It's Not About The Lance Armstrong Biography

It's about learning about yourself from someone who's done it tough.

It's a tough thing to live up to the reputation of being the world's best at anything. Not only has Lance Armstrong lived up to his rep, but also he's surpassed the expectations of his fellow athletes, his fans and most importantly, himself. Not content to accept anything less than his personal best, the thirty-one year old super-fit athlete from Plano, Texas can already look back on his life with immense pride, and look forward to continuing to be a role model for decades to come.

Several books have been written by and about this man. "It's Not About The Bike: My Journey Back To Life", co-written by the man himself and Sally Jenkins Putnam is an autobiographical account of his battle with his testicular cancer. It's an extremely personal account of what Armstrong endured, how he claimed victory against the disease and applied the same attitude to make a comeback in international sports in his beloved, gruelling bicycle racing.

The Tour de France cyclist who has contested the title and won an unprecedented seven times has been labelled a fanatical disciplinarian, been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs and has been simultaneously feted and cut down by the fickle media. The Lance Armstrong biography provides ample evidence indeed that he has an iron will and the strongest determination to achieve whatever he sets out to do.

"It's Not About The Bike" can be a challenging read. Smattered with grim details of Armstrong's cancer treatment and the associated emotions that went along with it, it draws its audience into a world of misery and despair, heartbreak and pain. However, from the darkness emerges a man who refuses to believe that all possibilities have been exhausted and the ensuing tale is one of inspiration that finds the reader enjoying every page.

Certainly it may be difficult to understand at first, a man who says that without his cancer experience, he may not have won the Tour de France again. But to read a Lance Armstrong biography is to borrow from his experiences and to take away a realization that we all have within us, the potential for success, whatever that may be to each of us. Regardless of our background or upbringing, following on the well-pedalled path of this super-athlete and using his story as advice as much as reading entertainment, we could all derive a great deal.

Reviews of the Lance Armstrong biography have been favourable for the most part. As with all successful people, there are bound to be detractors who would say that this guy appears to be branded - unjustifiably - a saint in American sporting folklore. What counts to his fans, however, is that for all intents and purposes, this is a good man, one for whom competition is merely a reason to do better than he has before. Armstrong established a foundation to assist and support cancer victims and their families and if he never competes in a bicycle race again in his life, he is passionate and determined to apply everything he has learned to the goal of helping others survive the disease that nearly claimed him, but spurred him on to the greatest experiences of his life.