In a bizarre turn of events, disgraced seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong personally wrote the foreword on the whistleblower Emma O'Reilly's new book entitled "The Race to Truth, Blowing the Whistle on Lance Armstrong and Cycling's Doping Culture: My Story." The book revealed all about the culture of doping and the controversy surrounding the cyclist which have caused his downfall from being an admired champ to a disgraced athlete losing his titles and many sponsorships in the process.

In the book's foreword, the 42-year old cyclist reflected on the former US Postal soigneur's belief that he should not take the lone culpability to an endemic problem that had already beset the professional cycling world even before he came into the picture.

In an article from The Durango Herald, the fallen cyclist candidly talked about the doping era during a taping of the Rocky Mountain PBS show "Colorado Quarterly" on Thursday. He stated that the sport of cycling was so brutal that competitive bicyclists were historically considered "convicts of the road." He explained that riders raced for hundreds of miles a day on more demanding courses that the Tour de France that riders took and did whatever available enhancement type at hand.

The former seven-time cycling champ stated that during his time at the Tour de France, science was way, way behind. He added that the completely undetectable substance called EPO greatly helped by enhancing the athlete's performance of up to 10 percent. "And, of course, it ran like wildfire through the peloton (professional cycling)," he stated.

Lance Armstrong was removed from his seven Tour de France titles in 2012 after he was found guilty of taking in performance enhancement drugs by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. He was also banned for life from joining competitive cycling.

Two years after Lance Armstrong's doping controversy erupted; Emma O'Reilly finally revealed her side of the story through the new book. Coincidentally, the book release is perfectly timed with the latest cycling scandal wherein Orica-GreenEdge's Daryl Impey got suspended for having positive doping test results.

On her account, O'Reilly was a reluctant witness to the doping culture as the only female soigneur in the male dominated world of cycling. Her book revealed that she was still an outsider who has built a life within the doping culture of the cycling world during her stint in Armstrong's inner circle at the Tour de France.

O'Reilly's book revealed that her teammates detested her for her reluctance to get involved in doping which led her to eventually leave with the intention to just stay quiet about the practices inside the Tour de France. However, she felt that she had a moral obligation to speak once she found out the knock-out effect of doping to people.

According to an article from The Guardian, O'Reilly stated: "I tried to remember that the reason I spoke out was bigger than Lance ever was; people were dying and lives were being destroyed."

O'Reilly's new book also gave a picture that the arena of professional cycling is not as fabulous as it seems with the 24 hours a day, exhausting, and frenetic schedule. It also tackled on the inexorable everyday sexism that comes with her traditional role of providing massage, elementary first aid and counseling.

The former US Postal soigneur also stated that her relationship with Armstrong was and still is a human one. She said that Armstrong who happened to be a rider became a friend that they both watched for each other on the road. They had created a deep bond owing to the fact that they spent together up to 18 hours a day for up to several weeks. Hence, O'Reilly tried to recall Armstrong's good side throughout her ordeal.

After the slandering and threatening events at the height Lance Armstrong's doping controversy, O'Reilly happily stated: "I don't know if I'd have been able to cope if I focused on the negative attacks. Now it's nice again between Lance and I, we speak regularly and it's gone back to how easy it used to be between us."

Lance Armstrong and Emma O'Reilly reconciled with one another at the end of 2013. O'Reilly recalled that her relief during Armstrong's mea culpa to Oprah Winfrey was like a physical release. But now the legal stuff and its impact to her has been lifted.

"I knew in my heart of hearts that I had done the right thing morally, but I felt I deserved some punishment for breaking the omertà," O'Reilly stated.

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