Lance Armstrong: Images of a Champion

Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review:
I like this kind of autobiography ... full of information and insight. If you look closely you will see that the criticism is about Lance Armstrong and not about this book.

Rating:
Summary: One Of The Most Important Cancer Survivors-L Armstrong
Review: "Lance is convinced had he never had cancer he may never have won the oldest, longest, and hardest bicycle race on earth." says Linda Armstrong Kelly, Lance Armstrong's mother.

In the book "Lance Armstrong: Images of a Champion" by Lance Armstrong, photographs by Graham Watson and forward by Robin Williams, we are given a first hand glimpse into the past twelve years of Lance Armstrong's life: his will to win and his will to live! This is a book with the most marvelous photographs, intimate photos of Lance, his family, his team and his colleagues in the Tour. Graham Watson first met Lance in 1992 and has been taking his pictures since that time. He truly understands what it takes to become a champion because he has followed Lance through out his races and challenges. This book has chapters broken up into years of the Tour and other races. The important people in Lance's life have a chance to speak on the written page, and we get to know him a little better. The book is dedicated to Jim Ochowicz, (OCH) his first team director. Those people who know Lance the best have written their memories of meeting him and how he has affected their lives.

Lance discusses the year 1996, when he discovered he had testicular cancer- his chemotherapy and resultant weight loss that actually helped in his quest to become a great bicycle racer. In 1998 he decided to start the Lance Armstrong Foundation for Cancer. He has raised millions of dollars to assist in cancer research and to help those recover from cancer.
A highlight is the new yellow LIVE STRONG wrist bands that the LA Foundation sells to raise money.

This is a beautiful book that highlights Lance Armstrong's career in photographs and words. For everyone who considers Lance Armstrong a hero and best athlete in the world, this is the book for you. Highly recommended. prisrob


Rating:
Summary: Lance is a true champion
Review: Even though it's become trendy to bash Lance, I guess he's TOO successful now, there is no other athlete in the world who can compete with this man. This book is a match made in heaven, because no-one captures cycling action like Graham Watson. His photographs are stunning, just like Lance's accomplishments. I'm more than a little astonished at the people who can't wait to dump on Lance, I guess raising MILLIONS of dollars for cancer research counts for nothing if you're not also nice to your team. Funny thing is, none of his team seem to be complaining. It's actually sad that these critics can't appreciate Lance for who he is, a world-class athlete, and stop spreading nasty, unfounded gossip.

Rating:
Summary: Lance Armstrong glorifies himself again
Review: If you are interested in reading this text, be prepared for another journey into the ego-centric world of a man who has decided to define himself as a champion. He relays many events that are handle-bar gripping, and of course he is characteristically self-agrandising about his own accomplishments -- detailing his efforts as if they were anything more than the other wonderful riders in the Tour de France. Basically, Lance Armstrong succeeds because of his teammates -- his team is the champion, receiving very little credit from Lance. I was appalled at his lack of humility and his lack of generosity to the other athletes in the various races. It takes more than a self-appointed race winner to make a champion -- it takes a man with humility, generosity of heart and spirit, and most of all it takes a man. Lance Armstrong is no man or champion -- he is a "me, myself, and I" sort of athlete -- not a cycling champion. Read "Gred Lemond's Complete Book of Cycling" if you would like to read about a real man and a real champion.

Rating:
Summary: It IS about the bike...
Review: If your like me and like Lance and want a momento, buy the book.
Its well worth the money; has lots of photo's you've probably never seen, each photo is captioned, and the book is also sprinkled with insights from Lance and his cycling hero's, mentor's and associates.
Its not light and just cobbled together, its well rounded, insightful and visually rich.
Its a book about Lance on a bike, and I love it.

