looks an interesting book but not sure in how big of a hurry I am in to read it. I’m really getting bored of all the past doping stories. We all know it went on, we all know it was unsavoury, we all wish it didn’t happen, but I’m reading about it on an almost daily basis even when there is stories of current races taking place that affect present day cycling that seem to be losing headlines to the past.

Cycling has turned a corner for me … no it’s not perfect but neither is any other sport, but we’re much better off than at anytime for maybe 25 years. I still believe that if every sport was tested equally, cycling wouldn’t be the dirtiest. Yes you don’t want to forget the dirtiest era in the sports history but for the most part, especially in recent years, the sport has bloodied it’s nose in public and in the eyes of a quick to judge, easy to mock, main-stream media in order to fix itself.

These stories of the past will always be worth looking at and yes the downfall of Armstrong — which has been the biggest doping story of them all — was probably worth it, and yes there’s other bad eggs still involved in the sport who need the same treatement including an overhaul a-top the UCI, and yes books like this will certainly remind us why it’s important to keep on top of the cheats, but I think I’ll leave it until the winter, when I’m feeling bored what with little current action to immerse myself in.

Just ordered this from Book Depositry, as Amazon were a stitch up on shipping, between 18-32 days to get it to Australia.

Looking forward to the read.

Logan is the book you’ve ordered the US version or the adjusted UK version ? I have heard it say in the forums that the UK libels laws mean some of it has been chopped out ?

I have looked at Amazon UK, Amazon US and the Book Depository. The versions of the books have different ISBN numbers:

The UK ISBN Numbers (as quoted on Amazon UK) are: 0593071735 and 978-0593071731 this book is not yet published

The US ISBN Numbers (as quoted on Amazon US) are: 0345530411 and 978-0345530417 this book is published

The ISBN Numbers quoted on the Book Depository site are: 9780345530417 and 0345530411 which match the US version of the book and this is backed up by the fact that the book at the Book Depository is released. So this should be the US version.

The price quoted on the Book Depository is £14.82 and given that buying this book from Amazon US would incur a higher post cost on any of the three delivery options as offered by Amazon US; i.e. £16.08 for 18 to 32 days delivery, £19.02 for 8 to 14 days delivery and £30.75 for 2 to 4 days, I know where I will place my order.

I have ordered the US version, the other versions are not out yet.

The book depository site lists ‘Bantam’ as being the publisher, they’re the publishers in the USA . The UK book is being published by Transworld in the UK.

Anyone had it confirmed that the book on book depository is the US one?

But additionally it states 18 Sept release date? So im confused!

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Secret-Race-Inside-Hidden-World-Tour-de-France-Doping-Cover-Ups-Winning-at-All-Costs-Tyler-Hamilton/9780345530417

I was confused by that as well, but on the front page it has it down as 4 days to go for the Paperback and 17 for the UK version.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/search?searchTerm=Tyler+Hamilton&search=search

That’s what iBooks or Amazon are for!

How do I get the US version on my UK iPad? Through iBooks?

Yeah, sorry, my bad. I don’t think you can without some sort of hack. I’d loan you mine if there were some sort of iBooks lending feature.

Can anyone help (maybe RaceRadio). I live in the UK and placed an order for this book on Amazon UK. After reading about the two different versions of the book the question I have is; will the redactions in the UK version be so annoying is it worth my while cancelling the UK order and buy direct from the US, or will the UK redactions be of a minor nature? Thanks

The mysterious Julian’s comments aside (I can’t quite figure who he was talking about?), it has been an interesting week in doping, er I mean, cycling. Hamilton gives a clear picture of the widespread culture, and he also makes it clear that confessing can be a breath of fresh air. He left the door open for Armstrong: “Like I said on ‘The Today Show,’ Lance is one of the best athletes in the world. You can’t take that away from him. He got caught up in it, just like I did. I guarantee you that when he started riding a bike, he didn’t plan on doing what he did. None of us did. You got put in that situation, you worked so hard to get there, and then you are thrown for a loop.” So he just needs to do it and get it over with. He might be surprised.

I finished the book last night. Read it in one sitting.

Three things.

1. If you’re comment starts with “I haven’t read the book, but I think…”. Stop and read the book.

2. When one person accuses another of something, that could be considered a vendetta. Does a vendetta necessarily mean the accusation is false? Absolutely not.

