Lance Armstrong – the World’s Greatest Champion by John Wilcockson (John Murray, £8.99) (From York Press)

Lance Armstrong – the World’s Greatest Champion by John Wilcockson (John Murray, £8.99)

9:50am Saturday 10th July 2010 in

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You’d think there were enough books already about cyclist Lance Armstrong, the World’s Greatest Champion, as this one modestly calls him.

For readers not fascinated by the Tour de France currently under way, Armstrong is the American who recovered from cancer to dominate the greatest cycle race in the world for seven years thanks to an iron will, a total inability to understand that anyone could be better than him, and an impressive physique that had rivals screaming “drug cheat”.

Wilcockson’s addition to the Armstrong oeuvre does go into details about the winning years, but it also is laudably long on the years building up to his success. This is not a mere eulogy or a paean about cycling, it’s a study of a remarkable man who achieved the impossible on a yearly basis. And it manages to avoid the fate of so many sports books that degenerate into mere repetition of matches/races long since over.

It is a relief after so much football to turn to a sport where the true opponent is yourself.