Rating:
Summary: Bicyling Star, Fundraiser, Absentee Father & Husband
Review: Lance Armstrong certainly outlines many exciting details of his cycling career - and he describes his own Tour cycling experiences -- but it is so ironic that he has authored a text in which he calls himself a "champion". He may have recovered from testicular cancer, he may have raised money for cancer research, he may have toiled many hours to achieve athletic performance on a bicycle, but this man is not a champion. A champion athlete is someone that you would want your children to read about and admire - from start to finish. A champion does not abandon his wife and children in order to achieve success. In fact, if real success cannot be achieved within one's own family values or code of ethics, then the rest is a sad testimony to fame, money, and glory. A real champion is a prince of a person to his wife and children first - to fundraising and cycling second. Lance Armstrong never gave his wife enough family time to sustain a marriage or a family -- he is a failure as a husband and a father. He self-admittedly did not even see his own children for over six months while training for his illustrious "win" at the Tour de France -- a win only possible in tandem with the courageous efforts of his hard-working teammates. Should a man who purposely neglects his own children and flaunts his romantic affairs publicly be considered a "champion"? Not in my book!

While reading this book... It's all about the bike - it's all about Lance - it's all about his money, his glory, his fame - it is NOT about a true champion! Lance is a man for himself, he achieves for himself, he writes all about himself, and he has left a beautiful, faithful, devoted wife and three beautiful children that she bore for him behind in order to pursue his egotistical needs. A bicycling champion does more than donate money for cancer research and self-aggrandisingly call himself a champion -- a real champion is a good husband and father to his family as well. This man is an oversized juvenile who sacrifices the needs of his family for his own success - and details this line by line and between the lines in this book.

Please read about Billy Mills or Jim Thorpe if you want to read about real champions - they were OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS -- they sacrificed everything for the sake of family. Don't waste your time on this text unless the character of the person who rides the bike is meaningless to you - it's all about the bike, not about a champion. Maybe someday he will cycle some sense into his own head and reclaim his beautiful wife and children -- before it is too late -- then and only then maybe someday he will grow up to be a real champion! But for now, his book -- and his life -- is all icing, and no cake.


Rating:
Summary: On specialization and hero worship
Review: Lance Armstrong: Images of a Champion is squarely aimed at the growing market niche made up of die-hard Lance Armstrong fans, and if you count yourself in that crowd it's hard to imagine you won't be thrilled by what this well-made volume has to offer.

But if you are more of a general cycling fan -- as I am -- then chances are you'll decide that this collaboration between Mr. Armstrong and Graham Watson, cycling's photographer of record, is a bit too much of a good thing, a level of hero worship that borders on awkwardness.

That said, Mr. Watson's photography is as always excellent and even if the level of detail in the text doesn't rival that of Mr. Armstrong's two autobiographies (It's Not About the Bike and Every Second Counts) it is really more of a commentary than a narrative, and that saves it from being redundant to the other efforts.

The book has an undercurrent about specialization as a factor of Mr. Armstrong's success -- the same level of specialization that resulted in the book itself.

While Mr. Armstrong's legacy as one of cycling's greatest champions is secure, history may also remember him as the man who proved once and for all the value of focusing on one big race each year rather than simply trying to achieve a good level of fitness and then racing as often as possible, as most previous champions did.

This book is just as specialized: it's not about it's not about a sport, or an event, or a team, or a race. It's not even about a man and all the dimensions that implies. It's about a great cyclist. Now, is that good or bad? The way you answer that question will determine whether or not you should buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Bicycling Gigolo wins again -- yawn!
Review: Save yourself time and buy any book by Greg LeMond (Greg Lemond's Complete Book of Bicycling) or John Howard (John Howard's The Cyclist's Companion) -- they are both far better writers, well-rounded bicyclists, and honorable family men -- good role models for all true cycling athletes, young and old alike. Lance Armstrong is good at chronicling his many bicycling events and achievements in this book, but what is notably missing from this text is the experience of a genuine champion. Lance Armstrong would sell his own grandmother's last pair of socks in order to succeed -- leaving his family behind in order to pursue his one-dimensional goal of winning the Tour de France. He sold his wife and three helpless kids for bicycling success and he degrades the sport and his wonderful family by publicly flaunting his association with a pathetic and desperate rock singer ... yawn. Better to settle down with Greg LeMond's wonderful book for real depth, excitement, and rich experience and learn how to become a well-rounded cyclist and a real champion cycling athlete and family champion as well!

