L.A. Confidentiel
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Cover
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| Author |
Pierre Ballester David Walsh |
|---|---|
| Original title | L.A. Confidentiel: Les secrets de Lance Armstrong |
| Subject | Lance Armstrong |
| Publisher | La Martinière |
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Publication date
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2004 |
| Pages | 373 |
| ISBN | |
L.A. Confidentiel: Les secrets de Lance Armstrong (L.A. Confidential: Lance Armstrong's Secrets) is a book by sports journalist Pierre Ballester and The Sunday Times sports correspondent David Walsh. The book contains circumstantial evidence of cyclist Lance Armstrong having used performance-enhancing drugs. The book has only been published in French.
A key witness for the authors was Armstrong's and his teammates' masseuse and soigneur Emma O'Reilly. She revealed that she has taken clandestine trips to pick up and drop off what she concluded were doping products.
Many of the incidents and allegations in the book were later featured in the USADA 2012 report on the US Postal Service cycling team, which led to Armstrong being stripped of most of his titles by the UCI. Many 2012 news reports would feature O'Reilly and others previously reported on in the book.
In the mid-1990s, Walsh had been a fan of Lance. Walsh claims that what first raised doubts in his mind about Armstrong was his bullying of Christophe Bassons at the 1999 Tour de France.
In April 2001 he was granted an interview with Armstrong. It left Armstrong angry.
In 2003 Walsh contacted former US Postal soigneur and masseuse Emma O'Reilly. She had been reluctant to talk to the press for years out of loyalty to Armstrong and the team. She claimed that she was motivated to cooperate with Walsh after she came to believe that several riders had died of blood doping. O'Reilly was paid 5,000 pounds, after reviewing several transcripts and chapter drafts and doing PR for the book for Walsh.
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