Speaker 1: On a crisp morning in twenty twelve, the world awoke
Speaker 1: to a revelation that would shake the very foundations of
Speaker 1: professional cycling. Lance Armstrong, seven times Tour de France champion
Speaker 1: and global icon, had been living a double lie. Behind
Speaker 1: the medals, the charitable foundations, and the carefully curated image
Speaker 1: of invincible athleticism lay as secret, decades in the making,
Speaker 1: a sophisticated, systematic doping scheme that had deceived teammates, rivals,
Speaker 1: and millions of fans worldwide. What began as whispers in
Speaker 1: locker rooms and suspicious test results had become a full
Speaker 1: blown investigation, peeling back layer after layer of lies, manipulation,
Speaker 1: and betrayal. The question wasn't just how he had cheated,
Speaker 1: It was how someone so adored could orchestrate such a
Speaker 1: massive deception for so long. This week, ge, we're talking
Speaker 1: about Lance Armstrong.
Speaker 2: Oh and those silly rubber yellow bands.
Speaker 3: Those silly well thank you for finally saying a good one. Finally,
Speaker 3: I'd he built his empire on gold and air, only
Speaker 3: to watch it to solve like missed at sunrise. For years,
Speaker 3: Lance arms Strong seemed untouchable, a force of nature. On
Speaker 3: two wheels, a symbol of perseverance, a symbol of perseverance
Speaker 3: against cancer, A beacon of hope for millions. His victories
Speaker 3: were celebrated not just in the arena of professional cycling,
Speaker 3: but in living rooms across the globe. He inspired others.
Speaker 3: Charities flourished in his name, Endorsements poured in His story
Speaker 3: became larger than sport itself.
Speaker 4: He was a legend to the world.
Speaker 2: He was immortal because I don't like there aren't. I
Speaker 2: can't really think of any cyclists who aren't Australian whose
Speaker 2: names I know.
Speaker 1: Just Mark philippusis probably the only one I can think of.
Speaker 2: Think so.
Speaker 1: But beneath the shine of metals and accolades, the foundations
Speaker 1: were fragile. The air he had built upon was a
Speaker 1: carefully constructed illusion, a network of banned substances, secret routines,
Speaker 1: and silent complicit teammates. Each Tour de France triumph, once
Speaker 1: considered the pinnacle of human endurance, was now revealed to
Speaker 1: be a carefully choreographed deception. The higher he climbed, the
Speaker 1: more precarious the pedestal became, until the slightest whisper of
Speaker 1: truth threatened to unravel everything, and then the mist began
Speaker 1: to lift. Investigations, testimonies, and confessions peeled away the golden vine.
Speaker 1: Sponsors withdrew accolades, were stripped, and fans wrestled with disbelief.
Speaker 1: The legend of Lance Armstrong, once untouchable, cracked and faded,
Speaker 1: leaving behind the stark reality of ambition, vanity, and human fallibility.
Speaker 1: In the end, what remained was not the glint of gold,
Speaker 1: but the fragile memory of what happens when brilliance is built.
Speaker 4: On air.
Speaker 1: Before we meet Lance, I want to give you a
Speaker 1: brief overview of the Tour de Frances. Could you you
Speaker 1: are We're proud of you too, Baba. You think like
Speaker 1: you are quite amazing at your sport.
Speaker 2: Please, I hope you're watching that on the YouTube. He
Speaker 2: just walked up to me and just writing right in
Speaker 2: my face and pushed me away from the Microsoft, very
Speaker 2: jealous about it.
Speaker 1: Do you know much about the Tour Defance?
Speaker 4: No, not really to de France, no.
Speaker 2: About I just know the yellow Jacket and that it's
Speaker 2: like the longest Smalls. It's certainly the most prestigious cycling
Speaker 2: road race in the world.
Speaker 4: Battle I know about it. Oh, it's a battle.
Speaker 1: I thought I thought you said it's a battle, I
Speaker 1: know about it. No, you said that's about.
Speaker 2: It's about all I know.
Speaker 4: It's a battle. Battle, I know about it. That's me.
Speaker 2: I think I don't know battles.
Speaker 4: I know battles, magis straight. I employ you. It's a battles,
Speaker 4: I know a battle.
Speaker 1: When the race started in nineteen o three, which is
Speaker 1: how long after adh.
Speaker 2: That is one thy nine hundred and it's either two
Speaker 2: or three.
Speaker 4: Years after, so close. Not regod at math.
