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Summary: It's not JUST about the bike.
Review: This book is a great book and it's very inspirational. It's a book for kids, but it's also a book for adults. Sports fans would enjoy this book, anyone who has been touched by cancer would enjoy this book, and anyone who has had to overcome great odds would enjoy this book.
Lance Armstrong accomplished probably one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, winning the Tour De France three years in a row, after surviving cancer. His descriptions of his races were very entertaining. As a young kid Lance was a striving athlete. He won all the races, and events he entered in. He was a swimmer, a runner, and a biker; he even did all three, a triathlon. He did all of that despite many odds. He won the Tour De France despite many odds, one being cancer. Cancer destroyed Lance's sports life. He rebounded from his cancer and returned to his sports as a better athlete, but also a better person. Lance inspires the reader to do the very best they can at everything they do. "Make an obstacle an opportunity, make a negative a positive." Read this book!!!
Rating: 
Summary: It IS About the Bike
Review: Lance Armstrong's book goes past the sport of cycling and appeals to all readers who like a truly inspirational and uplifting story.Lance begins his story with a brief history of his childhood and his wild ways. He moves through his triathlon career and into his early professional cycling career. In his early days, Lance was all energy and youth and would often tire out before the end of the races. As he matured, he harnessed his energy and became a more strategic racer. After winning his first Tour de France, he got the bad news. Lance's battle with cancer and his ultimate triumph is a testament to all human beings. It is proof that the human spirit goes on in the face of adversity. Lance was helped through his treatments by his wife, friends, and extended family. He emerged from cancer with a chance to rebuild his body and did so with the intensity of a man half his age. Lance's renewed dedication to his family and his career, his post-cancerous Tour win, and his worldwide success are all parts of the most inspirational story of our time. After reading this book, you will be ready to climb mountains, run a marathon, or tell your family you love them. Lance's renewed outlook on life might not be just about the bike, but his success in beating cancer and his worldwide fame are. I highly recommend this book to anyone with the time to read it. It is a fast read and you do not have to be a cyclist fan to appreciate it. There is a reason this book has been on the best seller lists for so long, pick it up and find out.
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Summary: Not a book I would have expected to read a month ago
Review: I write this in early May 2002. About a month ago, I was diagnosed with cancer, and since then I have had surgery to remove the tumor and begun a series of radiation treatments to make sure that I have no remaining cancer cells. To be honest, this is not a book that I would have ever thought about reading. My reading is primarily literary and academic, and I just don't read many books about popular entertainment figures. But a friend who I thought was merely a pediatrician but who turned out to be a pediatric oncologist strongly suggested that I read this book, and I am very glad that I did. This is not primarily a book about bike racing; this is primarily a book about cancer, facts that are captured beautifully in the title. My cancer is not nearly as serious as Armstrong's was, but nonetheless so many of the emotions and feelings that he describes struck familiar chords (mine was caught very early, whereas his was discovered quite late and had spread to a number of areas of his body). I can't imagine anyone reading this book who has or is suffering from cancer and not deriving a good deal of benefit. It is comforting to know that someone else has experienced many of the same things that you have. And it is inspiring to see how at least in one case someone has come back successfully from it. Lance's story is especially valuable for men. If you look through a health section of a bookstore, you can find many, many books about women cancer survivors, but very few books by men. Let's face it: guys who are struggling with cancer are going to feel more kinship with someone suffering from a particularly male form of cancer than a woman writing about breast or uterine cancer. This book is a very interesting and easy read, which is a very good thing. If someone happens to be reading it in a situation such as mine right now, these are tremendous virtues. One of the things that struck me while reading the book was the depth of Lance Armstrong's attachment to his family and friends. In particular, his attachment to his mother and his obvious love for her is especially impressive. And unless it is merely a literary conceit, he seems to have a great deal of gratitude and affection for a very large number of people. Much of this hints of a very strong social group that helped get him through an excruciatingly difficult time. The sections dealing with bicycle racing are fine, also. But it is the sections dealing with cancer and his efforts to survive it and then recuperate from it that are the most moving, by far. I suppose that for those who want just to read an inspirational story, or for fans of competitive bicycle racing, this is a book they will thoroughly enjoy reading. But for anyone who is actually experiencing cancer first hand, this book will be invaluable.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put this book down
Review: I just could not lay this book down. I was reading it in the train, in the bathroom and even at work (sorry boss). My mother had cancer and I knew what it takes to overcome such a setback, but Lance Armstrong turned his life around and never gave up what he enjoyed doing. I have a new love for cycling and if Lance Armstrong can win the Tour de France after cancer, I can quit being lazy and do something in my life too. Thanks Lance.
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Summary: If you let it.....it might just change your life!
Review: This was one of the most wonderful and inspirational books I have ever read. It says a lot for human nature and for what we as individuals can overcome. Even if you do not like biking or you have never had Cancer, you can relate to this book because you are human!
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Summary: My Favorite Book
Review: When Lance Armstrong dies a pathologist will look inside his body...this book allows us to look inside his soul.
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Summary: My thoughts on Its Not About the Bike
Review: Its Not About the Bike Book Review Stricken down by the chains of cancer, Neil Armstrong recovers to win one of the greatest events on earth, the Tour de France. This story is about one of the greatest athletes of our time. It enthralls you in emotions, good and bad, and leaves you with a feeling of self-accomplishment and joy. The fantastic thing about this book is that it is all true.
In the story you hear about the difficulties faced by a low-income family with only one parent. The mother of Lance was young and barely managing, but gave Lance everything he wanted. He said, "she would make things like a squishy at 7-11 feel like getting a new bike." When Lance was in high school he wasn't like everyone else, he was different. When people were walking to school in kakhis and Calvin Klein plaid shirts he was swimming, running, and bicycling in triathlons. When he was sixteen he was smoking 30 year old pro athletes. He was on his way and had his goals set.
Years later Lance switched completely to bicycle riding and was great. He made a high income and had a perfect life. Then one night he discovered he had cancer. His life was instantly turned upside down and would be forever changed, but maybe for the better.
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Summary: Can't Help but be Inspired
Review: Is the Lance portrayed in the book a little bit "sanitized" or packaged by good PR? Maybe. Regardless, who can help but to be inspired by one of if not the most gifted and admirable athletes of our time.
The book is worth it solely for the discussions of world-class cycling and the tactics involved; the story's of Lance's life and his battle with cancer make it inspiring.
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Summary: Stop thinking you know what it's about - just read it!
Review: If you've ever wondered what it would be like to sit down and talk to Lance Armstrong for a couple of hours, now's your chance. Open, honest, thoroughly accessible, this book is one of the best I have read in years. It isn't a jock book and it isn't a "let me inspire you with my fight against cancer" book. But by the time you're through reading it (and just try to put it down!)you're awed by Lance's tremendous atheletic achievements and inspired by the way Lance and his family and friends looked probable death square in the eye and dealt with it the way any of us would - being scared, courageous, unsure of what to do, impatient to do something, in other words - like humans. Lance is interesting, funny, brash, dedicated, a survivor, a monster athelete, and he puts his money where his mouth is on and off the bike. When you put the book down, you'll know that the title of the book is perfect. It's not about the bike, it's about the heart of the man riding it.
Rating: 
Summary: It's not about the bike, but...
Review: It is about the money. I quite enjoyed this book until I got to the part where he refuses to work for the paltry sum of 120 K a year, three times what the average North American will ever earn. At that point the book is revealed for what it really is: a cynical marketing ploy designed to enhance his image amongst both cyclists and non-cyclists alike. Boo hoo. Poor Lance--he might not be able to buy back that Porsche.
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