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    Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour De France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever
    Unavailable
    Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour De France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever
    Unavailable
    Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour De France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever
    Audiobook12 hours

    Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour De France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever

    Written by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell

    Narrated by Santino Fontana

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The first in-depth look at Lance Armstrong's doping scandal, the phenomenal business success built on the back of fraud, and the greatest conspiracy in the history of sports

    Lance Armstrong won a record-smashing seven Tours de France after staring down cancer, and in the process became an international symbol of resilience and courage. In a sport constantly dogged by blood-doping scandals, he seemed above the fray. Then, in January 2013, the legend imploded. He admitted doping during the Tours and, in an interview with Oprah, described his "mythic, perfect story" as "one big lie." But his admission raised more questions than it answered—because he didn't say who had helped him dope or how he skillfully avoided getting caught.

    Wall Street Journal reporters Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell broke the news at every turn. In Wheelmen they reveal the broader story of how Armstrong and his supporters used money, power, and cutting-edge science to conquer the world's most diffcult race. Wheelmen introduces U.S. Postal Service Team owner Thom Weisel, who in a brazen power play ousted USA Cycling's top leadership and gained control of the sport in the United States, ensuring Armstrong's dominance. Meanwhile, sponsors fought over contracts with Armstrong as the entire sport of cycling began to benefit from the "Lance effect." What had been a quirky, working-class hobby became the pastime of the Masters of the Universe set.

    Wheelmen offers a riveting look at what happens when enigmatic genius breaks loose from the strictures of morality. It reveals the competitiveness and ingenuity that sparked blood-doping as an accepted practice, and shows how the Americans methodically constructed an international operation of spies and revolutionary technology to reach the top. At last exposing the truth about Armstrong and American cycling, Wheelmen paints a living portrait of what is, without question, the greatest conspiracy in the history of sports.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 15, 2013
    ISBN9780698148956
    Unavailable
    Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour De France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever

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    Reviews for Wheelmen

    4/5

    52 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Though it took me a long time to get through (through no fault of the book itself), it was worth it. Wheelmen is an exceptional book about the fall of a sporting hero and an intimate look at the dark secrets of the sport of cycling. As long as there are men like Armstrong in and around cycling, doping will never disappear. Wheelmen does an excellent job of exposing this dark, doping underbelly of the sport that so many (myself included) love dearly.
    • 4/5
      I'm so disappointed in Lance Armstrong. He really comes across as an arrogant jerk in this book.
    • 3/5
      An interesting review of the events that led up to Lance's great downfall. It does not shed much light though on how the "team" led by Lance was able to pull off the fraud and deception for so long. Obviously many holes and questions linger as to what was going on with the policing side of the story and how they were duped.With all the money, fame, and fortune at stake motive is certainly no mystery in Lance's story and he played it to the hilt. His justification of course was everyone was doing it so that made it Ok in his view. What brought him down so hard though was his typical arrogance in steamrolling anyone threatening his exposure and in turn the destiny of his incredible dynasty not only in the sport itself but as a public hero. Lance the man who beat cancer coming back against all odds to not only triumph but to reign as the all time greatest. All built on carefully constructed fraud.Maybe we will learn more in time and this book sheds a bit more light on the story, but there is much we still don't know. And of course the future, has the problem been eradicated? Will Lance somehow redeem himself or at least lessen the disgrace? Stay tuned one thing we can be certain of there will be more books.
    • 5/5
      Lance Armstrong was one of the best cyclists in last 20 years. His wins were built on a foundation of illegal doping and performance enhancing drugs. It's not about the bike; It's all about the needle.I first came to road cycling during the rise of Mr. Armstrong and his seven wins of the Tour de France. His story as a cancer-survivor coming back to win the biggest race in the world was an inspiration. But, it was all built on lies. The United States Anti-Doping Agency stripped him of all of his cycling wins since his recovery from cancer.Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O'Connell write a devastating tale of Mr. Armstrong's rise and meteoric crash. The book is very well-written and well-researched. We only saw Lance on his bike. The book takes us through what was happening on the team bus and hotel.
    • 3/5
      We probably should have known better. When something is too good to be true… We were duped, but I feel like we need to take some of the blame. We wanted to believe in this level of sports competence…every year…for seven years…by a man who would be considered old in any other sport…and a cancer survivor. Okay, but enough about me.

      What surprised me about the information I learned here is Lance’s early home life. His mother never finished high school and was pregnant with Lance at sixteen when her father threw her out. Lance was an exceptional and driven athlete as an early teen, but when he wanted to compete in triathlons with strict age requirements that precluded his participation, his mother modified his birth certificate. So he learned early that the rules did not really apply to him. And that grasping behavior? When enough is never enough? I guess we know where that came from.

      I really disliked this book, not only because the writing is more breathless and sensational than it needed to be. The documents collected tell the story of a man who is immensely unappealing and manipulative and the worst sort of role model. We also learn something about the other folks involved in the sport: the teammates, the spouses, the officials, the medical staffs, the press. It was big business, and their business was to sell a product. I may have been a dupe, but I don’t believe for a second all those other folks were.

      Even when a former teammate came out with allegations, dates, remembrances of drug doping during races, it was still tricky to prove. One cannot help but feel just a little betrayed by all the folks that agreed to go along with this. They did it because “everyone else did.” Yes, the Tour de France is a hard race. And the world can be a tough place. At least they got to wear spandex in their work rather than body armor.

      O’Connell and Albergotti corral a huge amount of material for this exposé. Too much, really. A few less details and a little more reflection would have gone down better with this reader. The authors lacked the necessary narrative to allow us to place Lance’s megalomania in perspective. A character of this dimension is unusual and we the public could use a little help in dealing with the details of someone else's life choices, given his great talents. Is the lesson to strive, but not that much? Is celebrity addicting? Armstrong was not just an ordinary guy with a dirty little secret. This misses the size of his delusion, and ours. Forget Lance for a moment. In a sense, his future has already been written. What are our lessons? Did we do this?

      I listened to the Penguin Audio of this book, read by Santino Fontana. Fontana read well, though he is perhaps too gleeful in sections of heart-rending discovery. I supplemented listening with the text by Gotham Books, an appropriately-named publisher for a manuscript depicting characters with such outsized lives.