The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs

Tyler Hamilton and Lance Armstrong were both born just a few months apart in 1971, they were teammates before they became famous and saw one another rise (and fall) through their professional careers. And it turns out they were both heavily into doping. Hamilton has come clean in this detailed memoir of what happened. The type of dope, how they took it, how they hid it, how it helped them (and Lance in particular) become the world's top racers. Hamilton and Armstrong have a deep division today because Armstrong still maintains his innocence but Hamilton comes across the better and stronger man for admitting his guilt and putting it all out in the open. This is a really well written and compelling book, hard to put down. It's larger than show more two people, it's about the sport as a whole - and it's an ancient story of redemption and the power of truth. I got a lot out of this book. One day sooner than later Armstrong will write his own book but it's hard to imagine it topping the power of this book. show less

The Secret Race is cyclist Tyler Hamilton’s story of being a star and then a burst star on the European circuit, the Big League of international bike racing. The book tells how he became a doper, what a difference it made, what happened when he was busted, and how he came to confess his own doping and confirm that of Lance Armstrong. From their perspective, doping was part of becoming a true “professional.” Sounds a lot better than becoming a true “cheater” and was justified by a belief that doping was so widespread you’d be cheating yourself if you didn’t join in—who the hell in the race wasn’t cheating? Hamilton writes, “I was sure I wasn’t doing anything my rivals weren’t doing…My hematocrit was below 50. I show more was playing by the rules.” Some rules, and in playing by them Tyler ignored what the French called à deux vitesses— one speed made by racers limited to their body’s strength, and a second speed made by dopers whose jet fuel boosters left all those other saps behind.

Hamilton, in the end, found peace after confessing his misdeeds. He declares, “Here’s what I was learning: secrets are poison. They suck the life out of you, they steal your ability to live in the present, they build walls between you and the people you love.” A hard lesson to learn and live by. Tyler is happier for it.

Racers who never doped might or might not be happy for Hamilton. It’s easy to condemn the dopers. I do, though I had rooted for Lance enthusiastically. But we also should reflect on a comment by Michael Ashenden, a doctor who testified against Hamilton in Tyler’s own doping case and who was one of the developers of the doping test Tyler failed. About Hamilton and others who confessed or were caught, Ashenden says, “Before, I saw them as weak people, bad people. Now I see that they’re put in an impossible situation. If I had been put in their situation, I would do what they did.”

Does each of us know what we would have done? And how do we know our answer is not self-flattering self-deceit?

Interesting book! show less

From the outside, the revelations about doping in cycling tend to give a picture of unscrupulous, ego-driven, win-at-all-costs cheats. And, while I think that picture may even be largely valid, there's a missing perspective that Hamilton's book goes a long way to provide.

The cheats don't usually start out that way. There's a common script for Hamilton, similar to the one David Millar recounts in his Racing Through the Dark. The young, immensely talented cyclist achieves early successes, gets to the big time, and realizes that he can't go on, he certainly can't progress, unless he becomes "professional", unless he does what it takes to win or even to support a winning team at the sport's highest levels. Then he has the choice. But by show more that time, his choices are defined by his profession and by his teammates and by the very ambitions that make him who he is as a cyclist.

Hamilton says it is in fact a common pattern -- the "thousand days" between the beginning of the cyclist's professional career and the day he has to make his choice:

"First year, neo-pro, excited to be there, young pup, hopeful. Second year, realization. Third year, clarity -- the fork in the road. Yes or no. In or out. Everybody has their thousand days; everybody has their choice."

There isn't so much angst as you might think at that point, in Hamilton's story -- he just goes on and does what it appears he has to do. For him, it was even a mark of achievement. Not every member of the team gets the "white bag" containing the drugs. Only the elite members of the team get it, partly because only they are needed to support the team leader in the biggest races. Getting the bag means you have arrived.

The script is self-serving. It allows its central character to be the innocent -- he didn't know what he was getting into, and once he reaches the point of choice, he seems hemmed in by circumstances and by the criteria of success in the world in which he lives.

As self-serving as it is, I think the script is mostly believable. Cycling is an incredibly demanding sport -- unless you are all in, you aren't going to make it. Certainly some have chosen not to dope, and most of those knew that, in doing so, they were abandoning hopes of succeeding at the highest levels, or even being able to stay on a team at the highest levels. That's one of the realizations for me in reading Hamilton's book (and Millar's as well). Not all cyclists cheat in order to win for themselves -- many cheat because their team needs them to, in order to provide the help (setting pace, taking the wind, chasing breakaways, . . .) the team leader needs in order to contend in the biggest races. The pressure to cheat may come (in fact in most cases probably does come) from the outside, from the team. If he doesn't cheat, his value to the team diminishes -- then it's his career, not just his chances of winning, that's at stake.

