Cycle of Lies Lib/E: The Fall of Lance Armstrong

Product Description 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. 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.-- "New York Times"

A riveting account of the Armstrong implosion...a tale right out of ancient Greece.-- "Toronto Star (Canada)"

An award-winning investigative reporter covering sports for the New York Times, Macur shows us what Lance Armstrong lost when the US Food and Drug Administration determined that he had used illicit performance-enhancing drugs.-- "Library Journal"

In Cycle of Lies, Juliet Macur sets out to untangle Armstrong's lifetime of dishonesty...[and] finds some ghoulish new skeletons.-- "Guardian (London)"

The definitive-well, until the next expose comes along-account of cycling champion and charlatan Lance Armstrong's well-oiled career and its sordid collapse...Macur is a no-stones-unturned reporter...The reporting is thorough and the writing good...Solid sports journalism, though perhaps in the service of an unworthy cause.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

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. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.-- "AudioFile" About the Author Juliet Macur is an award-winning reporter at the New York Times, whose work has been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing. This is her first book.

Carrington MacDuffie is a voice actor and recording artist who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, received numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has been a frequent finalist for the Audie Award, including f