کتاب، خاطرات لانس آرمسترانگ از مبارزه خود با بیماری سرطان، بازگشتش به دنیای دوچرخه‌سواری و قهرمانی در تور دوفرانس است. مطالعه این کتاب که به توصیه علیرضا مجیدی (https://goo.gl/5SQPjt ) انجام شد، با پخش مستندی از شبکه ورزش در تاریخ 29 تیر96 به نام دروغ آرمسترانگ همزمان شد. کاش وی به وادی دوپینگ وارد نمی‌شد تا کماکان یک اسطوره باقی می‌ماند. البته کتاب متن روان و ترجمه خوبی دارد.
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Read this years before the doping thing came into limelight.
I must admit, he is a strong man, what he has gone through the years, cannot be simply written off!

Even though on performance enhancers, getting up, practicing each day, regularly, for years together, is not possible by critics, but by very few people, one of them appears to be you.

Rating 3/5

Cheers,

Really good book about a great cyclist.

A candid write up about his exceptional journey through cancer and the toughest victory after it, was nothing but inspirational!

I didn’t add this book to the list originally because it’s not currently sitting on my shelf. I threw it away after Lance’s fall from grace. Lance Armstrong was my hero. His inspiring story of beating cancer to win the Tour de France got me on the bike. I cycled off eighty pounds over a two year period of the hundred I gained from taking prednisone for my severe eczema. I’ve even quoted him several times in my own work over the years.

So, Lance can't write for toffee. I guess that's fine, he's a cyclist not an author. But why hire a ghost write who's only marginally better. That's an assumption actually, maybe Lance would have done better on his own...

Points are clawed back to OK because it's a genuinely interesting story, it's just a shame that it's presented in such a wooden and smug book.

Some reviews said the book was high fiction, let it be , winning tour de France as a cancer survivor is not that easy. I dont know LA outside of the book, what he did after 2001, but this book is a hopeful read. This gives courage not only from LA, but also from his lovable mom Linda, such a strong woman she was along with Kik. The book elaborates his entire timeline as a boy to winning his first TDF , during which he had undergo chemo, surgery for his cancer. This book is strong, hopeful & gives life lessons to all. It's not about the physical strength that lets you win the race of life, its MENTAL. It's all in your head that makes you g(r)o-w through your life. Cancer would really be the "Tour de France of illness" , what is stronger - fear or HOPE ? I choose the latter after the book

This book does not cut any corners. Lance is completely honest and forward with all aspects of his life. The detail in the cancer treatment section was amazing. Lance seems pretty full of himself. Not without reason though. He is the best rider out there and he has beaten cancer, and he will not let you forget it. It was a very interesting book and I ripped through it very quickly. This book is for everyone, you don't have to have cancer or be a bike rider to understand or enjoy this book. Enjoy!

3/5
Ironic.

I pick up this book to read when I was feeling low with the certain things happened in my personal life. Lance, thru this book helped me realize that anything is achievable and any hurdle could be overcome. Thank you Lance.

I have heard of Lance Armstrong, the man who won the Tour de France record-breaking seven times after recovering from life threatening cancer. So what I expected from this book was a fairy tale of a rider who survived cancer and became successful in the tour. But what I got was totally different and I’ve become a fan of Lance and the cycling.

Lance’s life as a whole is inspiring not only the cancer survival or tour de France victories. He started his career with a cycle on credit. His first bike damaged by a truck driver, second one lost in a life threatening accident but still he never stopped riding. You should definitely have enough courage and determination to continue.

He finished last in the first professional race he participated and was laughed at. I think many of us not trying anything challenging because of the fear of similar reactions. Look at him, he got over it and what are the things he had done.

‘What makes a great endurance athlete is the ability to absorb potential embarrassment and to suffer without complaint’ is what he said about this incident. I feel this is not only for athlete, this is for all of us who are trying to withstand in this competitive world where only fittest will survive.

This book is an eye opener for me on the cancer and it’s diagnosis. The detail account of chemo and effects of it definitely make me understand why it is considered as one of the worst diseases. On these parts of the book, I liked his attitude and determination to win over the disease and come back to the normal life.

When someone tells you’re not good to do something, don’t simply accept it. Try doing it at least to prove that person is wrong. Lance did it. When Cofidis and many other teams rejected him saying he is no more the athlete who wins the races, he was determined to prove them wrong and you know what happened.

I liked one more quote of him in the book. It is,

Definition of a ‘human’ as follows, characteristic of people as opposed to God or animals or machines, especially susceptible to weakness and therefore showing the qualities of man.

If you want me to tell he was lucky. I would say in three things. He born in USA, he got a very understanding mother and great coaches. Why I say USA is, he could earn himself about $20k at the age of 16 by participating in various triathlon events. In India, even the professional athletes who participated in various international events could not even think of earning so much. (Except of course the cricketers).

Secondly, an understanding parent is very important for a career as an athlete. I know many of my friends who have to give up their ambitions in sports just for the sake fulfilling their parents’ wishes.

Lance was extremely lucky to have the coach like Chris Carmichael. Whenever his confidence gone low Chris was there. I heard this from many that a good coach is the reason for more than half you achieved in the arena. Definitely Lance was lucky to have one.

I really liked Lance’s frank account of all the things happened in his life, including his initial arrogance, his shortcomings, cancer and infertility. If you ask me to point out one important lesson I learned from this book that would be,

‘If a man who had less than 10% chance of surviving, can survive and win over the world by his determination and never give up attitude why can’t we, who had very little problems compared to the one he had to overcome.’

On second thought, Lance, I stripped the extra 4 stars I gave you when I first read the book. It just so happens that you were a big fat liar, and now feeling sorry or happy for you is really hard to do.

But here's the original review of the book I wrote, when I had assumed the author was an honest and hard-working person without all the issues he developed during the Tour de France, all of which are entirely 100% his fault.

---- the old review ----
I picked up this book in the juice store in San Jose on a trip in 2007. Someone I knew had given a moving speech on Lance, and I love inspiring stories. The words, the descriptions, and the story, is so deep, and so well-written, that it was incredibly hard to put down. You start to get to know a real person, and all his defeats, his hardship, his anger, and his emergence as a real winner in face of it all. It is the best read in all of my carefully selected dozen books in the last few months. I highly recommend it!!! I love you Lance Armstrong! You are amazing!!
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In my opinion, this book kept me intrigued to continue to read it because of all the motivational lessons to be learned, all being hidden in deep detail of the book. Common followers to this book would most likely be people diagnosed with similar diseases, they can use Lance as an inspiration to carry on. Although I am not a cancer patient, I do not have to battle through the struggles that he or others have to everyday but by reading this book, it allowed me see life from a different perspective and embrace every moment given to me from now on.

One specific reason as to why I favored this book is because Lance was so blunt about every situation he faced throughout his life. Basically, Lance's book served as a guide to many cancer patients just having been diagnosed because he told them what to expect or showed them in some aspect. By saying, "People die [from cancer]. And after you learn it, all other matters seem irrelevant. They just seem small," it showed people that you must not dwell on your problems but simply move past them and embrace the present day of living.

I rated this book as 4 because it teaches inspirational life lessons, it's a good book to follow when you're down in the dumps because it will make a person realize that their life really isn't that bad, it could be worse. With every personal story Lance told, it pulled me in emotionally and allowed me to relate in a similar but less intense way. In my eyes, Lance appears as an imperfect hero who manages to do extraordinary things and his story deserves an excellent rating!