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Olympic cyclist Scott Mercier to visit The Bookworm of Edwards

Scott Mercier will be at The Bookworm Aug. 18 to talk about his new book, "Win True."
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IF YOU GO:
  • What: "Win True" with Scott Mercier
  • When: Thursday, August 18, 6 p.m.
  • Where: The Bookworm of Edwards, 295 Main St., unit C101 Edwards, CO 81632
  • Cost: $10, purchase online or at the Bookworm of Edwards
  • More Info: Call 970-926-READ or visit BookwormOfEdwards.com

Many recall when Lance Armstrong was accused of doping during the Tour de France, and the following investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency in 2012 that found that the US Postal Service Professional Cycling Team “ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

As it turns out, there were some athletes who withstood the pressure from their teammates, coaches, and doctors and refused to take part in the doping. One such athlete is former American Olympic cyclist Scott Mercier.

Scott Mercier will be at The Bookworm to share his new book, “Win True” about his experiences from his time on the USPS Professional Cycling Team, when he refused to take part in the doping happening around him at the time, and the moral consequences of doing the right thing.



Mercier’s time on the USPS Cycling Team was one season before Lance Armstrong joined the team, but that time wasn’t his first experience as a professional cyclist. Mercier represented the United States as the only athlete from Colorado in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

“That was one of the best, and worst, professional experiences of my life. The race itself was a disaster. We had several bike changes, flat tires, and finished an embarrassing 16th or 17th,” Mercier recalls. “We were about 15 minutes slower than we were on a similar course in Altoona, Pennsylvania where we’d won the National Championship just six weeks earlier. But I was 24, relatively new to cycling, and had a fantastic experience.”

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Five years later he rode for the USPS Cycling Team in Europe, which was also challenging yet positive experience. “The racing was brutal, especially competing clean against mostly doped up athletes, but I really just embraced living and racing in Europe,” Mercier says. “I tried to incorporate as much of the culture as I could, and training on European roads with my teammates was fantastic.”

It was during this time that Mercier was approached by his doctor with the steroids. “

When my doctor, Pedro, handed me my training calendar, he also gave me a Ziploc baggie filled with pills and glass vials of liquid. He picked up the calendar and explained the dots and stars; each dot on the calendar represented a pill, and each star represented an injection. I asked him what was in the baggie. He told me it was steroids to make me stronger than ever before,” Mercier remembers. “That baggie was a fulcrum point for me. With each illicit injection and popped pill I could tip to the winning side, with the other cyclists who surged past their physiological limits, and who cheated to get there.”

While Mercier considered the consequences of taking the drugs, he also considered the ramifications of not taking them. “I could reject Pedro’s illegal medical program, likely get dropped from the team, and tip back, back to a rider who was competitive in clean American races, but who would never test himself against the best in the world; a failure in my eyes and others,” Mercier recalls. “When you want something badly enough you can rationalize choices, even really bad choices: a shady means to a glorious end. I needed to decide who I was, and who I was willing to be, or not be.”

Ultimately Mercier decided to reject the steroids, which made it much harder for him to compete with other cyclists who were doping. But his decision left his integrity intact, which was, and still is, much more important to him than winning races. “While it’s important to win, it’s more important to win with integrity and in a manner that you can be proud of. You’ll lose more often than you win, but when you do win, you can hold your head high and it will be a real victory,” Mercier says. “Integrity is one of the few items in life that no one can take away from you; only you can give it away. Protect your integrity because once it’s gone, it’s impossible to get it back.”


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