3. When former teammates, friends, girlfriends, doctors, coaches and officials all, independently, tell a very similar story about a sport, about a time and about a person – that’s simply the truth seeping out. As Hamilton says in the book, eventually we all get popped. Did Armstrong use banned substances and techniques? Absolutely. Is he also an asshole? Sure seems like he can be. Will he ever get caught? Depends on what you mean by caught. Will he stand in front of the popping camera’s, tears streaming down, weeping a confession? For his sake, I hope so. Because after reading the book you’re really left with a sense of compassion. Compassion for the athletes, standing at the entrance to the club, forced to make extremely difficult decisions that affected not only their own livelihood but the livelihood of those closest to them. Compassion for Hamilton and his confession, for his honesty and for his desire to move on, move past. And compassion for Lance Armstrong, who is so desperately caught in his own web of deceit that, regardless of the official opinion or Hamilton’s opinion or public opinion or my opinion, he has to exist in the anger, the stress, the sadness and the loneliness of his own corruption.

Read the book.

Julian, drugs or no drugs we are also tired of the ” he was an incredibly talented athlete ” When this ” incredibly talented athlete ” retired from racing, with Nikes full support , and Alberto Salazar pacing him, opening his gels for him, runs the NY Marathon in 3hr Most pro cyclist with a little training run 2:30 or so marathons, maybe he was clean that day. Anyway looks like a good read.

Not to nitpick, but I really really doubt the truth of this outrageous statistic “Most pro cyclist with a little training run 2:30 or so marathons” How many examples have you got? I’d love to know. This reminds me of that Paul Ryan guy in the States claiming to have knocked out a 2.40 something marathon.

Not to nitpick, but I really doubt the accuracy of this outrageous statistic “Most pro cyclist with a little training run 2:30 or so marathons” How many examples have you got? I’d love to know. This reminds me of that Paul Ryan guy in the States claiming to have knocked out a 2.40 something marathon.

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You spoiled the ending!

I’m thinking positively that the cumulative influence of “tell all” books, former rider confessions to the press, and the LA Story part re-deux via USADA, will result in many more revelations. Who knows, the new “fad” in the pro peloton may be to ostentatiously reveal the truth. LOL.

Quoth Museeuw:

“I am the first to admit it openly, and perhaps many people will blame me that I break the silence, but it must be: virtually everyone took doping at that time,”

“We must break with the hypocrisy. The only way to come out of that murderous spiral is to break the silence, the silence that continues to haunt us.”

“If we do not then the borrowing into the past will continue. Only a collective mea culpa is the way to the future.”

“In the 80s and 90s everyone knew what each other was doing but never said a word about doping. Using doping was something everyone did. Eventually it became a part of your lifestyle.”

“Because it ‘is’ better, now. Never before has racing been so clean, I’m sure. But that data is completely snowed under” since many of those involved refused to tell the truth about “the things that went wrong in the past. The omerta of the past prevents cycling from now starting again with a clean slate.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/museeuw-calls-for-doping-confessions-from-past-riders

Whilst I have RaceRadio’s attention, what do you think of Vaughters making PRECISELY THE SAME points in regards to psychology and TommyD that I had made in the past about Armstrong and the change of mentality?

Remember trolling me rotten about that, saying psychology had no effect on performance? You distorted the comment and used it to smear me as I recall. I just remembered when I saw those comments by Vaughters the other day, on the same forum.

The top guys and I think alike, even the ones I disaprove of for how they handled the Armstrong situation. Whereas the only person on the same wave length with you is Betsy. Interesting.

Just noted that this comment from RaceRadio about posting on CN

“Feel free to follow me on twitter, I do not see the value of posting here any more”

Not surprised about that. Twitter is a far better format for you since you don’t have to answer anyones annoying questions and you block anyone that disagrees with you. That’s of course why celebrities love it. You just post about a little tit bit.

Life is full of irony. You are so similar to Armstrong….but without the talent and success.

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Censored Cyclist – here, have a biscuit

Whilst the secret race does not give way to the full implications of Armstrongs future, its quite a moral dilemma, given where Livestrong is and what it has done for the fight against Cancer and for sufferers all over. This could prove to be a massive unintended consequence of the real pivotal nature of USADA & Hamiltons actions that finally open the matter up.

Lets hope out of this we see leadership change and a real dialogue on systemic solutions to the issues of doping.

Jamie. The whole Livestrong story is an intriguing conundrum in and of itself. In more than one of the previous blog topics here related to Armstrong, a number of commentators, including myself, have expressed “pause” regarding the tangible contributions to the cancer research community made by the foundation, as well as some potentially “foul smelling” connection with the for profit business concerns (e.g., livestrong.com, Radioshack, etc.).

