“I’M NOT GOING to lie to you,” Lance Armstrong says in ESPN’s new documentary LANCE. “I’m going to tell you my truth.”
It will always take a leap of faith for anyone to believe a man guilty of perpetuating one of the biggest lies in sporting history for as long as he did.
Over the course of nearly three-and-a-half hours – screened in two parts with the first to be available via ESPN Player from May 25 – director Marina Zenovich seeks to tell a definitive version of the tale with the help of friends, family, former team-mates, officials and journalists – and the man himself.
Armstrong sat down for a series of interviews which took place between March 2018 and the summer of 2019, inviting the film crew into his home and along for the ride as some of the lingering legal cases resulting from his deception rumbled on.
Two decades on from the start of David Walsh’s work exposing Armstrong’s fraud and seven years after the Texan finally admitted to Oprah Winfrey that it was true, this is by now a well-told story: beating cancer, seven Tour ‘wins’ between 1999 and 2005, the huge foundation that Livestrong became, and the unrelenting lies and intimidation that accompanied it all before he was stripped of his titles.
Unsurprisingly major revelations are thin on the ground; those there are perhaps highlighted by the discovery that Armstrong has never in his life peeled a potato and, considering the evidence, probably should not try.
The inspiring rise and dramatic fall from grace.@30for30's 'LANCE' is coming May 25th on ESPN Player 📺 pic.twitter.com/iCF7AQmN3o
— ESPN Player (@espnplayer) May 14, 2020
But we learn most about Armstrong’s state of mind – both at the time and also now, all these years later. And that mindset has not shifted all that much.
He sticks to his guns. His defence – amounting to little more than ‘everyone else was doing it so why couldn’t we?’ – should attract little sympathy but his former team-mates paint the same picture of cycling’s darkest days.
Former USA Cycling chief executive Derek Bouchard-Hall says he was one of the “clean” riders who missed out due to his refusal to dope, yet later says of Armstrong’s seven Tour ‘wins’ that “all the praise we put upon him was well deserved”.
Armstrong does now accept he should be apologetic to a handful of individuals for his cruel abuse. Asked what was the worst thing he had ever done, he said it was calling former soigneur Emma O’Reilly – whose revelations put the first cracks in his story – “a whore”.
But the bully in Armstrong remains on show as others still get both barrels, none more so than Floyd Landis, the former team-mate who pointed the finger at Armstrong after being stripped of his own 2006 Tour win.
Ultimately, Armstrong remains obstinate about his actions. Empathy for those he made suffer is in short supply.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” he says, repeating a line he has parroted before.
I needed a f****** nuclear meltdown, and I got it.”
Early in the film, viewers are warned by two of the journalists who followed the story most closely to be wary of Armstrong trying to use the film to make people feel sorry for him.
But by the end, he simply cuts a sorry figure.
It is a complicated story, and the work of Armstrong’s foundation in the fight against cancer cannot be dismissed, but his defiant stance 15 years on from his final Tour “victory” is ultimately just sad.
“All I can do is say I’m sorry and move on,” he says. “And hope that others do too.”
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Stopped reading after the first sentence
@my name: thanks for telling us
@Fab John: Thanks for saying, thanks for telling us.
Before this turns into the predictable and at this stage boring tirade of abuse aimed at LA, think about this. You have got your dream job, something you have worked incredibly hard for, say, eg, the top law firm in the country. You’re full of optimism and hope. You begin to notice work colleagues starting work when most people are in bed and leaving when it’s dark. They’re praised for their work by the boss, so gregarious and popular around colleagues, so confident at meetings and at parties with the opposite sex. They’re getting promotion after promotion. They’re successful. And you’re finding yourself stuck at the same desk. One night at a staff party, one of these successful colleagues tells you his secret, take this and you will have it all. That’s what happened to LA…a victim.
@Shane Kelly: oh please, let’s not call him a victim in this ffs. yes it was a culture within cycling, but nobody did it more brazen, more systematic and nobody bullied and abused his position within in his team and within the UCI than him.
@Shane Kelly: that gave me a laugh
@Shane Kelly: Ok, I accept yer points. Yes, to me his biggest crime was when he was outed, he continued to lie, lie and lie. It’s scandalous and unforgivable the way he treated the Andreus and Emily O Reilly. I accept that. Fine, hold him accountable for that. But do not take 7 TdF from him when every other rider in the tour, every winner, even your great Irish heroes were at it. That’s just childish when put into context with pro cycling in general. Childish.
