That was quite a victory. Lance Armstrong, winner of the 1999 Tour de France. In 1992, at age 21, he was a brash neo-professional from Texas. In October 1996, at the conculsion of the Tour de France, he was diagnosed with cancer, and given a 20 percent chance of survival-not to mention his chances of returning to the sport he loved. A year later, he was recovering from cancer therapy, and joined the Tour de France as a visitor. In 1998, he started a slow and faultering comeback, dropping out of the major races. In 1999, he did come back. In a big way. A winning way, becoming the second American (after Greg LeMond) to win the Tour de France, the world's toughest sporting event. In Lance Armstrong's Comeback from Cancer, veteran bicycle racing writer Samuel Abt pieces together, not only the story of Armstrong's spectacular Tour victory, but also his equally miraculous victory over cancer. Written as a scrapbook of Armstrong's career, it's a true story and an inspirational one, proving that there is hope for cancer survivors. A dramatic book-and a tribute to a conquering spirit.

Samuel Abt is associate editor for the International Herald Tribune, based in Paris, and has written about bicycle racing for that paper and the New York Times for over two decades. He has written eight previous books about the sport and is the only American awarded the Medal of the Tour de France for distinguished service to the sport.