Book review: Every Second Counts, by Lance Armstrong

Last week, I reviewed It’s Not About the Bike, by Lance Armstrong, a book I think is possibly the greatest book ever written by a sportsman.  Most people take a look at the title and think that it’s overstated.  But, for the avoidance of doubt, it’s really not about the bike.  It’s about mortality and how you deal with it.

It’s Not About the Bike finishes just after Lance’s first Tour de France win, an amazing accomplishment worthy of a great book.

Lance contemplates the importance of seconds

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Every Second Counts (affiliate links: UK, US) picks up just after that first Tour de France win in 1999 and describes the next four wins.  Winning a total of five tours took Lance from a Tour de France winner to become one of the few great champions.  Prior to Lance coming along, there were a handful of great Tour de France champions who had all won five tours.  No-one had won more than five before.

Frenchman Jacques Anquetil was the first person to win five tours, including four consecutive races in the early 1960′s. The legendary Belgian Eddy Merckx won his five races in the early 1970′s and Frenchman Bernard Hinault in 1985 also completed five victories.  The Spanish rider, Miguel Indurain, won five consecutive tours from 1991 to 1995.  Every Second Counts describes how Lance won five consecutive tours from 1999 and 2003.

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 So what’s it like?

Every Second Counts is the book that most people think they are going to read when they pick up It’s Not About the Bike.  In fact, it could easily have been called “This One is About the Bike”.

Every Second Counts takes us through the dramas of participating in a professional cycling team, including the complex arrangements and scheduling, the massive amounts of training, the difficulties in having a family that isn’t on the same continent as you most of the time, and the responsibilities and challenges that come with bringing up younger riders to act as domestiques and pull together as a team.

And as you might expect from a Lance Armstrong book, there are massive highs and massive lows.  His team steamroller their way through the Tours and dominate a playing field rich with talent, including such giants as Jan Ulrich and Marco Pantani.  He puts out terrifying wattages on the bike and carries out world-beating performances.  He has crashes and breaks bones, he has false alarms for his own battle with cancer and suffers when friends are struck down with the same disease.

So there is a lot of cycling-related talk and if you really don’t get the whole professional cycling scene you will struggle to keep pace.  However, despite all of that it is an amazing story of human determination and a great book to turn to if you feel that you are feeling sorry for yourself too much and need a swift kick-start to get you appreciating life again.

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So if I haven’t read this book, I should get it?

If you haven’t read this book, you should check first that you’ve read It’s Not About the Bike.  If you haven’t you should read that first.  If you have read it and enjoyed it, then you will definitely enjoy this natural successor.