Cashing in on the Lance Armstrong years

Published by Lyn on 28 October 2012

The Offical Tour de France Records

With the Lance Armstrong years to be wiped from Tour de France history, it struck me that there may actually be some winners in this whole sad and sorry saga: cycling book fans out there who have on their shelves official Tour de France books that will now need to be rewritten.

Record books don't often get so spectacularly rewritten – and seldom as controversially.

I sent Chris Sidwells, author of The Official Tour de France Records, a Tweet to see what he thought about the chances of his souvenir cycling book becoming a collector's edition. Here's what he had to say:

Chris Sidwells

As he says, the book is updated annually to take in the latest history of the Tour de France; it evolves with the Tour, telling the stories of each of the Tours de France and its cyclists. How Sidwells covers the missing Lance Armstrong years in his next edition will be interesting. In the meantime, as far as investments go, the book – currently £13.99 on Amazon UK and from around $25 in North America – might be worth a look.

Sidwells will undoubtedly be one of many writers looking to update Tour de France history books – his A Race for Madmen has been one of the best-selling recent additions to the genre, and will need a rewrite too.

The officially sanctioned The Official Treasures: Le Tour de France will also need a few deletions. See our lists of Tours de France books here and here for more books that may need a little editing.

One man who won't need to edit out much but who might want to consider adding an epilogue to his next edition is Tyler Hamilton, whose book The Secret Race is the highest profile yet to dish the dirt on the Lance Armstrong doping saga.

Lance Armstrong, on the other hand, probably won't be in any rush to update his own accounts of those now 'lost years'. It's not too late to buy the (until now) acclaimed It's Not About the Bike – if only to see exactly how much he skilfully decided not to mention. Odds on a follow-up confessional tome becoming the best-selling sports book of all time?

You can also follow us on Twitter @freewheelfrance; Chris Sidwells is @ChrisSidwells.

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