An excerpt from the new book Wheelmen, on the doping scandal that brought down Lance Armstrong, and a scene from the 2004 Tour de France:
“But soon, Landis said, everyone on board realized what was happening. The bus was being transformed into a secret blood transfusion unit.
“The riders had known they would be asked to take blood at some point in the Tour, but weren’t told when. As had happened before, someone—sometimes a motorcycle driver who had been hired to do it, sometimes the team chef, sometimes a security worker—had delivered the blood immediately before the transfusions. Engine trouble was just a ruse designed to outsmart the journalists and the French police who suspected the Postal team of doping.”
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