The Crooked Path to Victory: Drugs and Cheating in Professional Bicycle Racing (Cycling Resources) (Paperback)

by Les Woodland (Author) "It would be convenient if more people would look like their stereotypes..." (more)
Key Phrases: rainbow jersey, dope controls, cycling federation, Tour de France, Six Day, Whatever Happened (more...)

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Cycle Publishing (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892495406
• ISBN-13: 978-1892495402
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #625,683 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Winning at Any cost, January 25, 2008

By	Bill McGann "Author of The Story of the Tour ... (Cherokee Village, AR, USA) - See all my reviews

Cyclists have used drugs to improve their performance almost since the invention of the bicycle. At first the pharmacopoeia was primitive: ether, wine, cocaine, strychnine. The riders used anything they thought would ease the misery of the impossibly long distances that characterized racing in the early twentieth century.

Over time, as the drugs grew more effective, the riders adopted the newer, more powerful chemicals. In the 1930s amphetamines were synthesized, followed by steroids, EPO and now human growth hormone. Almost always the riders have stayed one step ahead of the detectors. That's why the Tour conducted over 140 drugs tests during the 1998 Tour (the year of the Festina scandal) and none of them detected any banned drugs.

Going back to nineteenth century original sources, Les Woodland has put together a riveting and distressing chronicle of cheating in bicycle racing. His discussion of the 1998 Festina scandal is simply superb.

As with all of Woodland's books, it is written with style and authority. This man knows the sport as few others.
-Bill McGann, author of The Story of the Tour de France

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A closely researched study of the grim realities, December 8, 2003

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

The Crooked Path To Victory: Drugs And Cheating In Professional Bicycle Racing by bicycling enthusiast Les Woodland examines the darker side of the sport of bicycle racing, including the use of performance-enhancing drugs, as well as some high- and low-profile deaths connected to such "doping", and the lies and schemes to hide such use from tightening competition controls. The Crooked Path To Victory is a hard-hitting and closely researched study of the grim realities of the drive to win at any cost.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars okay, December 16, 2008

By	Spiro A. Spyratos "cryptoslut" (Illinois) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

...this book is another negative review of cycling, going for obvious shock value and eyebrow-raising in the field. I'm so tired of all the negative press in professional cycling; yes, there's a doping problem, but not everyone in this great sport deserves to be painted with the same brush. The book is written on a typewriter it would seem, with many grammatical errors and quirky syntax. I think the author is British? Not much can be learned here and I gave up after the first third of the book. It is boring, written in a factual, documentary fashion. No attempt to captivate or keep the reader awake is made. The pictures are awful and other than a slight historical value, the book is TP