Speaker 1: Most people were amateurs and I kind of love that
Speaker 1: you look at like early sport, like especially like football
Speaker 1: here AFL what we call it in Australia. You look
Speaker 1: at like these men that were like butchers and worked
Speaker 1: full time.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, not myself to.
Speaker 2: A butcher works full time plays games. It's your Instagram buyer,
Speaker 2: was it?
Speaker 4: Yep?
Speaker 2: Can you your Instagram by to that for a week.
Speaker 2: That's very funny a buddhacher who works full time and
Speaker 2: plays game.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The moment just says busy mum. So I'm happy to.
Speaker 2: Does it really? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Busy mum. I think that's very funny. Busy mum.
Speaker 1: It is to stay awake and and be able to
Speaker 1: endure their grueling challenge. They would take in hands as
Speaker 1: to stay awake and get through.
Speaker 2: Can you do you have hear what the challenge is?
Speaker 2: I don't know anything.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go into it. Don't you worry about it,
Speaker 1: baby girl? Even drinking to keep them going. The Tour
Speaker 1: de France is an annual men's multiple stage road cycling
Speaker 1: race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and
Speaker 1: most prestigious of the Grand Tours. The race was organized
Speaker 1: in nineteen oh three to increase sales for a newspaper
Speaker 1: and has been held annually ever since, except when it
Speaker 1: was not held from nineteen fifteen to nineteen eighteen and
Speaker 1: nineteen forty to nineteen forty six due to the War
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. Due to the Two World Wars, as a
Speaker 1: tour gain dominance and popularity, the race was lengthened and
Speaker 1: gained more international participation. The modern editions of the Tour
Speaker 1: de France consist of twenty one day long stages over
Speaker 1: a twenty three or twenty four day period and cover
Speaker 1: approximately three thousand and five hundred kilometers in total. What
Speaker 1: this is why it is a sport of endurance.
Speaker 2: And it's not there's no like realay aspect to it.
Speaker 2: It's one like each team person.
Speaker 4: It is a ten team.
Speaker 1: Yes, so individual American team.
Speaker 2: So an individual won't ride the twenty.
Speaker 1: One thing you can be a captain of. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you can be, and please do tell us
Speaker 1: if your game. I don't think you can actually be
Speaker 1: a an individual individual. I think you ride for a
Speaker 1: team as far as I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but does anyone ride every day of it?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: You do? You ride every day?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I'm asking A cyclist will ride all
Speaker 2: twenty will ride the three thousand something killed? Holy shit?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're in a team. But yes, each rider
Speaker 1: they like to be called girl, don't mean. Lance Armstrong's
Speaker 1: mother had him when she was just seventeen years old
Speaker 1: and he was.
Speaker 4: Zero at that point.
Speaker 1: His biological father and mother didn't stay together, and by
Speaker 1: the age of three years old, his mother had remarried
Speaker 1: to a very strict drill sergeant by the name of
Speaker 1: Terry Armstrong, and Lance hated him. So that so Armstrong
Speaker 1: was and yeah, not his biological And I know, something
Speaker 1: as small as leaving the door open will be enough
Speaker 1: to incur a punishment. Lance Armstrong loved to compete from
Speaker 1: a young age. He didn't have the skill to play baseball,
Speaker 1: the coordination to play basketball, or the strength to play football.
Speaker 1: While he couldn't compete in these sports against his components,
Speaker 1: he could outlast them. In nineteen ninety four, my when
Speaker 1: I was in prep, I was three years old and.
Speaker 2: One nine hundred and ninety. I think it's two years ad.
Speaker 4: She's so close.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety four, thirteen year old Lance tried insurance sports,
Speaker 1: mostly triathlons. He was a teen thirteen. He was obsessed
Speaker 1: with training and would keep a log of his workouts,
Speaker 1: gaining on his competitors each time as much as he could.
Speaker 2: I wish I could become obsessed with something like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah you know, challenge, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I'm obsessed with it. In toastis and sleeping, yes, you.
Speaker 1: Are obsessed with I'm not saying toasty you are obsessed
Speaker 1: with sleeping. When Lance was still a child, he competed
Speaker 1: in swimming and cycling. When he began, Terry, his stepdad,
Speaker 1: became even more strict and even more intense than before.
Speaker 1: Terry later attributed much of Lance's success to his strict
Speaker 1: treatment of him, saying later that when Lance fell off
Speaker 1: his bike, he said, if you're gonna come out of
Speaker 1: here and quit and cry, then we're done. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to have a quitter because he.