“Livestrong.org is the site for the nonprofit Lance Armstrong Foundation, while Livestrong.com is a somewhat similar-looking page that features the same Livestrong logo and design but is actually a for-profit content farm owned by Demand Media.” “….traffic to the for-profit Demand Media site has surged, in part thanks to Lance’s promotional work, while the foundation’s traffic has remained essentially flat.”

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/athletes/lance-armstrong/Its-Not-About-the-Lab-Rats.html?page=all

Real generals talk logistics. BB sabotage!

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Everything you need to know about cycling in France your independent guide

Review: The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton

Published by Lyn on 30 September 2012

Guest reviewer Julia Stagg critiques The Secret Race , the autobiography of Tyler Hamilton – the first cyclist to so publicly point the finger at Lance Armstrong over allegations of doping.

It turned out that a lot of people could blame him. He failed a drugs test at the Olympics later that year, he became embroiled in Operation Puerto not long after, and his career never recovered. I, like countless others, felt cheated. My love of cycling was tainted and, like Hamilton’s cycling life, has never returned to what it once was. So it was with some trepidation that I approached his biography.

Biography doesn’t really do it justice. It’s not a walk from infancy to adulthood with excruciating detail serving as padding. His young life is dealt with quickly and his passion for cycling soon takes over. Before you know it, you’re reading about the early races, the sense of adventure and fear as he prepares to head for Europe, and his first meeting with Lance Armstrong.

Because that’s what this book is really about – Hamilton’s relationship with Armstrong and how that relationship was defined: by success; by rivalry; and by drugs. Lots of drugs. Ingenious ways of getting the edge over others, of keeping up with your competitors. The book is co-written by cycling journalist Daniel Coyle, a former Armstrong insider and author of Lance Armstrong: Tour de Force ; Coyle says he extensively fact-checked the book to guarantee its accuracy.

I wasn’t expecting to be moved by Hamilton’s book. He broke my heart in 2004 and he’s a self-confessed cheat after all. But it is an honest, harrowing, eye-opening account that is a must-read for anyone interested in competitive cycling in the late '90s and the early 2000s. I came away with a better appreciation of the professional cyclist, under pressure to succeed. I came away with a renewed respect for Tyler Hamilton despite his misdemeanours. But most surprisingly of all, I came away with a renewed love of the sport. For underneath all the talk about the things he did wrong – and he points the finger at himself more than any other – there runs a passionate dialogue about cycling. A sport that defines him. A sport that ruined him. But ultimately, a sport that is all the better for Tyler Hamilton’s candid portrayal of life in the peloton.

The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton is published by Bantam Press.

Julia Stagg writes fiction set in the Ariège region of the French Pyrenees, an area she discovered through her passion for cycling. Her latest novel, The French Postmistress ( UK , US, Fr ), is the third in the Fogas Chronicles. It is published by Hodder and Stoughton – it even has a bike on the cover!

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The secret race : inside the hidden world of the Tour de France

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The Secret Race Summary

By: Author Tom Stevenson

Posted on Last updated: March 15, 2023

This The Secret Race summary looks at the autobiography of American cyclist Tyler Hamilton, who was a teammate of Lance Armstrong during his time in the US Postal team.

It’s an eye-opening account of the workings of the team from the incident. If you’ve read Seven Deadly Sins by David Walsh, this is a good compliment as you’re getting first-hand experience of the affair.

The book exposes the lengths the team went to in regard to doping to ensure they had an advantage over their competitors.

This is arguably the best account of the inner workings of the US Postal team and the doping machine behind Armstrong.

Hamilton was one of the top riders in the world at the time and a key lieutenant to Armstrong. What he reveals is astonishing and underlines the ruthlessness at the heart of Armstrong and his win-at-all-costs mentality.

The book will leave you more informed, in disbelief at what went on in cycling during the time and the lengths Armstrong and his team went to in order to cover up their doping.

If you’re a sports fan, this is a must-read!

Table of Contents

The secret race summary, takeaway 1 – doping was widespread in the us postal team.

It’s easy to forget that it wasn’t just Armstrong who was doping in the team, virtually all of the riders were.

Cycling is a team sport, not an individual one. This is what a lot of people don’t realise until they start following the sport. You cannot win the Tour de France without the backing of a team.

You need your teammates to keep you safe during the race, shepherd you out of trouble and ride for you in the big mountains.

The team leader is like a mafia boss. He is protected by those around him until he runs out of teammates and then the leaders of the respective team duke it out.

During Amstrong’s reign as Tour leader, his team was the most well-prepared out of the lot. Well-prepared in this instance refers to the sophisticated level of doping that went on.

Every rider had their own programme and was even given responsibility for sourcing the drugs themselves as crazy as this seems.

