Tour de France (Bicycle race)

Lance Armstrong-s War- One Man-s Battle Against Fate- Fame- Love- Death- Scandal- and a Few Other Ri

1 stars (Lance is A Star, This Book Is Not!) - The writer spends time with Lance Armstrong during the 2004 season, but spends most of his pages covering other racers, and nothing that I can recall about Lance's struggle with cancer, his early racing years, etc. I did find some of the statistical information interesting - eg. there are about 5 serious injuries/week during cycling season, spread among the approximately 400 professional cyclists. In comparison, for NASCAR 2002, there were only 5 serious injuries the entire year. Lance's maximum heart rate is 185 beats/second, and can sustain an output power level of almost 500 watts for 30-60 minutes. (Try one of those 100 watt light-bulb power displays - damn tough, though only arms are used.) According to the author most can only sustain 500 watts on a bicycle for about ten seconds. A TV report stated that Armstrong's heart was about 10% larger than average upon birth, and is now about one-third larger than average; still another source stated that his lungs can consume more than double the amount of oxygen of a normal, healthy man. "Losing weight is the most important thing you can do," according to Lance. Each ounce adds about a second for an eight-mile climb. Trek sponsors Lance, and builds his bicycles - the new one for that year involved about $250,000 in expense, and it didn't help him so he threw it on a trash-pile. His tires are glued to the rim after being aged two years in the darkness of a basement. Finally, I'd always heard that riding behind someone takes less energy - the author reports that its about 30% less. Quite a lot, and hence the logic of bicycling teams. Armstrong's "It's Not About the Bike" is a much, much better and more interesting work 5 stars (Inspiring and Captivating) - I began this book with very little knowledge regarding professional cycling and the Tour De France. I was unaware that competitive cycling is to Europe what boxing is to the United States; a sport where most ...
HarperCollins :: Sports & Recreation & General :: United States :: Tour de France (Bicycle race) :: Sports - General :: Sports & Recreation :: Sports :: General :: Cyclists :: Cycling :: Lance Armstrong-s War- One Man-s Battle Against Fate- Fame- Love- Death- Scandal- and a Few Other Ri