Speaker 2: Fell off his bar.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Can I play sing a song about a man named Terry?
Speaker 1: Could you do it at the end to end the episode,
Speaker 1: because I think I know it rhymes with Mary, and
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear it at the end. Anger and
Speaker 1: frustration became a big motivator in Lance's life. When he
Speaker 1: got angry at Terry, he said, you're not my dad,
Speaker 1: something that he that he said later to coaches and
Speaker 1: Jesus had actually said to Joseph.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, how many years after.
Speaker 1: Us Joseph lance Water did in the fact check. Lance
Speaker 1: wanted to continue racing in triathlons. This was a real
Speaker 1: passion for him.
Speaker 2: And how many sports are there in a triathlon?
Speaker 4: I don't have these facts.
Speaker 1: I wish it wouldn't throw me out like that. Insurance
Speaker 1: sport became his superpower. He won even though he was
Speaker 1: under the age limit. His mother even helped forged Forde
Speaker 1: the documentation for Shadowing.
Speaker 2: Oh that was stunning.
Speaker 1: I know we said we wouldn't do songs to the en,
Speaker 1: but I want to that one. By the age of sixteen,
Speaker 1: he turned pro. At eighteen, he was the national sprint
Speaker 1: course triathlon champion.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: But he didn't really.
Speaker 1: Care enough about running or swimming. His true passion was
Speaker 1: Toboggans so close cycling the other one's the opposite of that. Yes,
Speaker 1: cycling is the opposite of that. After graduating, No no sports.
Speaker 1: After graduating, he moved to Austin. Likey Austin and began racing.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety one, Well I was born. He was
Speaker 1: just twenty years old and won the US Amateur national championship.
Speaker 1: It earned him a spot on the nineteen ninety two
Speaker 1: Olympic team.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: He ended up finishing fourteenth and was embarrassed by that.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: It felt like he needed to lift his game.
Speaker 2: You know what they say, if you're not first, you're
Speaker 2: fourteenth good.
Speaker 1: Immediately after that he joined the Motorola team. He participated
Speaker 1: in his first road race. He finished dead last. He
Speaker 1: was undeterred, and he became more and more competitive. He
Speaker 1: had his sight set on the Tour to four the
Speaker 1: false Now the Tour de France changes route every year, so.
Speaker 4: We're going to go a bit more into it. At
Speaker 4: this time.
Speaker 1: It's the biggest phrase. Hold over twenty three days in July.
Speaker 1: The riders in the peloton, that's called a term for
Speaker 1: a group of riders struggle up at least two mountain rangers.
Speaker 1: It's the ultimate test of skill and insurance. But Lance
Speaker 1: was just twenty two years old at the time. Wow,
Speaker 1: the average age of a rider in the Tour de France.
Speaker 4: Do you I guess?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do want to guess.
Speaker 1: Thirty eight sixty seven years old to no, he is
Speaker 1: twenty eight?
Speaker 4: Did you catchphrase? What? What?
Speaker 2: I actually didn't think it would be thirty eight, but
Speaker 2: when you were saying twenty two was so wild.
Speaker 1: Twenty eight but still, I mean athlete, That is a
Speaker 1: huge difference. I guess six years there. They have more
Speaker 1: diverse skills at that age.
Speaker 5: Agility, Yeah, yeah, that more diverse skills. Apparently, agility the
Speaker 5: strength to power through and are better with endurance. Lance
Speaker 5: had ambition, though he would win an individual space. Each
Speaker 5: individual race makes up the Tour de France. He was
Speaker 5: on the nine man Tour de France team with Motorola.
Speaker 5: He was chosen for his express riding, so he was
Speaker 5: really good at Sprints. The eighth stage was through the
Speaker 5: hilly French countryside. In most stages, a few riders try
Speaker 5: to ride out into breakaway groups so the sprinters can
Speaker 5: compete for the win. In the last few miles of
Speaker 5: the eighth stage, a breakaway group surged ahead. Lance and
Speaker 5: two others were able to bridge the gap, and it
Speaker 5: paid off. Lance's group had a six second lead.
Speaker 2: Should name pronounced Lance? If we're talking about to Minfong, Let's.
Speaker 4: Call him Lance from now on.
Speaker 1: This was the first major victory of Lance's career. The
Speaker 1: Tour de France had been a major success for him
Speaker 1: and his team In nineteen ninety three. It lined up
Speaker 1: a road race in the World Championship in Norway. Many believe,
Speaker 1: Wait what Norway? Many believed Lance would win the race.