Any book about doping in cycling these days is inescapably a book about Lance Armstrong. Hamilton was a friend and loyal teammate to Armstrong before they fell out, partly owing to competitive tensions and then due to Hamilton's tell-all. Here we are getting Hamilton's story about that relationship, and Armstrong certainly doesn't come out of it looking very good. He's petty, vindictive, and driven by an absolute need for success seemingly without even the least scruples -- doping, friendship, or any other potential limitation. He cheats, he threatens, he exacts petty revenge, he manipulates, and he seems to do it all without conscience. In a way, though, even Armstrong is just a hugely magnified version of every other cyclist -- and by now he's thoroughly trapped inside the story he's built around himself. Almost a sympathetic character if you squint hard enough.

The revelations about Armstrong and the Postal team in this book are a bit anti-climactic by now, although still pretty striking for the matter-of-fact quality about doping on the team (and, to be fair, on other teams as well). But the book still stands as Hamilton's story.

I don't regard Hamilton as a "hero" -- after all, he made the choice to cheat, and he knew what he was doing. And he didn't decide to come clean by the pure strength of his own conscience or desire to do the right thing. He told his story only after he got busted. Still, I find his story sympathetic, and I like him -- when he asks us to consider what we would do under the same circumstances, I wish I could say, "No, I wouldn't cheat." But that's too easy to say when nobody's actually asking. The truth is, I don't know. I wish I was a good enough cyclist that I would be asked, but wishing that already makes me feel a little uncertain about myself. show less

A behind the scenes look at the sport of cycling and doping from a candid professional cyclist. Tyler Hamilton takes readers on his journey in the toughest sport in the world and how someone incredibly athletic comes to make the decisions he made to insure he could compete with the best.
I became a fan of cycling recently (within the last few years) so I was already aware of widespread doping and I had no idea who Tyler Hamilton is until I read this. Some people would be appalled by the fact that these athletes dope and would think of it in the same way that they think of a baseball player doping. I already knew that it was completely different and that difference is incredibly important so this isn’t shocking to me at all. Reading show more from a cyclist’s perspective was a nice change and made it more human than reading solely from a journalist’s opinion. I found myself respecting Tyler Hamilton early on in this and it has made me want to research other cyclists that were mentioned as well. There is that moment when you ask yourself what you would do if the shoe was on your foot and then ask if you’re being honest. I will highly recommend this one to everyone (fan or not). show less

I read this in almost one sitting while Tour de France coverage was playing in the background. A fascinating look inside the wild-west drug free-for-all of the Lance Armstrong years. In the end, I felt like I had more questions than answers, the most important of which was: What would I do? Could you give up your childhood dream and move back to America and sell tires… or would you take the needle and try to compete with the big boys? Frankly, I’m a bit afraid of what my answer would be. I admire Tyler Hamilton for admitting all.

A book that could be described as the a study of the hero as everyman. This book was good. The story was well told and engaging. Yes it is a particular story, Tyler's story, and he comes across as likeable and understandable. It seemed, however that he made points that we should all consider, the old, well-worn mantra of "What would you do in the same situation?" Yes he doped. Yes he claims everyone did it, and given the statistics it seems he was correct. But several other points come out. Even though everyone doped, or almost everyone at least among the elite riders, those at the top, some still managed to do better than others, it took more than doping to achieve success. Some were more honest (relatively) than others, some were not. show more And the big question remains, the "what would you do". For the truth is that we are, for the most part, all Tyler Hamiltons. We all want to succeed, to be liked, to be in the cool crowd. We all tell ourselves little stories and little white lies to cover our less than laudable choices. Most of us ignore evidence of wrongdoing because it is too uncomfortable. Most of just hope that bad things will simply go away. Most of us are like Tyler Hamilton and the other riders who took dope because they just wanted a chance to succeed, to show what they could do, and who believed they had no other choice, even if that belief was wrong. Most are not willing to take the risk to stand up for our beliefs against all odds. Luckily most of us are not like Lance Armstrong either. It is true that he does not come out well in this book; it is not his book after all. At the same time, from an observer's standpoint, Hamilton never came across as particularly likable during the period of his Tour de France wins. But we don't always expect our heroes to be likeable and we sometimes confuse arrogance and confidence. In many ways Armstrong was and is a prisoner of his own success, his need to win. As Hamilton points out, winning goes to your head. It can make you think you are better than everyone else; it can make you forget that reality is much more fragile. This is a engaging, touching and humanizing book, a reminder of the tentative nature of our own humanity, as a reminder of the toll our yearning for superheros really takes, both on those we idolize and ourselves. show less

Remember when you realized Santa Claus wasn't real? This is the same feeling but as an adult. It was nearly impossible to put this book down. The density of jaw dropping information is staggering. Too many topics to comment on from this book. Even if you replace Lance Armstrong with no name cyclist X, the story is just riveting - the most raw account I've ever read. Everyone deserves to know the truth.