Bad Blood: The Secret Life of the Tour De France
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Product Description
New Statesman, Geoffrey Wheatcroft
`Whittle tells the tale with immediacy and verve'
Review
`Bad Blood is an excellent book for the follower of professional cycling...'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm not particularly a cycling fan but perhaps the best thing about this book is that you don't need to be, to really enjoy it. I read `Bad Blood' as a Francophile who has lived in France and as somebody who wanted an accessible, geek-free insight into the recent disasters of the Tour de France. In contrast to earlier reviewers, I didn't find it `prattish' at all, just refreshingly honest. It doesn't offer any pat solutions, just the wisdom of experience and it's all the better for it. The journey aspect of the book - from wide-eyed, star-struck sports fan, meeting Lance Armstrong for the first time, to world-weary cynicism as he watches David Millar weep in the Tour's press room - really worked and took me with it. At times, it's almost cinematic, cutting from Lance Armstrong's front room in Texas to the mountains of France and it gains from being personal and subjective, rather than forensic and black and white. It's also about letting go of your dreams, knowing that you will be alienated as a result - as he says in the book, drug-taking in sport is too easily demonised, because even `good' people cheat. Rather than a dispassionate scientific analysis of laboratory procedures, it's almost a love story and he's not afraid to admit that. The argument, that doping is not a simplistic issue with simple answers, but something with real moral complexity, is expertly made. But the book is at its best when he talks about Lance Armstrong's megalomania, the consequences of Armstrong's control-freakery, and about his relationship with David Millar, a rider he clearly adores, but whose doping confession clouded their relationship. Yes, I felt sorry for him and for other fans who have felt the same sense of betrayal. Yes, he says he is bitter, but then, after working in such a corrupt world for that length of time, who wouldn't be?
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like many I have watched the Tour de France on television and marvelled at
the super human achievements of the cyclists who put themselves through this hell. What is even more fascinating, however, are the relationships that exist in this world; not just between the riders, but also the journalists, administrators and financiers. Whittle's book gives a rare insight into how it is to live and work in an environment where people lie and deceive on a daily basis, not because they dislike you, but because
their very survival in this world appears to depend on it.
Other reviews have said that there is nothing new in this book regarding the material facts of the numerous doping scandals. This misses, what I see, as the point of the book. Whittle gives the reader a glimpse of the relationships that exist within elite sport. His relationships with David Millar and Lance Armstrong typify how difficult it has been for Whittle to stay in love with a sport that once gave him so much as a fan, but as part of the professional cycling circus, he struggles to find truth and honour, not least within himself.
I don't believe, as one reviewer states, that Whittle sets out to tie
Armstrong to doping. Armstrong has a place within cycling that is without
precedent, and so you can sense Whittle's growing sense of anger that Armstrong failed to use the power his position afforded him to banish doping from the peloton. Armstrong like everyone else featured in
this book is,neither a hero or villain, but a human being who has fought
to survive in such a hostile environment, something a figure like Marco
Pantani was unable to do.
This is a compelling and often disturbing account of the paradox of loving a
sport, whilst at the same time seeing the lure of success in it challenge
and, in some cases, destroy, relationships and individuals.
A must read.
the super human achievements of the cyclists who put themselves through this hell. What is even more fascinating, however, are the relationships that exist in this world; not just between the riders, but also the journalists, administrators and financiers. Whittle's book gives a rare insight into how it is to live and work in an environment where people lie and deceive on a daily basis, not because they dislike you, but because
their very survival in this world appears to depend on it.
Other reviews have said that there is nothing new in this book regarding the material facts of the numerous doping scandals. This misses, what I see, as the point of the book. Whittle gives the reader a glimpse of the relationships that exist within elite sport. His relationships with David Millar and Lance Armstrong typify how difficult it has been for Whittle to stay in love with a sport that once gave him so much as a fan, but as part of the professional cycling circus, he struggles to find truth and honour, not least within himself.
I don't believe, as one reviewer states, that Whittle sets out to tie
Armstrong to doping. Armstrong has a place within cycling that is without
precedent, and so you can sense Whittle's growing sense of anger that Armstrong failed to use the power his position afforded him to banish doping from the peloton. Armstrong like everyone else featured in
this book is,neither a hero or villain, but a human being who has fought
to survive in such a hostile environment, something a figure like Marco
Pantani was unable to do.
This is a compelling and often disturbing account of the paradox of loving a
sport, whilst at the same time seeing the lure of success in it challenge
and, in some cases, destroy, relationships and individuals.
A must read.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I agree with both of the earlier reviewers. This is a readable, well written and compelling book, as a memoir of Whittle's career as a cycling journalist it is entertaining and as a chronicle of his move from loyal fan to insider to dissapointed cynic it is even quite moving, and to be fair that is how it describes itself.
It is not revelatory though, it is not an 'expose' there is nothing new in the way of evidence, as the first reviewer says, go to Walsh and Kimmage for those but Whilttle never pretends that this is an expose. He gives credit where it due to Walsh to Kimmage to Simeoni, and records his own personal response to these events.
It is not revelatory though, it is not an 'expose' there is nothing new in the way of evidence, as the first reviewer says, go to Walsh and Kimmage for those but Whilttle never pretends that this is an expose. He gives credit where it due to Walsh to Kimmage to Simeoni, and records his own personal response to these events.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent value
Received order on time. Eye opener to the world of pro-cycling. Put everything I had suspected about pro-cycling into perspective. The last 20yrs of cycling is nothing but a sham.
Published 4 months ago by Compton
Disappointed !
To be honest , I thought this book would lift the lid of secrecy associated with drug use in sport . Read more
Published 5 months ago by Geriatriix
bad blood
Exellent read if you like the tour de france or bike racing ,you will love this..
Published 19 months ago by c j
Poorly structured and confused
I would not recommend "Bad Blood" to anyone. The author jumps back and forth in time and provides no broad overview of events. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Jonas Hallen
An excellent read!
A very interesting account of doping in professional cycling, written from the inside. Lots of inferences where further allegations are left hanging in the air, but not actually... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Worcester Grecian
A compelling read
A compelling read : the personal observations and experience of a journalist close to the professional road racing circus. A thoughtful and thought provoking book.
Published on 14 Aug 2009 by A. Cuckson
Lance, drugs, spokes and EPO
There were many good things about this book; fantastic character portraits of the riders, all so vividly drawn. Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2009 by emma who reads a lot
Good overview story of 10 years of doping
I thought this book was a good read and would be very interesting to anyone who has any interest in cycle racing but who has not read everything else going about drug use in the... Read more
Published on 26 Feb 2009 by T. Deegan
Shows the extent of the problem
Good and Easy to read book,I fnished it in 3 sessions over 3 days, so it held my interest. As others have said its low on detail but given the subject and the fact that getting... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2009 by C. Kennedy
a masterpiece of cycling literature
Those looking for a list of names, a list longer and more detailed than already exposed, perhaps, would be very disappointed, I imagine. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2008 by M. Eccles
Listmania!
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