Every Second Counts
By Lance Armstrong,
Random House, ? 8

This is a book for all those who care about human life and human spirit. Seven- times winner of Tour de France, cyclist Lance Armstrong is not just another world champion. He was detected with cancer and had to undergo painful therapy for years. Despite the treatment, Armstrong won the Tour de France in 1999. To prove that it was no fluke, he repeated the feat for a record seven successive times before announcing his retirement earlier this year.

Cycling as a sport is not popular in our country. We have only a superficial grasp of its intricacies. This autobiography will open our eyes to this fascinating endeavour. This is the sequel to Lance?s best-selling autobiography, It?s Not About the Bike. Sequels are usually repetitive. But this one is just as absorbing as the first.

The modest cyclist says that the emphasis is on team effort and not on the individual, although it is the individual who is hailed as the champion. He explains the huge contribution of the support staff and the strategies that form the background to the preparations. Not only does he shower praise on his mates, but he also takes the initiative to provide them with additional incentives from his own earnings. This is rather unusual in the cut-throat world of the modern millionaire sportsmen.

Having returned from the jaws of death, Lance Armstrong has learnt to value every moment of his life. To him, rest is an avoidable luxury. His preparation for the next championship starts from the day after the victory.

Over the years, he has taken the allegations of drug abuse with a confidence that comes from innocence. Some sections of the French sports media could never come to terms with the fact that an American could win the difficult race year after year. They attacked him at every available opportunity, but not once were the cycling officials and their henchmen able to pin him down.

In between winning races, Armstrong raised a happy family with love and care. To him, nothing mattered apart from cycling and family, unless it was someone afflicted with cancer. He would go around the world in order to bring hope to cancer patients. Finally, he started the Lance Armstrong Foundation, whose work of helping cancer patients is in full motion.

Armstrong?s book is not only about cycling and cancer therapy. The innate humanism of the man breathes from every page. He does not proselytize. He does not speak as an expert. He communicates with his feelings, with his actions. To him the real hero is not the champion, but the common man who leads a peaceful, duty-bound family life. If only there were more genuine champions like him?