Stuff I wrote elsewhere: my review of Daniel Coyle's "Lance Armstrong's War":

It is a story that would read like a good novel if it weren't true. A remarkable cast of characters light up the tale. There is the gritty and lovable American Tyler Hamilton ("How could someone who loves his dog so much cheat?" I said to a friend after Hamilton was accused last year of blood doping.), the wildly talented but inevitably unpredictable German Jan Ullrich, the fearless Kazakh Alexandre Vinokourov, the cocky Mennonite Floyd Landis, the teammate who rode at Armstrong's side in victory.

The complex and dark world of European pro cycling provides an almost Dickensian backdrop— a hardscrabble existence where most cyclists make a pittance compared to other pro athletes, where injury rates dwarf those of any other sport.