He cut his teeth working at the Miami Herald where he was part of a team of reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the battle over Elian Gonzalez. Later, he worked for the Washington Post. His first book grew out of a story he wrote about a woman with complete retrograde amnesia, something that almost never happens, despite how often it turns up in TV shows. His second concerned Don Knotts and Andy Griffith and their on-screen as well as off-screen friendship. Considering those volumes, one could be forgiven their surprise at his decision to write a book about a bike race.