I'll be keeping my signed copy.
SC1990 said:
I'd rather he refunded everyone who bought it their money back.
I'm fine with my investment. It was hilarious at points, and that's worth the price right there. I am, and always have been, unapologetically interested in Floyd's story. Am I a fan? Sure, call it that. Am I stupid? I don't think so. Apparently I'm smarter than Loren Mooney.
Orvieto said:
This was the 2010 TDF preview edition of the magazine. It was full of Nissan and Radio Shack ads and had LA and Contador on the cover. Mooney claimed "Doping, as a topic, sparks so much frenzied noise in the media that it now repels me". It's not the doping itself. It's the media noise that she finds repulsive. Fittingly "we decided to leave the scandal out of our Tour De France preview."
Chapter 11
Presumed Guilty is where he addresses doping head on. He states, "I did not use performance-enhancing drugs in the 2006 Tour de France or any other time in my career." Even back then, wanting to believe in the guy, I thought that was a bit too much like "I never had sexual relations with that women, Ms Lewinsky." It just seemed so scripted and thrown in at the behest of his lawyers. I didn't buy it. But I realized there was a ton more to the story.
I always thought it was unfair when reporters would ask him "Have you
ever doped?" How could he possibly answer that truthfully without setting off an explosion? Not mention, the question was totally irrelevant. The question was , Did he dope for the 2006 Tour. More specifically, the only real question at stake was, Did he use what he was accused of using? That was the only
valid question. But that's what makes these things so messy.
I re-read the entire book immediately after his confession came out last May. It was fascinating to see it in a whole new light, now knowing how his managers and trainers were all in on it.
Is it worth reading? Absolutely if you are interested in Floyd, the person. Because there is a lot of truth on the pages and, at this point, I think it's pretty easy to separate fact from fiction. It offers another piece to the puzzle.
From a lying standpoint, it also offers of view of how an athlete can skew their side of the story. It makes it easier to spot the next one.