Before buying the book I suspected that LA was a doper. I bought this book partly to get insight into Lance Armstrong (LA). The book tells the story of Tyler Hamilton, how he became a professional cyclist, how he was one of Lance Armstrong's closest team mates, how he was doping on an almost industrial scale (but not quite as much as Lance, EPO, blood transfusions, Human Growth Hormone, Testostorone etc). Tyler Hamilton, pro-cyclist, Lance Armstrong team mate, Olympic Gold Medalist, Doper, Cheat, Human being. This book is worth 5 stars any day of the week, certainly the best Autobiography I've read/heard in a very, very, long time

I'm really pleased his story has been made into a book. The book is endearing and engaging and you almost don't want Tyler Hamilton to get caught, but you know how it ends. He wanted to win and not get left behind and he wanted to beat his once friend and nemisis Lance Armstrong. Don't get me wrong I think Tyler cheated for all the right reasons. Daniel Coyle and Sean Runnette have turned this autobiography of a cycling cheat into a masterpiece. I don't think I ever imagined cycling was so dirty, well not until this book. I remember the Festina affair well and how the cyclists refused to race the following day. And since the 80's/90's have followed it religiously on C4 and then Eurosport. I have been a lover of the Tour De France since ITV's World of Sport showed it in the 70's. A world where it often felt like there was no choice. A world where the competition used every means to get an edge, and the options were stark. It's a world populated by unbelievably driven - and some flawed - characters. The result of this determination is The Secret Race, a book that pulls back the curtain and takes us into the secret world of professional cycling like never before. In a way, he became as obsessed with telling the truth as he had been with winning the Tour de France just a few years before. Over the next 18 months, Hamilton would tell his story - and his sport's story - in explosive detail, never sparing himself in the process. 'It just feels so good to be able to talk about this. Postal, and his decade spent running from the truth. He finally wanted to come clean, about everything: the doping, the lying, his years as Lance Armstrong's teammate on U.S. But this time, Tyler had something else on his mind.

The two had met five years before while Coyle was writing his best-selling book Lance Armstrong: Tour de Force. On a fateful night in 2009, Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle met for dinner at a restaurant in Boulder, Colorado. Winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2012.

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