Perhaps the craziest part is that the US Postal’s team doping programme was so thorough, they paid a man to follow the race on a motorcycle carrying a thermos full of EPO, a drug which boosts your red blood cell count, thus improving performance.

He came to be known as Motoman by the team and was the team’s way of getting around transporting drugs while the race was on. If they were caught with them in the team car, as had happened in the 1998 Tour, they would have been thrown out of the race.

The plan was ingenious and highlights Armstrong’s win-at-all-costs approach and his paranoia. He was worried about what teams were doing and whether he would be caught, hence Motoman.

It all went back to Lance’s golden rule as Hamilton put it: “Whatever you do, those other fuckers are doing more.” 

Takeaway 2 – Armstrong was ruthless towards his rivals

While Armstrong and Hamilton were teammates in the US Postal team, Hamilton left the team in 2002, and in 2004, he was a leading contender to win the Tour.

One of the reasons Hamilton left the team was because Armstrong had become cold and vindictive towards him, possibly worried about the potential of Hamilton.

Hamilton was on great form in 2004, aided by his doping regime, and was confident of challenging Armstrong for the Tour.

One of the main warm-up races for the Tour de France is the Dauphiné Libéré . One stage of the race involved a time trial to the top of Mont Ventoux, a tough climb that regularly features on the Tour.

During the time trial, Hamilton set off after Armstrong and was consistently making ground on him as he edged closer to the finish line. By the time he had completed the stage, he added 1:22 to his advantage over Armstrong in the race, a phenomenal result.

Armstrong was not happy. Following the race, Hamilton was called to the headquarters of the cycling federation, the UCI for a meeting. There he was told his blood levels showed irregularities and that he was being watched.

Hamilton was unsure why he had been called in, but it became clearer later. His former teammate, Floyd Landis, informed him it was Armstrong who called the UCI to complain about Hamilton and accuse him of doping.

The irony is incredible. The man who gained the most from doping in cycling, raging against another rider doping in a manner that he was doing himself.

Of course, this was all part of Armstrong’s plan to consolidate his position and intimidate his rivals.

It shows his paranoia and his ruthless determination to win at all costs. It also paints him in an unfortunate light. Hamilton’s words make Armstong look cold and vindictive. This reflects how the relationship between the two had soured towards the end of their time as teammates.

Takeaway 3 – The truth always wins in the end

The irony in reading this book is that for all the efforts that went into concealing their doping, they were forced to admit to it in the end.

It may have taken years until they retired for the truth to come out, but come out it did.

The lengths Armstrong, and the other riders for that matter, went to gain an edge and then conceal that edge is breathtaking.

Motoman, performing blood transfusions throughout the season, no stone was left unturned in their quest to find more performance and find more performance than their rivals.

Yet, it was all in vain. Yes, more or less everyone was doping at this time, so it was almost a necessity to dope if you wanted to win, but they all must have known they would be caught eventually.

The problem with lies is that they are harder to keep track of than the truth. With the truth, you use what happened. There is no need to fabricate stories and embellish facts.

With a lie, you need to get your story straight, ensure you’ve rehearsed your lines and not forget what the lie is.

The other problem, and perhaps the bigger one, is that the more people that become part of the lie, the more likely it is to fall apart.

You have to keep all these people on board and hope they don’t speak out. It’s an impossible task. If someone digs deep enough and tries to find the truth, they will.

Hamilton himself cracked when federal investigators came to him, to tell the truth about Armstrong and his doping.

No matter how hard we try, or how good our lies are, they will always be found out in the end.

The Secret Race review

This The Secret Race summary has looked at brief parts o this fascinating book.

Reading it, it’s incredible what Lance Armstrong got away with. Tyler Hamilton doesn’t pull any punches and details how doping happened and affected him.

The fact that this book comes from a former close teammate of Armstrong’s gives the book more credibility.

Considering what Hamilton reveals, it’s staggering that Armstrong was able to keep his doping under wraps for so long and had the gall to deny it for so long.

I was left bewildered by the scope of the operation and Arnstrong’s ruthlessness to those who crossed him.

The book doesn’t paint a favourable picture of Armstrong, one which ran counter to the one he tried to cultivate.

This is one of the best sports books I’ve read and I can’t recommend it enough!

Who should read The Secret Race?

Anyone with an interest in cycling should read this. Armstrong’s doping is one of the most infamous cases in the sport’s history and Tyler Hamilton had a ringside seat to it all.

If you’re looking to gain a wider understanding of the scandal surrounding Armstrong and his history in general, The Secret Race is a good book to read.