Speaker 1: Conditions perfectly suited his combative approach. It would be it
Speaker 1: would be who could stay on the bike the longest,
Speaker 1: who was the most ambitious and the most determined. As
Speaker 1: the one hundred and sixty mile race progressed, Lance rode
Speaker 1: away from the back and raised his arms in victory alone.
Speaker 1: He was a champion. He had accomplished more than other
Speaker 1: cyclists had ever dreamed of. He was the next big thing.
Speaker 1: He set out to win the Thrift Triple Crown in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three. This was a trio of cycling events
Speaker 1: in the US. Any rider who can win all three
Speaker 1: scored a whopping one million dollar prime.
Speaker 2: Oh in the nineties Yeah wow.
Speaker 1: Lance won the first two, sending him up for a
Speaker 1: massive payday if he could win all of them. He
Speaker 1: met up with the captain of the rival team and
Speaker 1: he laid out a deal. If they let him win,
Speaker 1: he would give them fifty thousand dollars in winnings. Since
Speaker 1: they weren't already in the running.
Speaker 4: It sounded pretty.
Speaker 1: Amazing to them, except that it's cheating. On the day,
Speaker 1: he got a comfortable lead, he coasted to victory. He
Speaker 1: then found the racer at the hotel and actually gave
Speaker 1: him one hundred thousand dollars more than promised. They did
Speaker 1: said Merry Christmas?
Speaker 2: Was it Christmas? Or did you just say no? Okay?
Speaker 4: He began racing. Mince snap at you like that.
Speaker 1: He began racing more overseas and against people he wouldn't
Speaker 1: always be able to buy off.
Speaker 2: Hang on, is that is this buying this other? After that?
Speaker 4: Like was in?
Speaker 2: Did he get trouble for that.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone knew at the time.
Speaker 4: I kept his.
Speaker 1: Winning streak going for a few years, a stage in
Speaker 1: the Tour de France and a few races in Europe.
Speaker 1: At this point he was taking testosterone and cortizone, both
Speaker 1: are illegal in pro cycling, but most athletes take them anyway.
Speaker 1: They were illegal but difficult to control, especially for endurance
Speaker 1: sports and everything. A lot of people were taking stuff.
Speaker 2: Your difficult to control, as in it's difficult to control
Speaker 2: where the people are. Yeh yeh.
Speaker 1: Lance moved to Italy to train, and while he was
Speaker 1: using enhancements, he and his teammates kept losing. He was
Speaker 1: getting mad at and madder, and he discovered a drug
Speaker 1: called EPO.
Speaker 2: He's getting mad because he's taking testosterone. Yeah, yes, scread yes,
Speaker 2: I'm a medical doctor.
Speaker 1: It's an enhancement drug that increases your red blood cell count,
Speaker 1: which enables you to exert yourself longer than you normally would.
Speaker 2: It's called epopo. Is that why three po.
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you don't have any more to the punchline,
Speaker 2: so keep going.
Speaker 1: Yeah. There's also no way to test it. Also, at
Speaker 1: the time, there's no way to test if you're taking
Speaker 1: the drug. In nineteen ninety five, he learned that someone
Speaker 1: he knew was working with doctor. He was a sports
Speaker 1: medicine expert. You and did a bit of off the
Speaker 1: book work.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I do.
Speaker 1: He worked in a beat up station wagon.
Speaker 4: That's how you know. Pretty off book, isn't it he works? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Where was your office? It's a beat up stations.
Speaker 2: I feel like it'd be one of those ones with
Speaker 2: like a mattress in the back as well.
Speaker 1: Usually athletes pay him out of their winnings. So commission
Speaker 1: pays doctor that works in a picked up station wagon.
Speaker 1: Things are going pretty well for doc very.
Speaker 2: I'm picturing a better coal soul. Oh yeah, like you
Speaker 2: know how he's like the kind of dodgy lawyer yours.
Speaker 4: I'll picture.
Speaker 1: Piggy no for any reason, No, no, no, no, no no no.
Speaker 1: I was just picturing me going I was talking that
Speaker 1: she was No, no, I'm.
Speaker 4: Just picturing her nice.
Speaker 1: Lance paid him tens of thousands of dollars a month
Speaker 1: to be the EPO program, So now he's buying a really.
