Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong
By Juliet Macur
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
About this ebook
The definitive account of Lance Armstrong's spectacular rise and fall.
In June 2013, when Lance Armstrong fled his palatial home in Texas, downsizing in the face of multimillion-dollar lawsuits, Juliet Macur was there—talking to his girlfriend and children and listening to Armstrong's version of the truth. She was one of the few media members aside from Oprah Winfrey to be granted extended one-on-one access to the most famous pariah in sports.
At the center of Cycle of Lies is Armstrong himself, revealed through face-to-face interviews.
But this unfolding narrative is given depth and breadth by the firsthand accounts of more than one hundred witnesses, including family members whom Armstrong had long since turned his back on—the adoptive father who gave him the Armstrong name, a grandmother, an aunt. Perhaps most damning of all is the taped testimony of the late J.T. Neal, the most influential of Armstrong's many father figures, recorded in the final years of Neal's life as he lost his battle with cancer just as Armstrong gained fame for surviving the disease.
In the end, it was Armstrong's former friends, those who had once occupied the precious space of his inner circle, who betrayed him. They were the ones who dealt Armstrong his fatal blow by breaking the code of silence that shielded the public from the grim truth about the sport of cycling—and the grim truth about its golden boy, Armstrong.
Threading together the vivid and disparate voices of those with intimate knowledge of the private and public Armstrong, Macur weaves a comprehensive and unforgettably rich tapestry of one man's astonishing rise to global fame and fortune and his devastating fall from grace.
Editor's Note
A modern pariah…
Sports and pop culture fans alike will be engrossed in this intimate and searing portrait of Lance Armstrong, one of the most notorious public figures of our time.
Juliet Macur
Juliet Macur is a leading sports reporter for The New York Times. Since 2004, she has covered the Olympics and Olympic sports, doping and legal issues for the paper. She has been at the forefront of reporting the Lance Armstrong story. She lives in New York City.
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Reviews for Cycle of Lies
82 ratings13 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disgusts me that I spent hours and hours of July after July watching the Tour de France and believing in Lance Armstrong.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great fast reading book. I hope the author wasn't playing fast and loose with the facts. Many insights here. Lance and his mother drifted apart, apparently. He would not give her money when she needed it nor use her as his real estate agent thus giving her some income. My favorite character is Dave Zabrieske. His father was heavily involved in drugs and he did not want to dope, but did to stay on Postal team.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interesting to read what people were thinking and doing while the public information was out there. No real new information, but confirmation of all the rumours that have been a part of cycling and specifically Lance Armstrong and the Tour forever.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really good book. Brought to light a lot of things I didn't know about.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5true story
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5true book
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Difficult subject handled well. Documentation and extensive interviews bring out a story so obscured by lies from so many people that it's hard to believe that there was any truth left to find. There is plenty of blame to go around and the book isn't skimpy in doling it out. However, I am sorry that the names Americans most associate with pro cycling coverage are glaringly absent. Phil Ligget, Paul Sherwin and Bob Roll are not quoted here. (I assume they are some of the people the author says refused to be named in this book) I had hoped to find some information to decipher Roll's opinion given during the ITT stage of 2014 TDF given so carefully it was practically in code.
There is still plenty here and it is presented much more clearly than the 2 minutes devoted to the issue in this year's daily tour coverage. It makes me sad that the television tour coverage is more tangled than I had hoped. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5pretty revealing information on Armstrong's mother!
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Lance Armstrong is an awsome individual. Who hasn't made mistakes. He has inspired generations.
JZ, arizona. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Poorly written, biased, gossipy and excessive moralizing by the author as if she herself is a paragon of moral virtue. I state that because her personal views and beliefs constantly interjects into her reporting. She reminds me of Mary Carillo commentating for television network's as tennis analyst babbling idiotic things with no credentials to show other than a personal friendship with John McEnroe. Macur presents no evidence to convince anyone she understands anything about cycling - let alone professional cycling. Hanging out at road races like some wanton groupie and 1 hour interview with Armstrong doesn't qualify someone to write about the sport pretending any level of expertise. The writer's knowledge of cycling is zero. Her writing ability is what one would expect of a middling newspaper reporter. Whoever gave her a job at NYT should be fired and Macur should be assigned to write obituaries which would better match her writing skills.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5he did wrong but it does'nt mean it he did wrong but it does'nt mean it was only due to his medicines.was only due to his medicines.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5not a good thing to demoralize a legend.
he did wrong but it does'nt mean it was only due to his medicines.
there was a struggle from him and why someone don't catch the officials who conducted and approved doping tests in all tournaments. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Very good