The book has two great strengths. One is Hamilton's candid, exhaustive retelling of the drug-taking and other cheating that he took part in as an elite bike rider. If you want to know what the peloton was really up to, and just how widespread and routine it all was, there are answers here.The second reason I will remember this book is more surprising. Hamilton regrets what he did, but he is bold enough to pose thorny moral questions about his actions. He describes how, as a rising star in professional cycling and a member of Armstrong's US Postal team, there came a point where he had a choice: he could take performance-enhancing drugs or he could find another job. Such was the extent of drug-taking by the 90s, that you simply couldn't keep up without some EPO, testosterone, or whatever your particular cocktail came to be.
The Secret Race doesn't ask us to excuse the drugs or the blood transfusions or the wholesale deception that took place. It does, however, get us thinking about what we might have done, had we been in Hamilton's position and faced with the same choice. At the same time, Hamilton's account of the anguish he has experienced - physically at times but primarily mentally - as a result of drug-taking and blood transfusions leaves us in no doubt that cheats pay for their crimes, one way or another. And, of course, he was eventually caught, exposed, vilified, banned.
Faced with his fateful choice again, Hamilton would I'm sure opt to "just say no" and stay honest. Ultimately, his story encourages us to do just that, whatever the immediate cost.
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