The Armstrong Lie Page #12

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Simeoni returned to the field

having apparently

been told by Lance

to sit at the back and shut up.

That's the kind of authority

the patron of the peloton has,

and Lance is not

afraid to wield it.

Lance,

can I ask just what went on

between you and

Simeoni today in the race?

I was just following the wheels.

He can be

revengeful and vindictive,

but then at the same time, very,

very loyal and supportive,

and I've been on both sides.

What do you expect at the

finish for yourself?

Honestly, I don't know.

If Cancellara's dropped, and the

climb isn't as hard as we all think

and I stay with the leaders,

then I can take the jersey.

And what would that mean to you?

It'd be great.

It'd be a trip.

After the first week,

the Tour moved to the Pyrenees.

Mountain stages are where the

best riders make their moves

and where Lance had

dominated in the past.

But unlike previous Tours, Lance

didn't look like he was in control.

He sure rode like he was clean.

He was struggling physically.

He looked beaten for

a lot of those stages.

He was not

anywhere close to as fast

as where he was in 2001 or '99,

but he was also

almost 40 years old.

Is it conceivable to think

that he was racing clean in 2009?

It's possible. You know, he

knows the answer to that.

Not that the sport was harder,

but I found it harder.

And I don't know

if it was being older,

or if it was being clean,

or if it was...

I want to believe that the

rest of the group was clean in '09.

I can't speak for them,

but I like to believe that

we all were basically clean.

Gibney, we gotta win

this f***ing Tour de France.

Yeah, I'm counting

on you for the movie.

This is all about me.

Trust me, this will not

be the same if I don't.

Gonna be hard.

Harder than I thought.

Harder than I

thought a week ago.

Lance had lost ground, but

he was still close to the lead

and only two seconds

behind his rival, Contador,

going into the biggest climb

of the Tour.

I figured that if Lance was gonna

manage his mythic comeback,

he would have to

beat Contador here.

But would that be

enough to put an end

to all the questions

about the past?

Today is a very important day.

We have two weeks

of racing behind us.

We have one very

hard week ahead of us.

And today could be a day

where a lot of things change.

You know, everybody's always talking

about Alberto, Lance, Lance, Alberto.

We are here to win

the Tour de France.

Of course, both of

them are feeling good,

and both of them

want to try to win.

The start of that day,

I'd been hanging out at the bus

and Lance came out of the bus.

And I said, "Pretty big day."

And he said, "Yeah, this one's

for all the f***ing marbles."

Just before the steepest

climb, Contador looked back at Lance.

Was that teamwork?

Or a last "f*** you"?

But who's

gonna stop Contador now?

Well, I don't think anybody can stop

him, because the gap is opening.

Twenty-three seconds to Schleck,

42 seconds to Armstrong,

a minute,

22 to the yellow jersey.

Alberto Contador

now is establishing himself

as the leader of

the Astana team.

And, boy, when you see him

climb like this,

who else could there be?

There's the pistol shot. Alberto

Contador's over the line.

He's the next maillot jaune

of the Tour de France.

Very fast at the

bottom of the climb.

Contador went once

and you went after him.

And the second time he went,

what were your thoughts there?

He showed he's the best rider

in the race, certainly the best climber.

When everybody's on the limit and

then you can accelerate again,

I've been there, and it's...

Do you think your chances for

winning the Tour now are over?

Um...

Yeah. It'll be hard.

You know, a day like this

really shows who's the best,

and I wasn't on par with what's

required to win the Tour, so,

I mean, for me,

that's the reality.

That's not

devastating news or anything.

But are you disappointed with...

The Lance Armstrong

I know always is a fighter,

always is one that

is in attack mode.

And when I asked him that

question, he was different.

I think there was

a lot of doubt in his head

on what he was gonna be able

to accomplish at that Tour.

When Frankie was talking to him,

it was such an honest exchange

between those two guys.

When he was looking at this guy,

who had been his friend for

years as well as his teammate,

and who had doped,

and he seemed to be admitting to

Frankie more so than to the camera

that, "I just don't have it.

I'm not good enough."

He had lost time, and he showed

himself to be the weaker rider.

I don't have that punch that

I used to have. GIBNEY: Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, but I mean, I...

I guess I'm... You know...

In terms of...

I know. It f***ed

up your documentary.

No, no. No. Nothing fucks

up my documentary.

I'm sorry.

I don't think Lance's

apology was just banter.

Part of it was real.

Saying he was sorry he couldn't

deliver, one more time,

the perfect fairy tale that

everyone had come to expect.

Going forward, he was looking

for a way to salvage things.

What meaning would

his comeback have

if he couldn't

finish in the top three?

Now in second,

he braced for attacks

from Garmin's Bradley Wiggins

and the Schleck brothers,

all determined to

push him off the podium.

Johan knew that

Lance was not at his best.

So he pursued

a delicate strategy,

protecting

Contador's yellow jersey

and a spot on

the podium for his old friend.

Without the

podium, the comeback,

it's not just a wash,

but it's a disaster for him.

Remember that to win the Tour

you don't have to attack.

Only if you know you can leave

everyone, then you can go.

Johan didn't want

Contador to attack,

because he might push the

Schlecks to a faster pace

than they would

ride on their own.

If they raced ahead, that could

cost Lance a spot on the podium.

What's happening here?

Contador's moved.

He's decided to go it alone.

Now can there be

a reaction from Andy

after all the work

that man has done?

Contador is now

going for the top.

He's allowed himself just

under two kilometers to the summit,

and he's going for the win.

Contador testing the waters

here this afternoon,

but he hasn't got the gap

on the two Schleck brothers.

Stop, stop Alberto,

they're on you.

And it was

a terrific acceleration,

but that's what

this man is famous for,

is the acceleration on the mountains.

There was no need for that sh*t!

Sh*t!

Lance took dangerous

chances on the descent.

It was his only chance

to get back in the game.

By following Contador's attack,

the Schleck brothers were now

second and third behind Contador.

Lance was in fourth,

off the podium.

I wondered what

words were exchanged

between Contador

and the Schlecks.

He doesn't care, he's going

all alone on the podium,

not with the team.

I don't blame Contador one bit.

He didn't trust anybody on that

team, and he wanted to make sure

that he had that yellow jersey

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