“The Secret Race” by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle – All or Nothing

While it seems as if the sport of cycling isn't really popular in North America, chances are that very few people out there haven’t heard of the name Lance Armstrong, who many consider to be the face and frontier man of the sport. 

Having won more championships than anyone and overcome more harsh conditions than most, if not all of his teammates and competitors, Lance was on top of the world for some time. However, the threads started to unravel and it was discovered that Lance used performance enhancing drugs during his career.

At first, people felt like they had been cheated; one of the most inspiring role models of all time is found to have been using things he shouldn't have to gain the edge over his opposition. However, as is discussed in The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle, the concept of doping stretched far beyond Lance.

For those who don’t know him, Taylor Hamilton is one of the world’s most revered cyclists, winning gold at the 2004 Olympics, that is until he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and was exiled from the sport. Apart from that though, Taylor Hamilton was one of Lance’s most trusted lieutenants, even riding at his side for the first three times Lance won the Tour de France.

In other words, he was one of the people who knew Lance best. Daniel Coyle is an author who took more than two hundred hours of interview from Hamilton, (and that’s without mentioning all the interviews he got from friends, former rivals and teammates of Lance) and wrote an extensive book where he explores not only the legends who were caught doping, but the entire culture behind it.

Look, it doesn't matter, what sports you watch, whether you are for the legalization of performance enhancing substances such as anabolic steroids or human growth hormones, nor does your opinion on what should be done with current offenders really matter when reading this book.

Daniel Coyle isn't trying to express his point of view on the situation or shove his beliefs down your throat... instead, he is doing what any good anthropologist would, gathering information, analyzing it, and drawing possible conclusions. 

In other words, he presents to you things the way they truly are, not to mention that apart from the information obtained from the interviews there is also a fair bit of history as to the relation between doping and professional sports. 

As it turns out, it is very possible that there are actually more professional athletes using performance-enhancing substances than there are ones who go “all-natural”. For this reason (mainly at least), I find that if the question of doping and professional sports is one that is dear to you, it is very important that you read The Secret Race. It delves deep into the psychology behind doping, and explains why the “all or nothing” attitude adopted today may be here to stay.

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	Tyler Hamilton Tyler Hamilton is an author and former professional American road bicycle racer, and the only man of his nationality to win the Five Monuments of Cycling. Retired today due to a ban following failed doping tests, Hamilton has turned to writing about his experience during the competition, most notably co-authoring The Secret Race.
	Daniel Coyle Personal site Author of the New York Times bestseller The Secret Race, Daniel Coyle is an American author who has also worked for a little while as an editor for Outside Magazine, and he was even a finalist on two separate occasions for the National Magazine Award.