What do You think about It's Not About The Bike: My Journey Back To Life (2001)?
I pick up this book to read when I was feeling low with the certain things happened in my personal life. Lance, thru this book helped me realize that anything is achievable and any hurdle could be overcome. Thank you Lance.I have heard of Lance Armstrong, the man who won the Tour de France record-breaking seven times after recovering from life threatening cancer. So what I expected from this book was a fairy tale of a rider who survived cancer and became successful in the tour. But what I got was totally different and I’ve become a fan of Lance and the cycling.Lance’s life as a whole is inspiring not only the cancer survival or tour de France victories. He started his career with a cycle on credit. His first bike damaged by a truck driver, second one lost in a life threatening accident but still he never stopped riding. You should definitely have enough courage and determination to continue.He finished last in the first professional race he participated and was laughed at. I think many of us not trying anything challenging because of the fear of similar reactions. Look at him, he got over it and what are the things he had done.‘What makes a great endurance athlete is the ability to absorb potential embarrassment and to suffer without complaint’ is what he said about this incident. I feel this is not only for athlete, this is for all of us who are trying to withstand in this competitive world where only fittest will survive.This book is an eye opener for me on the cancer and it’s diagnosis. The detail account of chemo and effects of it definitely make me understand why it is considered as one of the worst diseases. On these parts of the book, I liked his attitude and determination to win over the disease and come back to the normal life.When someone tells you’re not good to do something, don’t simply accept it. Try doing it at least to prove that person is wrong. Lance did it. When Cofidis and many other teams rejected him saying he is no more the athlete who wins the races, he was determined to prove them wrong and you know what happened.I liked one more quote of him in the book. It is,Definition of a ‘human’ as follows, characteristic of people as opposed to God or animals or machines, especially susceptible to weakness and therefore showing the qualities of man.If you want me to tell he was lucky. I would say in three things. He born in USA, he got a very understanding mother and great coaches. Why I say USA is, he could earn himself about $20k at the age of 16 by participating in various triathlon events. In India, even the professional athletes who participated in various international events could not even think of earning so much. (Except of course the cricketers).Secondly, an understanding parent is very important for a career as an athlete. I know many of my friends who have to give up their ambitions in sports just for the sake fulfilling their parents’ wishes.Lance was extremely lucky to have the coach like Chris Carmichael. Whenever his confidence gone low Chris was there. I heard this from many that a good coach is the reason for more than half you achieved in the arena. Definitely Lance was lucky to have one.I really liked Lance’s frank account of all the things happened in his life, including his initial arrogance, his shortcomings, cancer and infertility. If you ask me to point out one important lesson I learned from this book that would be,‘If a man who had less than 10% chance of surviving, can survive and win over the world by his determination and never give up attitude why can’t we, who had very little problems compared to the one he had to overcome.’
—Anbu
Talk about an inspiring book. He didn't hold back any details when it came to his treatment and struggles with cancer. It makes his accomplishments with the Tour de France that much sweeter in my mind hearing what he went through. I think my biggest take home from the book is that your mindset and attitude towards struggles can make or break you. I will say that he also showed signs of being quite arrogant and prideful, but in his defense lots of competitive athletes are. If they're not going to believe in themselves and say how great they are who will? Also since the book was written, he divorced his wife that he spoke so highly of and how much she meant to him. They met after cancer which I always thought they had met before and after a strong connection she stuck through his ups and downs of returning to racing and getting back on the bike post cancer. I found her to be pretty amazing quitting her job and supporting him and his dream by moving to Europe and making a home for his crazy lifestyle during training. Not to mention she went through the emotional roller coaster of having a baby through in vitro since he was infertile from the chemo. So I won't say that after reading the book I developed a high level of respect for his overall character in relation to his personal life and how he reacts and treats people. I found those aspects to be very unappealing. Regardless of these flaws he never gave up and he looked at cancer as something that was going to push him and help him to grow instead of his ultimate death. It's no wonder why he's been so accomplished in his career with a mindset like that. Also who doesn't know about his efforts with Livestrong and his cancer awareness? I think he has tried to give back and make a difference and for that he gets bonus points back for what he lacks in my point of view in personality.
—Kimberly
I got told that after reading this book, I would see Lance Armstrong in a 'different light'. At that point in time, I didn't see him in any light at all as I knew close to nothing about him. After reading his autobiography, I see him as an extremely strong, committed, passionate and confident human being. I understand how he might come across as arrogant and boastful to some but I rather liked his cockiness. I thought it showed character and personality.The book does lack some sophistication in writing (hence the 4, rather than 5, stars) but I think that contributes to it being very easy to read. This was appreciated after reading Ranulph Fiennes’s autobiography which read like a text book for the best part. There are some interesting quotes and concepts contained within 'It's Not About the Bike' and I found it quite emotional in parts. Armstrong is not one to mince his words but that’s fine with me as some people say what they want to say and others don’t. I'm generally not a fan of reviews and if I must read them, I'll flick through them after I've read a book and not before. Reviewers seem very torn (and at times, quite passionately) about his book. I see it like this: he had cancer, he recovered and then went onto win the Tour de France a number of times. No one else got on the bike and won the races for him. He did it and he did it for himself. This is a remarkable achievement. Unbelievable in fact. It may be a simplistic view, but it is mine.Update 18/01/13: This book is a BIG, FAT LIE!
—Silpa Parmar
