Simon & Schuster UK to publish in time for Christmas
Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Service team (Image credit: Bettini Photo)
David Walsh, the author of "From Lance to Landis" and "LA Confidential" will release a third book titled "Seven Deadly Sins" to be published on 13 December. Simon & Schuster won worldwide rights to produce the story of Walsh's "working life" that involved attempting to expose Lance Armstrong's alleged doping practices.
Walsh has long been criticised, and even sued by Armstrong who was recently stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. The decision to remove Armstrong from the Tour's records was ratified by the UCI in response to the overwhelming amount of information contained in USADA's 1,000 page document that delved into the systematic doping at US Postal and Discovery Channel.
"This has been the story of my working life," said Walsh to The Bookseller. "13 years of striving to show the sports world that what I believed to be true was true. Most of the time, I believed Armstrong would get away with it, but in the end the failings in his character that made him cheat and lie and bully caught up with him.
"His seven stripped Tour de France titles are now recalled in the words of Travis Tygart, head of USADA, as ‘The greatest heist in the history of sport.'"
"I've never felt vindicated because I've never needed vindication in my life. I was never sure of anything more in my life than that this guy and his team were doping and that was form the very first Tour in 1999," said Walsh.
The title of the book, to be made available prior to Christmas was concocted through the social media platform Twitter.
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"People came up with some excellent suggestions. The most popular was LieStrong, up there was Extraordinary Proof, Not Normal, It's Really Not About The Bike. The two funniest were Fifty Shades of Bullshit and The Legend of Blagger Lance and if I'd had to go with a one-word title, then - STRIPPED..." Asked about the title of the book, Walsh added, "I think its got something."
The Executive director of the publisher, Kerr MacRae gave some insight into what can be expected from the book.
"David Walsh is clearly the most relevant voice on the emerging story behind Lance Armstrong and this crucial era of cycling; his book will read like a detective thriller and finally tell the full extraordinary story," MacRae said.
