I was never a fan of bike racing but was a fan of the USA. When I first saw the name LeMond it was a small article in a local paper when he won his first Tour De France. Back then in the early 80’s usually a show titled the Wide World of Sports would show just a portion of the last day. It was not until he won that I even paid attention to the sport of bike racing. The next time I heard his name was when he was shot by someone he went hunting with and was struck by multiple shotgun pellets. Then a few years later he would win the Tour again. The author takes you through all of these moments. He also begins with the sport bake at the turn of the century when cycling was all of craze and there was nothing but tournaments and competitions throughout the U.S. and the World. That is until the automobile came. He will give history on the two champions of that aria, and the sport leading up to LeMond becoming the first American to win the Tour De France. He goes in the completion he had against some European riders also. Up to the point where Lance Armstrong begins his second go around in cycling and how after a few tour wins begins to destroy Lomond’s and other people who spoke out that he was taking illegal drugs. You get to see the threats that were made and recorded, lawsuits field and won by the LeMond family in court and how after Greg LeMond was torn down by the cycling World and in this country he was slowly coming back. What always got me was how the press never made a big deal about him winning the first time, when it seems all they were looking for was something to put the U.S. on top. This was a good story and I am glad I was able to read this book.

Thank you Net galley for the free ARC.
I am big fan of professional cycling and remember Greg Le Monde's wins and losses at the Tour de France. What most of us don't know is what it costs physically and mentally to be an elite biker racer. Interesting background about the hunting accident and Greg's torturous comeback. Good book!

Greg LeMond woke up the American sporting public to the Tour de France with his upset victory in the 1896 race. Three years later, after his career nearly ended due to injuries suffered in a shooting accident during a hunting trip, he again won the race by eight seconds over Frenchman Laurent Fignon. The final stage of the race is the starting point of this terrific book by Daniel de Visè.

While the book primarily tells the story of LeMond’s life and career, the reader will learn much about other prominent cycling athletes. The reader will learn why LeMond chose cycling for his sport (he wanted to compete in sports where “I could accomplish something myself without having to depend on others”), the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a family member and how he became the voice of “clean” racers when the doping culture of the sport became more prominent in the age of erythropoietin (EPO) and later “mechanical doping” in which a small machine would aid a cyclist with his speed.

Of course, the book delves into the fall of Lance Armstrong and Greg’s interactions, both the good and the bad, with the fallen star. It made for great reading, as it almost felt like a soap opera, as Armstrong first was counting on LeMond’s advice on the life of a professional cyclist, then later as the doping accusations became louder, Armstrong nearly destroyed LeMond’s life, including the public revelation of Greg being a victim of abuse. While much of this material is available in other books, this account felt like a very intimate and personal version. This was just one example of the outstanding writing that was on display throughout the book.

The story of Fignon is just as compelling in this book as is LeMond’s as their lives seemed to move along parallel paths. Like Greg, Laurent had his own demons and had to come back from a serious injury. The 1989 Tour de France was the signature race of his comeback, just like LeMond, only with a different result. The reader feels both LeMond’s joy and Fignon’s agony in this result throughout the book as the results affected both men for the rest of their lives.

The strategy of tour racing, how teams work to ensure that their strongest rider will have a chance for victory and the cutthroat nature of the sport are all on display in sections about the races. The description of the peloton, or pack of riders, and what goes on in that mass of bikes and humans, was very compelling and I enjoyed learning just how important a role the peloton plays in the strategy for riders during a race.

No matter the level of knowledge or interest the reader has in cycling, this book is a must read for all sports fans who love a good story of a classic comeback and of the adventures of athletes, both “good” and “bad”. I have been enjoying books on the sport and this one is certainly one of the best.

I wish to thank Atlantic Monthly Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve long been a fan of professional road race cycling and have particularly enjoyed following the Grand Tours (the three multi-stage road races that run annually across and around France, Italy and Spain). Most notably, from the 1980’s I'd sit transfixed watching the daily television updates from Le Tour with commentators Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen gabbling in animated fashion as they covered the key events of the day. The mountain stages in particular were amazing, with crowds two or three deep lining what looked like virtually vertical climbs up and over the mountains roads of the Alps and Pyrenees. So close were the spectators to the riders that physical contact was not unusual. I was then, and remain still, convinced that these three week long races are the most physically demanding events in any sport I've followed.

If one race in particular grabbed me and made me a life long fan it was the 1989 Tour de France, won after an immense battle by only 8 seconds - this after something over two thousand miles of racing. Its two major protagonists – American Greg LeMond and Frenchman Laurent Fignon – passed the overall race lead back and forth until the final dramatic (and desperate) time trial crowned an overall winner. It was an immensely exciting but at the same time a horribly cruel way to end such an epic contest.

This book takes the final time trial as it’s start point before slipping back in time to tell the story of not only Greg’s life but also that of Laurent too. We learn that though the two grew up in very different environments their stories share many similarities. The the same age, they both became noticed as strong riders in their teenage years. Their paths were destined to cross often and at one point they were even part of the same racing team. It seems that they were never close friends – there was too much rivalry for that – but in time they did share a mutual respect for the other’s ability.

Aside from the this racing rivalry, the other key theme here is the drug culture that has long plagued this sport. It’s clear that riders had pretty much always used a variety of substances to aid them in surviving the sheer brutality of professional road racing, but from the early 1990’s the introduction of erythropoietin (EPO) brought about the spectacle of average riders lifting their ability to that of the acknowledged elite. Suddenly, it seemed, if you didn't take EPO you couldn't win. Greg always claimed (and there’s no evidence to refute this claim) that he raced clean. Laurent admitted that he had used substances, but this only in the years before EPO, when the drugs couldn't make a champion out of an also ran. The biggest scandal to hit the sport was, of course, that involving the multi-winner of the Tour de France (1999 – 2005), Lance Armstrong.

After his racing career ended Greg became an outspoken advocate, speaking out in an effort to help clean up cycling and in this respect he clashed with Armstrong who he'd fingered as a ‘doper’. This was to have a significant impact on LeMond’s life as increasingly dirty tactics were used to try to discredit or gag him. Greg’s most guarded secret, that of his childhood abuse at the hands of a family friend, was even used as a weapon in this battle.

I was familiar with some of the ground covered in this book, having previously read Fignon’s autobiography We Were Young and Carefree and also an exposé on the drug taking by Lance Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service team by teammate Tyler Hamilton in The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs. However, there was a good deal of new information for me to digest here too. I really enjoyed the way the author drew parallels between the lives and careers of LeMond and Fignon, and though I recall previously reading that Greg had been the victim of a shooting accident, shortly after he’d seemingly reached the peak of his career, I hadn't before gleaned the detail of this event and the long road to recovery that followed. Fignon had had his years in the wilderness too, courtesy of a serious injury he'd struggled for years to overcome. The story of the 1989 race is really the tale of two vanquished riders coming back for one last contest, a duel (in my opinion) as mighty as anything in the history of sport - it's truly enthralling.

This is thoroughly researched account, mainly focused on what was, for me, the heyday of competitive road racing. It's written in an engaging and even handed way and that drew me in almost as though it were an enthralling piece of fiction. It's a book that shouldn't be missed by any fan of bike racing or, in fact, any sports fan.