@Shane Kelly: How are things going in the Monastery brother, continue to pray for the those who knew not what they did but please don’t put LA in that category.
@Gerry Ryan deG: Yes, LA goes in that category brother Gerry. LA wasn’t the monster he became when he began cycling. He was faced with a choice, dope or go back to Texas and to God knows what. You and I brother Gerry and any brother or sister out there would have done the same thing. Think of me in your prayers tonight brother.
@Shane Kelly: Ah stop with your anyone would have done the same thing??? or go back to texas??? Paul Kimmage didn’t and went back to Coolock.
@Shane Kelly: are you script writer for the new series of normal people? pure fantasy. the lad was the biggest bully in sport or in any industry, a repeated lier and cheat. Victim maybe if he made one mistake and made amends, what LA did was calculated and toxic throughout his long rain
@Ardmore02: Paul Kimmage has done the sport of cycling a huge service for obvious reasons. He was faced with the choice and made his decision. He will however, never know the elation of winning a stage of the tdf, winning a classic or even a grand tour. There’s a part of him I’m sure that thinks, ‘what if’. What if he’d done what every other rider was doing and continues to do? How far could he have gone? Green jersey? He’d be like Roche and Kelly, that’s what. Venerated!!! A hero!!! And no one would give two bloody hoots.
@Seagoat returns: Nah, I’m not into writing stuff like Lord of the rings or the harry potter. You need to read a few books related to LA and the American Post team. LA should be viewed in two different periods. LA, the hugely talented amateur in the USA and LA, the hugely successful pro cyclist in Europe. I’m not disagreeing with much of what you said, he became a bully and liar. That’s a fact. But why did he become a totally different person from the man who left Texas? He was backed into a corner, forced to dope or go home. A victim of the system. If you call that as good as writing about ‘my precious’, fair enough. But it’s the hard truth.
@Shane Kelly: go watch the clip on YouTube where he tries to publicly destroy Paul Kimmage for doing his job. Walsh and Kimmage as well as others were taken to court and came close to losing their jobs and careers. I’ve seen Armstrong described as a psychopaths I agree.
Armstrong is the picture perfect narcissist.
Even after admitting to cheating, he’s still in denial.
@Colm O’Sullivan: Most people are narcissists today, selfies?? Google LA and Oprah. I think it’s fairly clear he admitted everything way back then.
Armstrong would ride his granny if he thought it would give him an advantage.
@kieran lynch: Just LA? High achievers don’t reach the pinnacle of their profession by playing nice guys or gals. But I think they’d draw the line at their grandmother.
Cheats disrespect the very sport they participate in. Who even watches the cycling tours anymore. Not me anyway. As soon as I see cycling I automatically switch channel away from eurosport. Lance had a lot to do with this decision. Most rational people know its full of cheats and turn off. The same has happened in athletics. Very few watch any more with the same level of interest as most likely doping is going on. Most world records in Athletics should probably be removed from the record books post 1986. So cheats ruin it for everyone and I would have no respect for anyone that cheats and would avoid them at all costs. Cheating is one of the worst things about humanity but unfortunately its an epidemic in some sports.
@Imagine !: There is performance enhancing drugs used in every single sport and to deny that is irrational. So what are you going to do, go shopping in IKEA with the missus for the rest of your life? July won’t be the same without the TdF, the greatest spectator sport on Earth!! imho of course.
@Imagine !: not some sports! ALL SPORTS! Your seriously naive to think only a few sports have drug cheats! Its rampant worldwide in all sports! Don’t be using cycling as an example when every sports at it, and I’d be checking viewing figures about not many people watching it anymore, one of the most watched sports in the world now
@Shane Kelly: Totally agree with the tdf being the greatest spectator sport. amazing atmosphere when there are 1000′s of fans lining the roads millimetres from the riders.
Someone said decline in viewing numbers. Did you just pluck that one from the sky?. 3.5 billion ppeople tuned in to last year’s edition worldwide and 12 million lines the road.
Hardly a decrease in viewers now.
Anyone know where I could watch this?? Nwtdlix or Amazon?
@The Great Cornholio: Nwtdlix definitely won’t have it.