It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life
by Lance Armstrong, Sally Jenkins

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• ISBN13: 9780425179611
• Condition: New
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Book Reviews of It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Book Review: Riveting
Summary: 5 Stars

Before I read "It's Not About The Bike," I knew virtually nothing about the sport of Cycling. This sport is definitely one of the more physically grueling and mentally demanding. Mainly because of the lengthy races, and the lengthy training time required to compete at the professional level.

A dedicated hard working athlete that trained relentlessly, Armstrong also had a genetic advantage, like most world champion athletes: he has enormously high levels of VO-2, which is the amount of oxygen that can be absorbed into the body from the lungs. He also produces extremely low levels of Lactic Acid, which is the natural chemical in our body that causes a burning sensation in our muscles when we exert them strenuously (Spaghetti legs and burning, for example). That is why when many of the world's top cyclists were burning out at the end of a race, Armstrong could charge up a long and steep hill to overtake them, or strategically sprint to the end.

Some of the Cycling lingo a reader will learn: pulling, Peloton, sitting on someone's wheel, fricking, dafting, "Give an inch, gain a friend," and "bonking out."

To train for events and stay in tip-top shape a cyclist has to obviously ride a lot. 6 hours straight, at times. Getting run off of the road in Texas by a Ford F-250, crashing onto the pavement, and getting actually hit by cars happened to Armstrong several times. I could relate to him tell how he shook his fist and middle-finger at a passing vehicle as he lay on the ground, gravel embedded in him, with his bike on top of him. Crashes will happen, and one of the most dangerous parts of a race are the descents. Racers go at high speeds, through hair-pin curves. I slight error can mean serious injury, or even death, as one team member of Armstrong fractured the back of his skull and neck.

Cycling was significant but not exclusive part in this this book about Lance Armstrong's life. He shared a lot about his private and personal beliefs, fears, tragedies and triumphs. I liked the fact that this auto-biography didn't paint just the pretty pictures that most auto-bios do (after, these people are writing about themselves). Armstrong often candidly provided the reader with interesting little things about him, as well as his thoughts and feeling about issues, both big and small. This info. on the little stuff is what I am often most curious about. Armstrong is a Gen Xer, and this is evident throughout the book. Quoting from the movie "Goodwill Hunting," Armstrong has a favorite quote from a dialog between Matt Damon and a Harvard preppy after they have an intellectual debate. This quote means a lot to Armstrong, and he applies it to his life:

"You like apples?"

"Yeah, I like apples."

"I just got her phone number. How do you like them apples?"

As for the sport the reader will learn the tactics, strategies, and politics of Cycling. Like any popular and lucrative sport with many athletes participating and dedicated fans involved, there is hard-core and fierce, competition. In Italy, some local fans were so unsettled with the fact that an American was beating their favorite son (Armstrong in the lead), they threw tacks onto the road hoping to pop Armstrong's tire. In another incident, a person sprayed pepper spray into the Peloton (pack of racers), causing some riders not to be able to finish the race.

CANCER & CHEMO:
When he began to feel pain and have diminished energy he thought it was just another part of being sore from training and racing, because soreness and pain came with the extremely demanding physical training. After going to the doctor he learns out of the blue that he has a terrible prognosis. He is knocking at death's door. The cancer had spread to his lungs and his brain. 24 years old. A world-class athlete. Facing death.

Lance takes us through his fight and the reader will learn a lot about the disease, what it does, and what is used to fight it. After he beat Cancer with a combination of foods and 4 cycles of Chemo therapy, he recovered, then returned to training. The cancer and it's destructive effect made me cringe and Armstrong described the chemicals, methods, and side-effects of chemotherapy.
Caner: up close and personal. What it does to your body. How it kills. How Chemo kills you, and how it kills cancer. What is it like to look death in the face? Everyday. Most of us have not experienced this.

Another scary scenario was that when he was diagnosed with Cancer and was to begin treatment to save his life, his insurance company refused to pay. He technically had no health insurance, even though he had had medical insurance (he was switching jobs and there was contractual "fine print"). Only in America.

After he beat the odds, he got back into Cycling: Victories started to come again. Armstrong eventually triumphed in the Tour De France, the most demanding of all Cycling competitions. People had wrote him off as dead. When he returned to Cycling, some previous sponsors would not even tough him. They thought he was finished.

After Armstrong's success, funny, that the French media began spurring rumors and unfounded allegations that Armstrong was taking performance enhancers, without having any proof at all. In fact, Armstrong was one of the very few Cyclists to live and train in France, which has the most comprehensive drug testing laws regarding athletes in all of Europe, while other riders trained elsewhere, avoided the possibility of random tests. Yet, the French media had to start false rumors.

Armstrong noted the suburban isolation of the "soul-deadened" alienation of the suburb, Plano, Texas. Home to wealthy polo shirt wearing country-club members, yet Plano has one of the highest rates of teen heroin addiction and teen suicide in the U.S.

"It's Not About The Bike," will make you think....

Summary of It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

Cancer Books

• Books > Subjects > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Disorders & Diseases
• Sports & Outdoors > Biographies
• Individual Sports > Cycling