Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong

by Juliet Macur Narrated by Carrington MacDuffie

Overview

The definitive account of Lance Armstrong's spectacular rise and fall.

In June 2013, when Lance Armstrong fled his palatial home in Texas, downsizing in the face of multimillion-dollar lawsuits, Juliet Macur was there-talking to his girlfriend and children and listening to Armstrong's version of the truth. She was one of the few media members aside from Oprah Winfrey to be granted extended one-on-one access to the most famous pariah in sports.

At the center of Cycle of Lies is Armstrong himself, revealed through face-to-face interviews.

But this unfolding narrative is given depth and breadth by the firsthand accounts of more than one hundred witnesses, including family members whom Armstrong had long since turned his back on-the adoptive father who gave him the Armstrong name, a grandmother, an aunt. Perhaps most damning of all is the taped testimony of the late J.T. Neal, the most influential of Armstrong's many father figures, recorded in the final years of Neal's life as he lost his battle with cancer just as Armstrong gained fame for surviving the disease.

In the end, it was Armstrong's former friends, those who had once occupied the precious space of his inner circle, who betrayed him. They were the ones who dealt Armstrong his fatal blow by breaking the code of silence that shielded the public from the grim truth about the sport of cycling-and the grim truth about its golden boy, Armstrong.

Threading together the vivid and disparate voices of those with intimate knowledge of the private and public Armstrong, Macur weaves a comprehensive and unforgettably rich tapestry of one man's astonishing rise to global fame and fortune and his devastating fall from grace.

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2014 - AudioFile

The implosion of Lance Armstrong’s career was swift and complete, and author Juliet Macur watched it all unfold from the front row. Her marvelous journalism gets a performance-enhancing boost from narrator Carrington MacDuffie, whose straightforward delivery is a perfect fit. Macur, a reporter with the New York Times, not only had access to Armstrong himself during her research but also interviewed countless members of his family and inner circle to create this unflattering portrait of a cyclist who was willing to win at any cost. MacDuffie’s narration captures the author’s frustration with Armstrong’s refusal to take responsibility, but she never sounds judgmental or strident. She sets a brisk pace and effortlessly carries listeners all the way to the finish line. D.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

The New York Times - Mark Kram Jr.

…compelling…sharply observed…Cycle of Lies is a scrupulously reported and sourced book.

From the Publisher

In Cycle of Lies, Juliet Macur sets out to untangle Armstrong’s lifetime of dishonesty...[and] finds some ghoulish new skeletons.” — The Guardian (UK)

“A riveting account of the Armstrong implosion...a tale right out of ancient Greece.” — Toronto Star (Canada)

“A compelling account…Cycle of Lies is a scrupulously reported and sourced book… a search for an understanding of the man behind the myth.” — New York Times

Toronto Star (Canada)

A riveting account of the Armstrong implosion...a tale right out of ancient Greece.

The Guardian (UK)

In Cycle of Lies, Juliet Macur sets out to untangle Armstrong’s lifetime of dishonesty...[and] finds some ghoulish new skeletons.

New York Times

A compelling account…Cycle of Lies is a scrupulously reported and sourced book… a search for an understanding of the man behind the myth.

New York Times Daily Book Review

A compelling account…Cycle of Lies is a scrupulously reported and sourced book… a search for an understanding of the man behind the myth.

Library Journal

09/15/2013
An award-winning investigative reporter covering sports for the New York Times, Macur shows us what Lance Armstrong lost when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that he had used illicit performance-enhancing drugs. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

MAY 2014 - AudioFile

The implosion of Lance Armstrong’s career was swift and complete, and author Juliet Macur watched it all unfold from the front row. Her marvelous journalism gets a performance-enhancing boost from narrator Carrington MacDuffie, whose straightforward delivery is a perfect fit. Macur, a reporter with the New York Times, not only had access to Armstrong himself during her research but also interviewed countless members of his family and inner circle to create this unflattering portrait of a cyclist who was willing to win at any cost. MacDuffie’s narration captures the author’s frustration with Armstrong’s refusal to take responsibility, but she never sounds judgmental or strident. She sets a brisk pace and effortlessly carries listeners all the way to the finish line. D.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2014-03-30
The definitive—well, until the next exposé comes along—account of cycling champion and charlatan Lance Armstrong's well-oiled career and its sordid collapse. New York Times writer Macur begins with a set piece, our fallen, disgraced hero having been found out and forced to leave his comfortable digs, in this case, an Austin mansion stuffed with the goodies that millions of dollars in sponsorships and endorsements can bring. "Armstrong doesn't want to move, he has to," writes the author portentously. "His sponsors have abandoned him, taking away an estimated $75 million in future earnings." Of course, they did so since, after years of rumors and outright accusations, it has finally been established without doubt that Armstrong won his races, including several Tour de France titles, with the aid of performance-enhancing drugs. Macur is a no-stones-unturned reporter on that score, assembling a convincing history of that shadowy subject and establishing that competitive cycling and doping have always gone hand in fingerless glove. However, though Macur is scrupulous in allowing Armstrong plenty of room to have his say, there's not much here that we didn't learn in the course of the documentaries and 60 Minutes segments that accompanied the bicyclist's gradual fall over the last couple of years. The reporting is thorough and the writing good, but in the end, the salient facts are really the stuff of a magazine piece, which makes the book overlong. And though Armstrong has freely admitted taking banned substances in all seven of his once-storied Tour de France victories, he lied long enough that one wonders whether it's best to condemn him to damnatio memoriae rather than spend another moment thinking about him. Solid sports journalism, though perhaps in the service of an unworthy cause—and, cautionary tale aside, you can bet the chemists are working on something new for the next generation of racers to take.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173687159
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/18/2014
Edition description:	Unabridged

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