After watching the Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah, this extract from the above book makes so much sense now!!
Antoine Vayer was an exercose physiologist/coach who had been a physical trainer with the world's number one team Festina but refused to be involved with the teams systematic doping programme.
Vayer's passion for the sport came with empathy; his belief was that doping didn't just damage health but also had dehumanising effects.
"Many of the best riders have become psychotic. they want to win money, to screw others because, compared to them, everybody else is small. They want to have a nice house, a nice wife, a nice car and they will do whatever to get these things. They have no more emotion, no more thinking, no more feeling, no internal life. Everything they are is down to their success and they would kill to hold on to that"
Footnote: When Vayer made this case for the top cyclists being psychotic he was not thinking of Lance Armstrong, who at this point was just another contender in what seemed a wide open race. In hindsight, much of what he did say would prove to be applicable to Armstrong
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