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The Race to Truth: Blowing the whistle on Lance
Armstrong and cycling's doping culture – Emma O’Reilly

By Nigel Scales
Emma O’Reilly was a girl who got into cycling at the top level as a soigneur –
up to then a male-dominated job – and
survived, for a several years. This is all
the more surprising because apart
from the trail-blazing role, she was
also known as “the clean soigneur” at
a time when that was not by any
means the norm. The book describes
her journey to the top and to being
Lance Armstrong’s soigneur of choice,
despite her refusal to get involved in
the “medical programme” though she
eventually did get enmeshed in
elements of it out of loyalty to the
riders and particularly Lance
Armstrong. Armstrong, aside from his
well-documented “attack-dog” stance
towards anyone who threatened the
legend, doesn’t come out too badly
from the story. She relates how he was
never sexist towards her and even
intervened with a new boyfriend at the start of the relationship to tell him
to treat her properly. He seems genuinely sorry for his own later treatment
of her during the doping cases.

The account lifts an interesting veil away from the goings-on that we had
sight of as reported by the Press and some particular insights into the legal
shenanigans and some interesting insights into some of the riders on the
US Postal team. It also explains O’Reilly’s decision to break the “omerta”
and what it cost her in her personal life.. Definitely worth a read if you want
to complete your understanding of the saga – assuming you’ve read some

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