The Armstrong Lie Page #7

---

With new doping

controls in place in 2009,

maybe he thought he had a

chance to ride clean and win.

I thought that his

comeback might have been a way

of proving to his

critics and to himself

that it didn't matter

if he had doped in the past.

I know what I did and didn't do,

so therefore, I sleep at night.

Um...

And I'm one of the greatest

riders of all time.

If you look at the books

and you look at the records,

you won seven Tours in a period where

everybody thought everybody was dirty.

If I win again,

they can't say that.

They cannot.

Well, you can, but...

There'd be a few d*ckheads that

say that, trust me, but...

No way.

Lance,

you've spoken recently about

the return of Ivan Basso and Floyd

Landis after their suspensions

and that they

should be welcomed back.

What is it about these dopers

that you seem to admire so much?

So I'm driving to

the press conference.

And George Hincapie texts me.

And he says, "Kimmage is here. He's

asking all kinds of crazy questions."

I knew the name, but I didn't

really know what he looked like.

I knew he was Irish, obviously.

And so I said, "Okay.

It's on. Today's the day.

"He's gonna ask something. He's

gonna say something stupid."

Excuse me.

What is your name again?

My name is Paul Kimmage.

I work for Sunday Times.

I asked for an interview,

but I didn't get one.

Right. And just

as a little preface,

I might just clear up one thing.

The reason you

didn't get it, Paul...

I wanted to make sure that was you

'cause I don't know what you look like.

When I decided to come back, for

what I think is a very noble reason,

you said, "Folks, the cancer has

been in remission for four years,

"but our cancer

has now returned."

Meaning me.

I am here to fight this disease.

I am here so that

I don't have to deal with it,

you don't have to deal with it,

none of us have to deal with it, my

children don't have to deal with it.

But yet you said

that I am the cancer,

and the cancer is

out of remission.

So I think it goes

without saying, no,

we're not gonna sit down

and do an interview.

And I don't think

anybody in this room

would sit down

for that interview.

You are not worth the chair that you're

sitting on with a statement like that,

with a disease that touches

everybody around the world.

Lance was

threatened there, and the only

thing he knows what

to do is to fight back.

I have to say,

at least in the footage,

you look a little

bit uncomfortable.

Yeah, you think?

That's one of those moments

where you're thinking,

"Why the hell did you

come back to this sport?

"Why do you want to

deal with this stuff?"

I mean, here he was,

a successful, retired athlete, and had

everything he wanted in the world.

Why would you want to come

back and suffer with us?

This sport is not

glamorous at all.

I mean, you go out, ride in

30 degrees in pouring rain.

You just suffer on

the bike all the time.

And yet he wanted

to come back to it

and prove a point,

send a message.

Let's go, Lance!

Well I stumbled

in the darkness

I'm lost and alone

Though I said I'd go before us

And show the way back home

There a light up ahead

I can't hold onto her arm

Forgive me pretty baby but I

always take the long way home

Money's just

something you throw

Off the back of a train

Got a head full of lightning

A hat full of rain

Watch your back

if I should tell you

Love's the only thing

I've ever known

One thing for sure pretty baby I

always take the long way home I

The misery of the rain

stung one rider more than most.

Lance's old teammate,

Floyd Landis.

Floyd had ridden with Lance

for three Tour wins.

He'd also won the Tour on his own,

only to be busted for doping.

In the middle of the pack,

he wondered,

why should he be

treated as a cheater

while his old teammate, Lance

Armstrong, was welcomed back as a hero?

Great job, boys.

Congratulations.

Floyd actually

contacted Johan Bruyneel,

and he said, "Can I just

get a spot on your team?"

And Bruyneel said, "Look.

"You're radioactive in cycling.

We can't have you on our team.

"We're trying to portray ourselves

as this clean cycling team

"and you're

a convicted doper."

Landis was enraged about the

hypocrisy there, right?

Here's Johan Bruyneel

talking about a clean team

with Lance Armstrong

as its biggest star.

Of course, Floyd knows all

the details of the truth.

It was pretty tough

for him to swallow that.

The undertow of Floyd's

resentment would, in the end,

lead to the downfall

of Lance Armstrong.

Anybody else want to

write a message on the ground

for the Lance

Armstrong Foundation?

Hope rides again.

Hope rides again.

Lance!

I'm getting my pen ready!

There was a huge

energy at Tour of California.

It was almost like

he's a movie star.

There were people there that

know nothing about cycling,

and they were just screaming,

reaching over

the barriers, trying to touch

the great hope.

My grandpa loves you.

Will you sign this for my mom?

She's a cancer survivor.

This is a special year.

I wanted to come back,

and I wanted to tell this Livestrong

message around the world.

Some mock Livestrong

as nothing more than

a front to hide Lance's doping.

But I didn't see it that way.

Livestrong had raised over $300

million to support cancer victims.

And 70 million

people around the world

proudly wore those

yellow wristbands.

All right.

Thank you!

- What's he racing for?

- Sorry?

What's he racing for?

To raise money for cancer.

He raises money?

Yeah, to help...

And then he gives it to us?

Yeah.

The ones who always

stick with you are kids.

There's nothing like

seeing a kid with cancer.

Visibly with cancer.

And at the same time,

there's nothing like

seeing the parents of

a child with cancer.

So, while I've been that

patient, now I'm a parent.

And I can't imagine being that mom

or that dad in that hospital room,

looking down on a 5-year-old that's

weak, that doesn't want to eat.

Just hanging out? Yeah?

It's a little crazy

in there. Yeah.

There are some

crazy girls in there.

I wouldn't go in there. No.

I've seen him with

kids in the cancer wards.

And I also know people he's

reached out to, and that's real.

It's as genuine as sort of

that fury he has on the bike.

Hello!

We heard lots of

different things about Lance.

"Maybe he's doping."

"He's not a nice guy."

But all of a sudden, there are

wards full of people who think,

"Not only can I beat this disease,

I can be better than I was."

Good luck.

Ultimately, the chasm between

being this hero and the reality of it

just bothered people hugely.

He thought that, "Because I raised so much

money and I gave so many people hope,

"it allows me to do what

I did." No, it doesn't.

The critics say I'm arrogant.

A doper.

Washed up.

A fraud.

That I couldn't let it go.

They can say whatever they want.

I'm not back on

my bike for them.

The Tour of Italy

would be Lance's

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes