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Tour De Lance Book Review Awesomness!

Jun 18, 2009
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Publicus posted this in another thread (thanks!), but it's worth not getting lost in the shuffle. Yeah, I know there are 1,734 Lance threads already.

http://www.podiumcafe.com/2010/7/7/1556482/tour-de-lance-by-bill-strickland

The guy writing the review is a damn fine writer and does an awesome review of the book. After his review, I'm gonna read it myself...though I'd never give any money to Strickland, so I'll be surfing various Borders Books and Barnes and Nobles, drinking coffee, eating donuts and reading it for free.

My favorite part:

Cycling journalists sitting on stories is hardly much of a shock – you can bet that Pierre Giffard and Henri Desgrange knew a thing or three about the riders they championed that never made it into the pages of Le Vélo or L’Auto. Even so, the following confession should, I think, fire up some of the forum dwellers:

"I’ve sat on some serious revelations, things Bruyneel told me about the inner workings of the sport but also things I’d heard from team directors who assumed that because I was close to Bruyneel I must already know what they were talking about. I was surprised to find out that this information was even easier to keep to myself. I knew things to be true that I wished I’d never been told. I knew many more things that could never be proved true or false, and I wanted even more never to have been told those."

Me, I’m not really interested in speculating on the nature of the stories Strickland is sitting on. I’m more intrigued by what this confession tells us about how poorly the cycling world is reported. And in a sense, this is a theme Strickland returns to time and again throughout the book. During the Giro, while embedded with Astana and riding in the team’s support car (as he did during the Gila and parts of the Tour), he notes that "the more inside you are the more bound you were to tell the approved story." And here he is at the Vuelta Castilla y León, casting a cold eye on his fellow professionals:
 
May 15, 2010
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131313 said:
Publicus posted this in another thread (thanks!), but it's worth not getting lost in the shuffle. Yeah, I know there are 1,734 Lance threads already.

http://www.podiumcafe.com/2010/7/7/1556482/tour-de-lance-by-bill-strickland

The guy writing the review is a damn fine writer and does an awesome review of the book. After his review, I'm gonna read it myself...though I'd never give any money to Strickland, so I'll be surfing various Borders Books and Barnes and Nobles, drinking coffee, eating donuts and reading it for free.

My favorite part:

Cycling journalists sitting on stories is hardly much of a shock – you can bet that Pierre Giffard and Henri Desgrange knew a thing or three about the riders they championed that never made it into the pages of Le Vélo or L’Auto. Even so, the following confession should, I think, fire up some of the forum dwellers:

"I’ve sat on some serious revelations, things Bruyneel told me about the inner workings of the sport but also things I’d heard from team directors who assumed that because I was close to Bruyneel I must already know what they were talking about. I was surprised to find out that this information was even easier to keep to myself. I knew things to be true that I wished I’d never been told. I knew many more things that could never be proved true or false, and I wanted even more never to have been told those."

Me, I’m not really interested in speculating on the nature of the stories Strickland is sitting on. I’m more intrigued by what this confession tells us about how poorly the cycling world is reported. And in a sense, this is a theme Strickland returns to time and again throughout the book. During the Giro, while embedded with Astana and riding in the team’s support car (as he did during the Gila and parts of the Tour), he notes that "the more inside you are the more bound you were to tell the approved story." And here he is at the Vuelta Castilla y León, casting a cold eye on his fellow professionals:

There is no way the book is better than this review of the book. And the review is free.
 
Jun 18, 2009
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bobs *** said:
There is no way the book is better than this review of the book. And the review is free.

well, the book will be free for me as well. While traveling to races I always seem to find myself in some stray Barnes and Nobles , drinking coffee to pay the rent and dirtying their magazines! I may just have to give it a read.

That said, you're probably right. The review was pure prose.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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Here are some exerts from the book.
"That morning, although nobody on the team will tell me what has happened, one of them has said to me, "All the guys in their hearts are now ith lance, except Palhino *(who moves to lances team)*, and Dimi Muravyev who does not reall know what is going on. Thet want lance to win.He knows how to mind**** better than anybody.

Hey, I ask Chris, "Who got the private room?" The private sleeper. "No, no" he says. "That's what lance calls contador: The Small one. Lance told him to take it. He wants to be out with the guys. "The small one is in the back room".

*at castilla leon*
Contador demanded to race with lance. From an anonomous team mate, he said Alberto wanted to smash lance. Contador watched armstrong as if most intent on trying to decide what it meant that te america had his arm warmers rolled down to his wrists, exposing his arms.


Sorry about spelling:eek:
 
Excellent review. Gives a glimpse into what makes up a Lance fanboy - the irrational worship in the face of reality.

Made me think of an interview with Thierry Adam, lead TDF commentator for France Télévisions and another confirmed fanboy, who states that he knows things first hand that contradict the "approved story", but that his job is to perpetuate the myth. The problem is that in order to perpetuate the myth the "journalists" are required to ridiculise the truth.
 
Someday, after everything's been proven and noone's going to get sued anymore, there's a book to be written on the Armstrong as Jesus phenomenon. It pops up here quite often, in casual references to the Second Coming, but in other ways as well - you have the literalists (the non-questioning true believers), and you have the charlatons like Sherwin that can't possibly believe the myth but keep it going to make money for themselves. And Strickland's thoughts are straight out of the modern 'rationalist' theologist playbook: the stories may not actually describe things that happened, but they describe a 'greater truth' - they are somewhere between real-life and fiction. It's baloney of course, starting the argument at the wrong point, but realising that requires both intelligence and integrity, both in desperately short supply amongst theologists and cycling journalists.
 
A

Anonymous

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this book came out earlier in the week but i couldnt post a picture
20kyp03.jpg
 
May 25, 2009
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This book is a joke. Written by bitter haters- haters who love cancer, hate America and want to take down everyone in cycling. I heard the cowards behind this book are:

The Editors of the Wall Street Journal
Floyd Landis*
Greg Lemond**
Betsy Andreau***
Filippo Simeoni
David Walsh****
That fat guy Lance once pushed in the snow 2009 TDF****

*Is mentally unstable
**Is overweight
***Is mentally unstable and overweight
****Particularly loves cancer
 
Jul 11, 2010
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oldschoolnik said:
This book is a joke. Written by bitter haters- haters who love cancer, hate America and want to take down everyone in cycling. I heard the cowards behind this book are:

The Editors of the Journal
Floyd Landis*
Greg Lemond**
Betsy Andreau***
Filippo Simeoni
David Walsh****
That fat guy Lance once pushed in the snow 2009 TDF****

*Is mentally unstable
**Is overweight
***Is mentally unstable and overweight
****Particularly loves cancer



You have forgotten to mention that Alberto Contador has done the translation for the Spanish version.
 
Mar 22, 2010
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top_tenz_finish said:
You have forgotten to mention that Alberto Contador has done the translation for the Spanish version.

Maybe google translate can do the translation. I find that very entertaining, especially at bedtime when I need to get to sleep quickly.
 
R.0.t.O said:
Someday, after everything's been proven and noone's going to get sued anymore, there's a book to be written on the Armstrong as Jesus phenomenon. It pops up here quite often, in casual references to the Second Coming, but in other ways as well - you have the literalists (the non-questioning true believers), and you have the charlatons like Sherwin that can't possibly believe the myth but keep it going to make money for themselves. And Strickland's thoughts are straight out of the modern 'rationalist' theologist playbook: the stories may not actually describe things that happened, but they describe a 'greater truth' - they are somewhere between real-life and fiction. It's baloney of course, starting the argument at the wrong point, but realising that requires both intelligence and integrity, both in desperately short supply amongst theologists and cycling journalists.
Brilliant observation.
 

ThaiPanda

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Jun 26, 2010
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Bill Strickland said:
I agree with Ninety5 that R.O. is sharp. I like anyone who brings something to the issue besides more screaming and mud fights.

Bill S.

Really? He just wrote you lack intelligence and integrity.

It's all an access game, isn't it? Tell the truth and your access get's cut off, so I understand your dilemma. It's not just limited to cycling journalists, especially in the US. The media in general, with a few exceptions, are nothing but *****s.
 

ThaiPanda

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Jun 26, 2010
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Bill Strickland said:
Well, Thai, I don't have to agree with him to think he's got an interesting and worthwhile point of view.

I'm not as good as most at being an absolutist . . .

You admit you sit on the truth. The truth is the story, and the truth would shoot holes in all of his opinions and perception by the public.

You don't print or seek the truth directly with him because your access will get cut off. If you would admit that then maybe we can move along with this conversation.
 

ThaiPanda

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Jun 26, 2010
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I'm gonna bump this. I thought you guys would have more to say about this.

We have posting here the author in question, who admits sitting on the truth. With so much anger posted about "myth perpetrations", we have a real live one amongst us.
 
Pseudo-journalists like Strickland have been sitting on the truth and collecting paychecks throughout Armstrong's career. Selling a myth become the hallmark of American media, whether it's in sports or politics or whatever. They sell a narrative that has little if any semblance to the truth, but it reads well and it makes people feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The truth has an acerbic quality that gives people intellectual indigestion. Difference is, the people who write the former are glorified prostitutes. Those who write the latter respect the profession of journalism.

Want to see journalism? Go read Kimmage or Walsh. These are the people who have nothing to gain from writing generally unpopular articles or books that lay out the truth in cycling.
 
May 13, 2009
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ThaiPanda said:
I'm gonna bump this. I thought you guys would have more to say about this.

We have posting here the author in question, who admits sitting on the truth. With so much anger posted about "myth perpetrations", we have a real live one amongst us.

Neither the book nor the author is of any interest to me. The only positive aspect of this whole, rather sad and pathetic enterprise is the review which made me laugh.
 
Mar 17, 2009
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Moose McKnuckles said:
Pseudo-journalists like Strickland have been sitting on the truth and collecting paychecks throughout Armstrong's career. Selling a myth become the hallmark of American media, whether it's in sports or politics or whatever. They sell a narrative that has little if any semblance to the truth, but it reads well and it makes people feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The truth has an acerbic quality that gives people intellectual indigestion. Difference is, the people who write the former are glorified prostitutes. Those who write the latter respect the profession of journalism.

Want to see journalism? Go read Kimmage or Walsh. These are the people who have nothing to gain from writing generally unpopular articles or books that lay out the truth in cycling.

a paycheck maybe?
 

The Real Deal

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Jul 25, 2010
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TeamSkyFans said:
this book came out earlier in the week but i couldnt post a picture
20kyp03.jpg


Does this book house any new material from the top selling edition Greg LeMond released just after his retirement in '94 which I purchased.

Is it worth the $?.
 

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