Kim's review
From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France
by David Walsh
Kim's review
From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France by David Walsh
Kim's review
rating:
Did convince me (like anyone really needs convincing) just how doping-riddled cycling is, but I think did a much weaker job in the accusation against Lance. And any talk of Landis was seemingly tacked on just to boost sales, or maybe to titillate European readers with the "American doping controversy".
Yes, I did come away believing Lance did dope, but also came away with the belief that he really "had" to if he wanted to stay competitive. There's one odd chapter where Walsh attempts to make his most damning case against Lance, citing poor performances from early in Lance's career against the winner on those stages, like Marco Pantani and Richard Virenque, both of whom Walsh fails to cite as known/convicted dopers. These comparisons are part of an effort by Walsh to prove how ordinary Lance was pre-cancer, and therefore how impossible and super-human his later success was. I would argue that Lance was neither ordinary pre-cancer nor a superman post; he was a...more
Yes, I did come away believing Lance did dope, but also came away with the belief that he really "had" to if he wanted to stay competitive. There's one odd chapter where Walsh attempts to make his most damning case against Lance, citing poor performances from early in Lance's career against the winner on those stages, like Marco Pantani and Richard Virenque, both of whom Walsh fails to cite as known/convicted dopers. These comparisons are part of an effort by Walsh to prove how ordinary Lance was pre-cancer, and therefore how impossible and super-human his later success was. I would argue that Lance was neither ordinary pre-cancer nor a superman post; he was a...more
