The Armstrong Lie

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1

It's interesting.

I didn't think about this.

It's like living a lie.

I didn't live a lot of lies,

but I lived one big one.

You know, it's different, I guess.

Maybe it's not.

But yeah, it's...

And what I said in

there with just how

this story is

all over the place,

and there are these two

just complete

opposite narratives.

You know, the only person

that can actually

start to let people

understand what

the true narrative is is me.

And you should know that

better than anybody.

Let's get to the real nature and

the real detail of the story.

'Cause we haven't

heard it yet, is the truth.

Lance, how you feeling?

Good. I'm very good.

Nervous. But that's good.

Always nervous for these.

Not a lot of room for error.

So makes it interesting.

Oh, yeah.

Welcome to the party.

In 2009, I set out

to make a film about

Lance Armstrong's comeback year.

It seemed like a great ride.

A retired champion

with a contentious past

comes back to

cycling to show them all.

Then the Lance

doping scandal erupted

and I had to put the film aside.

When I picked

the film back up, I faced

the same question

that haunted me in 2009.

Why did he come back?

He'd won the Tour de

France seven times.

I wondered what

I had been witness to in 2009.

And what did it mean now that the

truth about Lance was known?

In making my new film, all roads

seemed to lead back to the past.

I viewed my battle with

cancer as an athletic competition.

But in that,

you either win or you lose.

When you lose,

or if you lose, you die.

So I took that perspective,

which is a little dark,

and I put it into everything

I've done since then.

I like to win.

But more than anything,

I can't stand

the idea of losing,

because, to me,

that equals death.

Look at this. Armstrong

accelerating once again.

And there's a gap

now starting to appear

between Lance Armstrong

and Marco Pantani.

Well, I never

thought I'd see the day when

Lance Armstrong

would blow away the man

we've always referred to as the

finest climber we've ever seen

in the current

peloton of cycling.

But there's one matter

that's stayed on Armstrong's tail,

allegations he's used

banned performance enhancers.

Where he's found this

strength from, I don't know.

He has torn

the field apart here.

The mythic nature

of his essential comeback,

getting cancer and

coming back and being

a great athlete,

is an astonishing story.

If he's clean,

it's the greatest comeback.

If he's not,

then it's the greatest fraud.

I don't think any

sports team or any athlete

has ever come under

this kind of scrutiny.

Oh, and Beloki's gone down!

Armstrong's off

the road as well.

Armstrong,

complete control there.

He's into the field,

but what a great bike rider.

He's gone across.

This is unbelievable.

I've never seen this before.

Armstrong went

across the field there.

He's back on the road

with four kilometers to go.

Oh, this is incredible.

Armstrong is such a star.

There are people

who have really been ruined

because of Lance's aggressive

attempts to keep them quiet.

He was an

immensely intimidating person.

Thing about Armstrong,

he has the acceleration.

When he wants to go into

a climb, he can do it.

He has now decided,

"I want to go."

You can see the yellow jersey is open...

What's happened now'?

What has happened there?

Can he recover?

He's come back.

Armstrong is out

of the saddle again.

He's jumping onto the

tail here of {ban Mayo.

This is unbelievable.

Armstrong is now one of

the world's most recognized athletes.

To Americans, Lance

Armstrong is cycling's Superman.

The bigger you are,

the better target you make.

In any generation

of professional sportsmen,

there will be guys who cheat and

there will be guys who don't cheat.

This is a guy who was going

to succeed no matter what.

His comeback and

storybook life have put

Lance Armstrong

under a global spotlight.

Armstrong has been

less successful in

outracing accusations

of possible drug use.

I've said it for seven years. I've

said it for longer than seven years.

I have never doped.

It's very hard to

conceal the truth forever.

So this has been my downfall.

No, thanks.

There you are.

Come on in.

I just walk on in?

Hi. Thank you.

Good to see you.

Ready?

Saw you get your shoes on.

We're getting my shoes on.

Everybody, let's do

everything we need to do...

This is where I came

back into the story.

I was in Austin when Lance decided

to do an interview with Oprah

to address charges

of doping in the press

that had become

impossible to deny.

Tonight on Nightline...

Did Lance cheat?

Lance had been the subject

of a criminal investigation.

He was also probed by

the US Anti-Doping Agency.

Many ex-teammates

testified against Armstrong.

Did you see Lance Armstrong using

performance-enhancing drugs?

At times, yeah.

There was EPO.

There was testosterone.

And I did see

a blood transfusion.

Look,

at some point, people have to

tell their kids that

Santa Claus isn't real.

You're saying Lance

Armstrong is a liar'?

Yes.

The anti-cancer crusader

was now portrayed as a cheater

who ran a doping ring and used his

power as a celebrity to cover it up.

UCI will ban Lance

Armstrong from cycling,

and UCI will strip him of his

seven Tour de France titles.

Lance Armstrong has

no place in cycling.

We ready to go. Ready?

So let's start

with the questions

that people around the world have

been waiting for you to answer.

For now I'd just

like a "yes" or "no."

Did you ever take

banned substances

to enhance your

cycling performance?

Yes.

Yes or no, was one of those

banned substances EPO?

Yes.

Did you ever blood dope

or use blood transfusions

to enhance your

cycling performance?

Yes.

Did you ever use

any other banned substances

like testosterone, cortisone

or human growth hormone?

Yes.

Yes or no, in all seven of

your Tour de France victories,

did you ever take banned

substances or blood dope?

Yes.

The first few

minutes of Oprah was just riveting.

To finally witness

him saying that he doped

after the years and

years and years and years

of just the most

amazing denials.

I can emphatically

say I'm not on drugs.

Neither I nor any

member of my team

did or took anything illegal.

We got nothing to hide. We know that.

Everybody knows that.

You have never taken

any performance-enhancing drug?

Correct.

And to call somebody a cheater,

a fraud, a loser,

to call them that,

it has to be,

I repeat, has to be

followed up with

extraordinary proof,

and we've never seen it.

It's cliche'. He looked me

in the eyes and told me he didn't dope.

But when he does that,

he's got a power.

It goes a long way.

Any idiot with half

a brain should have

been able to see

Armstrong was lying.

They've been

testing you like crazy.

They've been

following you, watching you.

Don't the results speak for

themselves at a certain point?

Hello!

Lance Armstrong is a fraud.

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