Book of the Week: Seven Deadly Sins by David Walsh

Seven Deadly sins is the superb account of David Walsh's long struggle to demonstrate that Lance Armstrong cheated his way to seven Tour de France titles whilst consistently bullying any people who were silly enough to oppose him.

Walsh has been a long time sports journalist for the Sunday Times, who lost a million pounds when Armstrong sued them for libel and won due to Britain's very tough libel laws. The Sunday Times are now in the process of suing Armstrong to get their money back.

The true heroes of this story are the people who stood up for honesty in cycling at great personal cost, as the leadership of professional cycling and the majority of the media had little interest in unearthing the truth. Walsh is excellent at explaining how the lack of enforcement regarding drugs placed great pressure upon cyclists and he presents a balanced view of why it was often difficult for journalists and members of the professional cycling community to seriously challenge the status quo.

He explains how his love of cycling and some of the cyclists led him to soft pedal an Irish cyclist who was taking drugs too. If you have any interest in how Armstrong escaped consequences for so long and how his actions finally caught up with him, this is the book to get. You can find it here at Booktopia.