It’s Not About the Bike – My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong with Sally Jenkins
Published by Yellow Jersey Press in 2001

In 1996, twenty four year old Lance Armstrong was ranked the number one cyclist in the world. But that October, “The Golden Boy of American Cycling” was sidelined by excruciating pain. Tests revealed advanced testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. Doctors gave him a 40% chance of survival. Five months after his diagnosis, he resumed training and went on to win the 1999 Tour de France, the multiday bicycle race famous for its gruelling intensity, in spectacular style.

Told in Armstrong’s down-to-earth Texan style, this is the amazing story of Armstrong’s long hard climb from inauspicious beginnings through early success, near fatal cancer, recovery, victory in the Tour de France, marriage, and first time fatherhood.

It’s Not About the Bike won the 2000 William Hill Sportsbook of the Year Award.

‘If you read only one sports book this year, this is the one’
Express on Sunday

‘Beautiful … It is a book for sports fans and sports haters, for cycling enthusiasts and those who haven’t ridden a bike since childhood, for cancer patients and the healthiest of the healthy, for anyone who has ever overcome odds….. It’s not about the bike, or about sport. It’s about the soul’
Cincinnati Enquirer

‘Having nearly lost his life Lance Armstrong serves up his story for the rest of the world to wonder at, shudder at and learn from’
Guardian

By the same author
Every Second Counts
Tour de France 1903-2003

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