mini_

Witch is the best Lance Armstrong book out there?
I want to read much about the "Sport side" and not so much about the
"personal side".

Dead Extra #2

Afriend of mine is reading "Lance Armstrong's war". He says it's more about the cycling and training side. No gaurantees though.

Elvish Legion

Compared to the other two it is, the other two were written by him, Lance Armstrong's war wasn't.

free_pizza

ive been reading "23 days in july", but have stopped because i got pretty busy, but will start it again. ITs not written by armstrong, but has a lot of history of the Tour and the riders that armstrong battled. It describes each stage of the 04 TDF aswell.

Brian

History of The Far Side. No mention of Lance, but it's really funny.

allgoo19

I can't say which one is better than others because I haven't read all his book. "It's not about the bike." is the only one I have read. I have found it very inspiring and uplifting.

This would be the one book I take with me to the hospital whatever the illness I'd be suffering. In fact, I lent it to a person who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Even though she is naturally a quick reader, she read a whole book in just a few days. I don't know which way her condition with cancer is really going, often doctors don't give honest opinion but rather optimistic ones. In the situation where she has no hair, about to get her breast removed and no sure of if it's getting any better, anything encouraging will help.

I can't imagine how depressed a person can be when she was told that she has cancer. I only hope this "This guy did it, so can you." book helps her in someway.

By the way, my father suffered stomach cancer and he lost the battle in very short time. It could happen to me someday.

quitchat

"Every Second Counts" tells some stories about the tour.
"It's not about the bike" focuses mainly on the disease and the remission.

dagna

I enjoyed '23 Days in July' also, but it's the only one I've read so I can't actually say it's the best.

Dagna

BryE

"Lance Armstrong's War" is my favorite (though I'd never heard of "23 Days..."). It follows Lance & co. through the 2004 season, but it talks quite a bit about other pro cyclists, Sheryl, Lance's teammates and trainers, etc. It also gives some insight into what the life of a pro rider is like, sprinkled with some very interesting facts and bits you'd never find out about otherwise (the part about the "a$$-check" made me laugh out loud). I recommend it.

Jaye

I have read "It's not about the bike", "23 Days in July", and am now reading "Lance Armstrong's War" and I would rank them like this:

1.) It's not about the bike."
In my opinion this is the best book as it is the most real, albeit the least technical so depending on what you like in a book you may well hate it. As the title says most of it is not about the bike, although the book does have cycling as a main theme throughout of course.

2.) "Lance Armstrongs War"
This book is more technical and as was said before it follows the team through the 2004 season. It is 100% focused on cycling but still gives the reader more than just technical jargon. They go into things such as "the a$$ check" that was mentioned before. It is a very fun book.

3.) "23 days in July"
This book to me was far and away the worst of the three. It reads precis and almost mythodical. It is a very cycling and nothing else book, no fun just info. "So and so chased, Lance countered by pushing into the wind at a 40 degree angle while bruyneel yelled at Ekimov over the radio to Allez Allez" That is obviously made up nonsense to get my point across but to me that was how the book read. It did very little to hold my intrest most of the time but I am more interested in the personal side of things.

By the sounds of your original post you may love "23 days in July" and would probably like "It's Not About The Bike" the least. My suggestion would be to start with "Lance Armstrong's War" and if you find it too technical go to "It's not about the Bike"....not technical enough then go to "23 Days In July".

Katrogen

Technical is the best. I'm going to check out that 23 days in July book.

dagna

Has anyone read 'Inside the Postal Bus: My Ride with Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Team'? I saw it in a bookstore several months ago, but it was quite overpriced ($21.95 for the size trade paperback that normally costs $14.95) so I didn't buy it. Now I see Amazon has it for sale for $14.93, so I'm considering it again.

More technical or more personal?

By the way, while at Amazon I saw the same author who wrote '23 Days in July' now has 'The 2005 Tour de France' out (with a co-author).

Dagna