Rating:
Summary: All Lance, All The Time
Review: The following is a well written review that appeared in cyclingnews dot com:

Lance Armstrong: Images of a champion
by Graham Watson & Lance Armstrong
Reviewed by John Stevenson

Essential reading for Lanceaholics
Lance Armstrong: Images of a champion combines over 250 of Graham Watson's images of the five-time Tour winner with commentary by the Boss himself on the progress of his long and varied career.

For readers of English-language cycling magazines, Graham Watson is their eyes at the world's biggest bike races. Ever since he took his first major race photos, of Eddy Merckx riding his final Tour in 1977, Watson has brought his clarity of composition and ability to capture the moment to every major race on the calendar.

Not surprisingly, then, he has a rather massive collection of images of Lance Armstrong - and not just of the lean, post-cancer stage race specialist Lance Armstrong, but also of the earlier, brash young rider who won the world championships at just 21 and had, it's fair to say, a rep as being, in his own word, a bit "impetuous".

Lance Armstrong: Images of a champion is laid out in chronological order so it starts with images of that almost-forgotten incarnation of Armstrong. Armstrong's commentary on his early days with Motorola covers his victory at the world's and his burning desire to win the one-day Classics, and interestingly a name keeps cropping up: Viatcheslav Ekimov. Writing about his second place in the Zurich world cup in 1992, Armstrong says, "I'd gone into the Swiss race believing the course wasn't as hard as people said, that the entire opposition was no better than me, and that therefore I had a chance to win. As it turned out, a great Russian cyclist was more clever than me - Viatcheslav Ekimov." After his early-career tussles with Ekimov, it's no surprise that the Russian is now a valued lieutenant on US Postal.

As well as Armstrong's commentary and captions on Watson's fine pictures, there are tributes from Miguel Indurain, Johan Bruyneel, and Eddy Merckx among others. As in Armstrong's own commentary what comes across in these comments is the man's total determination to win, self-belief and utter disappointment when he loses. As losing is what usually happens to bike racers, even ones as talented as Armstrong, Watson has captured plenty of the less-great moments in Armstrong's career as well as the triumphs.

Of course the bulk of the book comes from the period 1999-2003, chronicling Armstrong's five Tour victories, the preparation that went into them, and the incidents along the route from left-field surprise winner in 1999 to marked man battling just about everything a bike race can throw at you in 2003. Armstrong admits the huge difference between his dominant performance in 2002 and struggles in 2003, and Watson's images show a marked contrast between the confident, smiling Armstrong of 2002 and the worried man of the following year.

Of the difference between those races, Armstrong writes, "2002 was a Tour with little or no mishap at all, 2003 was like a battlefield each and every day - and I was the main target. In hindsight it is hard to know whether I was lucky to make Paris at all or unlucky to have so much get in my way." Watson's images perfectly capture everything that got in Armstrong's way, including his astonishing crash and recovery on the Col du Tourmalet.

Watson says he and Armstrong had to choose from over 1000 pictures, initially selecting 400, then whittling it down to 300 and letting the book's designer choose the final 250 or so that comprise the book. Was it worth it? It's hard to imagine a Lance fan who won't want a copy of this book on his or her coffee table, and even if you're not a died-in-the-wool Lanceaholic, this is a rare and fascinating look at the way a top rider develops both mentally and physically.

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular Photographs and an Insiders View
Review: The image one sees of Lance Armstrong is that him bent over the handlebars, sunglasses, and streamlined helmet. Within the 208 pages of this book there are a hundred or more pictures of him hunched over the handlebars, but another hundred or more covering every aspect of how Lance races. These are spactacular photographs that capture not only the thrill of success, but the pain of struggling up a long hard climb.

With the photographs are tributes from the people who know him best, business partners, family, his manager and fellow cyclists, coaches and other insiders in the cycling world who know him personally and professionally.

This book brings the race and the champion together in a way I've never seen before. It certainly presents a more complete story than the short notes put on by television companies.