Coyle's Book on Armstrong

I finished Coyle's book on Armstrong last week, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a Lance fan, a Tour de France fan or just someone with a mild interest in bicycling. Coyle does a great job of explaining the intricacies of road racing, team work, and the modern crusade to eradicate drugs from the sport. Interesting insight and background is provided on Lance of course but also Dr. Ferrari, Bruyneel, Ullrich, Vino, Mayo, Tyler Hamilton and Floyd Landis.

Here's a great quote that prefaced Chapter 25
Road racing imitates life, the way it would be without the corruptive influence of civilization. When you see an enemy lying on the ground, what's your first reaction? To help him to his feet?
In road racing, you kick him to death.
-- Tim Krabbe, in his novel, The Rider

That is harsh and true.

Coyle cracked me up with this one:
Like boxing or horse-racing --- or the Catholic Church, for that matter --- the professional cycling calendar is organized around a random-seeming sequence of big and small events...

Classic