Lance ArmstrongRecensioni

Excellent account about Lance's fight with cancer and his fight to come back to the sport of cycling to win the Tour de France 2 years after conquering the disease.

How can one person review book about others personal life? There is no point. Seeing is believing. There is too much to feel in here. Difficult personalty of the author have too much truth to tell. Probably will be better understood by someone who at least know what is feels like to be full of fear and doubt in desperate situation, to overcome it, to pick themselves from the floor again and again, to have friends who can really make a difference...

Lance Armstrong is not a hero. He never tries to be. There is no roses and songs. This is not the story of high morale or guide to overcome difficulties head-high. This is a story of keeping going, of moving forward. This is about life.

Really interesting book. I read it because of a passing reference in the excellent [b:Born To Run|6289283|Born to Run A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen|Christopher McDougall|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255657150s/6289283.jpg|6473602]. Obviously it's a deeply impressive and moving story in its own right, but it's also engagingly written, with lots of interesting detail (mostly about cycling, or battling cancer, obviously). Almost makes me want to watch the Tour De France.

Not as good as Every Second Counts

Ok, er hat unglaubliches geleistet und durchgestanden, aber irgendwie werde ich das Gefühl nicht los, dass er doch nur ein Texanisches Arschloch ist.

Overall a great book. Didnt know much about him prior to reading. Did get booring at times.

Being a cancer survivor is one of my biggest earns in life, and in his book, Lance showed us how a serious disease can imorove one's mindset and how to be healrhier than ever even after a serious illness.

One of the greatesr books I've ever read. It inspired my book Believe, Live, Run: the story is similar, but what Lance has done after healed from stage IV cancer,is something that no one had even thought before.

Armstrong is so pretentious and he treated his wife so badly, I could not take his hard work and success too seriously.

Good book.

Great read. Enjoyed despite the obvious

Engrossing reading, but I couldn't recommend it to my boys because of the profanity.

As much as I am an Anti-Lance fan, his book is a inspiring story of fighting back from certain death

...it's about the testicles. Am I bad for saying that? Mr. Armstrong, according to my Coach Elfi, is an insufferable egotist. That said, I give him three stars for overcoming incredible adversity. I take away two stars because he showed up for a fundraising event, attended by my Coach Elfi, where the top contributors were supposed to join Mr. A for a bike ride. Armstrong left them in the dust. Nice. I should be able to separate the man from the message, but in this case I can't.

Very Inspiring. Loved it ...

Someone gave me this book insisting I read it. I generally read what's given to me by others because I know it means something to them. I've been very lucky to this point in my life. Cancer has not hit close to home. If I'd dealt with it on a more personal level, I'd likely see this book in a very different light.

Armstrong pretty much swears his way through his battle with cancer. I couldn't decide as I read if this was a monumental stand against cancer and death on his part or a man simply railing at the gods that had deigned to give on of the premier athletes on the planet a deadly disease. I write this because it seemed like he was crediting himself for his recovery more than his doctors. (Yes, self-healing is real and yes, doctors don't know all. Still...)

I admit to being a little biased on the book to begin. I'm not a big fan of autobiographies/biographies, especially when assistance is needed in writing them. So, my review/opinions should be taken lightly.

Illustrated book about disgraced US cyclist Armstrong before his fraud was made publicly known. He has been stripped on all his Tour de France wins and banned from racing. There is a sad Forward to the book by Robin Williams who called him a hero and the Uniballer (Stephen Colbert said he was a true American since he beat the French at their own race with just one testicle.) Only one mention of Bob Roll who helped him come back to racing. Bob is a nice guy. Armstrong isn't. Library discard, but tossing this one to the recycling bin where it belongs.

Read and reviewed in 2004.

I was facinated into the glimpse into Lance Armstrong. I thought it was probably as revealing of himself and his personality as was possible for him - I don't think personal introspection and self-understanding are natural for Lance, but he gave the reader a lot of what he had.

I learned more about cycling, and more about testicular cancer and its treatment. I learned about the personality of a boy who always felt he had a lot to prove, and with no strong male role model to guide him. (He did look for and find those strong male figures later in his life.) I was fascinated by the insight into the Tour de France, which I watch diligently but without that much understanding.

I thought Lance was pretty straightforward about himself and his actions. Sometimes I wondered if he knew what he was recounting was obnoxious behaviour or if he was just oblivious. Sometimes he knew and said so. Of course, like most of the readers, the dissonance between his words about his wife Kik and their subsequent breakup are disheartening.½

I picked it up this book to read on the second day of the Tour de France in 2005. This book, even more than the first, has heightened my enjoyment of the nightly television coverage of the Tour. In fact, just after reading Lance's discussion of bikes not having chains, George Hincapie used the phrase in an interview. I felt so "in the know"!

I found the book very poignant, with its focus on Kik and the children, particularly Luke, knowing that while the book focuses on valuing and saving the marriage, it is now over.

