9781422282533

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT ARE PERFORMANCE- ENHANCING DRUGS? Perhaps no sporting event is as grueling and as body-punishing as the Tour de France, the world’s premier cycling event. The 21-stage race covers some 2,089 miles (3,360 km)—about the distance from Chicago to San Francisco—and includes treacherous mountain climbs across the Pyrenees Mountains in France and along the French Alps. Four cyclists have won the Tour five times. Only the American Lance Armstrong has won the race seven consecutive times, which he did from 1999 to 2005. It was a remarkable feat of endurance for anyone, but especially for Armstrong, who had overcome a life-and-death struggle with cancer.

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