The Armstrong Lie Page #5

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heart, lungs, is big, is huge.

After Lance

survived cancer, Ferrari found

a way to turn his

weakness into strength.

He was definitely lighter.

He lose a lot of muscles in the whole

body, upper and also in the legs.

He lose a lot of power

in terms of strength.

To make up for

the loss of strength,

Ferrari had Lance shift to a

lower gear and pedal faster.

So he essentially was

shifting the load from the muscles

to the heart and

the lungs and the blood.

And if you can have the aerobic

engine to sustain a higher cadence,

you can go farther,

faster, longer.

Ferrari also

included a secret ingredient,

drugs to boost oxygen

in the blood that had

a special impact

with the new cadence.

This unbelievable

cadence that he's adopted

since he survived

testicular cancer

is what has

allowed him to become

one of the best

climbers in the world.

Utilizing a higher cadence...

At the beginning,

we had to do this choice.

And then, because this choice paid

in term of results, we continued.

Ferrari's remarkably unromantic.

I remember one

particular conversation.

We had just

finished a training ride.

And I said, "Am I watching the

limits of human potential here'?

"Is that what I'm seeing?"

And Ferrari almost laughed.

He said, "We're

nowhere near the limit.

"No, there are ways

to push the limits."

Amongst the 200 guys doing

the Tour de France at that point,

they're like, "You're working with Ferrari.

Okay. Respect."

He knew that

everybody was doping.

He was like, "Look, you can't

do this stuff on your own.

"You guys aren't doctors. You have

no idea what all this stuff is.

"So here's what I'm gonna do.

"You can still dope a little bit.

I'll tell you what to do.

"The minimum amount of doping,

the maximum amount of training.

"Nutrition. Lifestyle.

"Everything that

goes into making you

"a good cyclist,

I will help you with."

And doping was just

a small piece of that.

Ferrari was careful

about doping for another reason.

He wanted to avoid detection.

He had sources

inside anti-doping labs

who kept him updated

on the latest tests.

And Ferrari's whole program

was cloaked in secrecy.

In March 1999, Lance said,

"I gotta go see Michele.

I have to do some testing."

We met Michele Ferrari,

Lance's doctor,

who traveled in a camper van,

in the parking lot

outside of Milano

off the highway by

a hotel gas station.

I don't know about you, but I

don't see my doctor that way.

It's best that you use

the most knowledgeable people,

regardless of their reputation.

It's a great mind in cycling

and somebody that I consider

and my team considers

to be an honest

man and a fair man.

The guy was a liar and a cheat.

Not only did he dope,

but he doped

with the best

expertise available.

Dr. Ferrari provides that.

And he doped in the most

professional, efficient way,

perhaps in the history of sport.

What kind of message

do you think that your

working relationship

with Michele Ferrari

sends out to

the general sporting public?

Well, David, I'm glad

you showed up, finally.

It's good to see

you finally here.

Good question.

Again, I think that

people are not stupid.

People will look at the facts.

They will say, "Okay,

here's Lance Armstrong.

"Here's the relationship.

"Is that questionable?"

Perhaps. But people are smart.

Do they say, "Has Lance Armstrong

ever tested positive?" No.

"Has Lance Armstrong

been tested?" A lot.

Is it fairly easy to

prepare for a test?

Does it dissipate

in your system really quickly?

The half-life of

EPO is four hours.

So, you can back

it out from there

and figure out when

you're in trouble.

"Will he pass every test

because he does not take EPO?"

Yes, he will.

My defense was that I've

passed every control you've given me.

And that's true.

The samples that

were given were clean.

But you never,

ever stopped there.

You always went

one step further.

No, Alex. I can't...

I would have gone...

if David Walsh wanted

to put on boxing gloves,

I would have done it

right there. Let's go.

You present yourself as

the cleanest of clean riders...

And I have the proof,

which you refuse to believe.

Just let me finish the question.

You present yourself as the

cleanest of clean riders,

and yet you

associate with somebody

whose reputation is

incredibly tarnished.

And that person is going to go

on trial in two months' time.

Would you not think that it would

be in the interest of cycling

for you to suspend your

relationship with Michele Ferrari

until he has answered the

charges of which he's accused?

You have a point.

It's my choice.

I view him as innocent. He's

a clean man, in my opinion.

Let there be a trial.

There was a trial.

The star witness was an Italian

cyclist, Filippo Simeoni.

He told me very clearly

that to prepare for a big race

I needed to take

certain substances.

In particular, EPO.

I had some journals confiscated

where I meticulously documented

my interactions with Ferrari

In October 2004,

the Italian court

convicted Dr. Ferrari

of sporting fraud,

forcing Armstrong to publicly

end their relationship.

However, Ferrari's conviction would

be overturned two years later.

At the end, I was absolved.

Probably, we need a movie to explain

the whole story with Simeoni.

But in

relationship with EPO, okay.

Generational riders utilize

that drug in competition.

That's historic true.

EPO, or synthetic EPO stimulates

the production of red blood cells

which transmit

oxygen to the muscles.

Originally

developed to treat anemia,

cyclists began

using it in the 1990s

to boost

performance and recovery.

It doesn't make

your muscles stronger,

it doesn't give you more energy.

There's nothing you feel.

It's just simply

that it allows your body

to deliver more oxygen from

your lungs to your muscles.

So, that burning sensation, that fatigue

where you can't go any further,

it just happens later.

It began in the late

'80s and into the early '90s,

and our frustration

really came to a head in 1995.

But leading up to that, specifically

1994, I was the world champion.

I was wearing the world champion's

jersey, the rainbow-striped jersey,

and competing clean.

We were just

getting annihilated.

Go on, Lance.

Give us the tour.

Holy COW.

There was a group of

us primarily living in Italy,

and we just said, "We either have

to play ball here or go home."

Were you pissed off

that you had to do it?

Or was it just you

had to do what you had to do

in order to be able to compete?

The latter.

Maybe I'd approach the

decision differently today,

but at the time,

I didn't lose sleep over it.

One time, I went into

Lance's room to borrow his laptop,

and he's brushing his teeth

in his boxer shorts,

and he decides to give himself a

shot of EPO right in front of me.

That was an attempt

by him of just saying,

"Listen, buddy,

you've stepped over the line.

"You're in the club.

There's no going back."

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