And I found Lance to be surprisingly humble and human in some places, such as when he was invited to visit NYC firefighters immediately after 9/11.

Honestly, I was prepared to dislike Lance in this book as a cocky, self-impressed, philandering man. He did not come across that way at all, and now I like him even more than ever. [note: this review was written years before Lance Armstrong being forced from the Tour. ]

Call this revisionist history if you like, but there are consequences for completely misrepresenting yourself in print. I originally gave It's Not about the Bike 3-stars, feeling that it did a good job of explaining his fight against cancer and recovery, it came across as Lance being a bit full of himself. Oh boy, was that an understatement in retrospect.

The revelations of just how low Lance Armstrong stooped to win titles and make millions sounds almost like fiction. Worse is the list of people in the sport who had the misfortune to call him out on what turned out to be the truth, only to be vilified by Lance's army of myopic fans. To this day, Lance seems uninterested in make any amends to those he wronged.

While Lance's recovery from cancer might be inspiring to some, there are frankly hundreds of thousands of other people with inspiring stories of surviving cancer who had huge obstacles to overcome and did it without lying, cheating sponsors out of millions, cheating competitors out of victories and ultimately cheating millions of fans out of a hero. The fact that he then has the audacity to act like he didn't do anything all that bad - a shrug and a 'what's the big deal' - demonstrates how egotistical and out of touch Lance Armstrong really is.

Ultimately, it turns out that It's Not about the Bike is really a work of fiction. While he did indeed have cancer and he did indeed struggle to survive it, the things he espouses in this book as lessons turn out to be a public relations campaign rather than anything from the heart. The accusations that he insisted were lies turned out to be the truth. The adulation he gladly soaked up turned out to be misplaced.

Some will argue that Lance Armstrong and is foundation did great things for a lot of people. That is possibly true. However, let's be careful giving him credit. Giving him a free pass in spite of his lies is basically stating that the end justifies the means, which is a slippery slope leading to justifying all behaviors, no matter who gets hurt. And yes, a whole lot of people got hurt by Lance's lies and actions. This book represents a crime that was not without victims. As a result, It's Not about the Bike should be left in the dust pile of history and we need to celebrate the survivors who did so without mortgaging their humanity in the process.

On Wednesday, November 17, 2004 I wrote on bookcrosing:

I had to decide what to read next and decided to read this book. Although I do not like Lance Armstrong I love The Tour de France and want to know as much as I can of the event and the participants.I have heard that this is a very good book and while reading I noticed I forget the arrogant guy who treats the other cyclists with not enough respect. Now I just want to read how he dealt with the cancer and I know a lot of the names and persons he is talking about which makes it more interesting.will update this journal while reading.

Update November 18 2004 Oh My God. I tried to read this story with an open mind but after the first 2 chapters the way this guy is ranting, it made me sick. This guy is full of himself, does not have any respect for others, he is a narcistic arse. This is one angry man with one of the hugest ego's I ever experienced in my life! Everybody is tiptoeing around him. Some of the bycicle facts are not correct and the story about Pantani? don't get me started. He made a big show how he gave the win to Pantani. He humiliated Marco which was not unnecessary at all in 2000, calling him El Elefanta (because Marco had big ears) since then I have no respect for this guy and this book proved I was right.He is just an angry little selfish child.




Update: I wrote this nearly 10 years ago. I can't tell you how satisfying it is for me to see this bully finally got his come uppance.

Lance Armstrong sure thinks Lance Armstrong is great.

Oct 15 2012. The doping report has just been published. When I read this book in 2002, I considered it to be a "favorite" book -- about a courageous and talented man who served as a role model. I rated the book 4 stars -- very high for me. Others have commented in their reviews about Armstrong's brutal "honesty" in dealing with cancer. "A powerhouse with a greater purpose..." "Inspirational ..." "... not always a nice guy, but he is arguably the greatest bicyclist ever." Well, Armstrong told a good story. I am however, changing my rating for his story from 4 stars to 1/2 star -- "Couldn't stand it." The story Armstrong told was very, very good. It now appears that the life he has led was not. I cannot stand the apparent deceptions and failures of character.½

Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong faces a different kind of challenge in this straight-forward memoir: cancer. His status as an elite athlete masked the pain & symptoms of his cancer (which started as testicular and spread to his lungs and brain.) Once in the fight, however, he is unrelenting --and honest about the effects, not to mention the premium care he receives. Obviously, he beats the odds (which were as low as 5%) and survives -- even thrives-- to win two more Tour de France races. The book is best in its honest, direct narrative of this fight; less so, when he talks about his marriage (now over) and fatherhood. This reader is not a cyclist or a nurse but was still captivated.

As a cancer survivor and a caregiver, this book spoke to my own experience. I may not be a world-class anything, but there is still a connection between everyone who has ever been told, "You have cancer." Lance and Sally captured that.