Speaker 4: Nice station wagon.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety six, Lance was the top ranked cyclist
Speaker 1: in the world. He was living in a beautiful house
Speaker 1: all by himself. He's doping got results. He was the
Speaker 1: first and only American to win a two hundred kilometer
Speaker 1: race in Belgium. He competed in the Olympics and signed
Speaker 1: an endorsement deal with Nike, Nike Nike. In nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: he was diagnosed with cancer because he was a bikey
Speaker 1: BIKEI Nike Nike.
Speaker 2: That wasn't about cancer, sorry.
Speaker 1: And only had a fifty percent chance of living particular,
Speaker 1: wasn't it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he dropped out of the Tour de Frent.
Speaker 1: He was twenty five years Oh my god. Yeah, diagnosed
Speaker 1: with testicular cancer. The disease had spread throughout the day.
Speaker 1: After his diagnosis, he had his right testicle removed and
Speaker 1: flew to have brain surgery. Luckily he had our great
Speaker 1: support system to see him well.
Speaker 2: It had spread to his brain. Yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 1: The doctors asked if you had ever taken performance enhancing drugs.
Speaker 1: He straightaway said yes, yes, and listed a long list
Speaker 1: including epo, steroids and more. He said this in front
Speaker 1: of all of his friends quite openly.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, when you've got your going in from brain surgery,
Speaker 2: you're going to be honest about it.
Speaker 1: His friends were absolutely shocked. Lots of people suspected the
Speaker 1: drugs are linked with the cancer. Lancer's recovery was brutal
Speaker 1: for a few months. He was declared cancer free in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 6: That isn't miraculously, Yeah.
Speaker 4: He's all.
Speaker 1: Motorola team had folded by then, but he joined the
Speaker 1: newly formed USPS team sponsored by the Postal Service.
Speaker 2: So when Motorola folded, did they say goodbye.
Speaker 4: Mortal it's a flip phone.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh and folded. Yeah, that was making but that
Speaker 2: one's better.
Speaker 1: Actually, they signed Lance. He was a low risk person
Speaker 1: to take on. If he returned to his previous heights,
Speaker 1: he would be the best rider, but also the publicity
Speaker 1: would be great. At the time, Lance met a new girlfriend.
Speaker 1: They got a kitten together and called it Chemo.
Speaker 4: Oh sweetest, I'm not sure about that.
Speaker 1: He was working back to full fitness slowly, so it
Speaker 1: took a long time obviously. After the treatment and everything,
Speaker 1: Lance decided to move back to Austin. He started to relax,
Speaker 1: do some soul searching and had a new cancer charity setup.
Speaker 1: He couldn't just relax and soon wanted to just spend
Speaker 1: all of his time racing again. He had his cancer
Speaker 1: charity at this point, but he needed to get back
Speaker 1: out there more and more and kind of compete as
Speaker 1: much as he could.
Speaker 2: It's just that personality exactly. Yeah, it's all he's ever
Speaker 2: known and that's what he loves exactly.
Speaker 1: On July eighth, nineteen ninety eight, French customs officers stopped
Speaker 1: a Spanish cyclist at the border.
Speaker 2: I would have said this, ahit, let's stop in French.
Speaker 2: I learned that word because when I didn't exchange in
Speaker 2: France when I was seventeen, and.
Speaker 4: What did you get into return?
Speaker 2: The younger brother in the family that I stayed with,
Speaker 2: his name was Victor, and he was like just like
Speaker 2: a naughty teenage boy. There was just always like bouncing
Speaker 2: off the walls and just being naughty, and so the
Speaker 2: parents were always going avidor avidor that's all. I always
Speaker 2: remember that stop stop.
Speaker 1: When they searched his car, they found full bags of
Speaker 1: EPO Sarah. Yeah, the Spanish person are steroids and more.
Speaker 1: It was three days before the Tour de France was
Speaker 1: set to start. It set off a huge chain reaction.
Speaker 1: The entire Spanish team was thrown off the tour.
Speaker 2: The whole team.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: Also like in jury sports. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: whole team were using.
Speaker 2: But if it were, but yeah, when your classmate does
Speaker 2: something naughty and you all get punished, you all.
Speaker 1: Get dead, apple rots, all of the bananas. I'm always
Speaker 1: saying that.
Speaker 2: Yes, you've always said that, but I've always said it's
Speaker 2: not true.
Speaker 4: But yeah, say it. By now, love keep saying it.
Speaker 4: By now.
Speaker 1: Lance was training harder than ever with the doctor watching
Speaker 1: over him. He lost unnecessary muscle and found a more
Speaker 1: committed team m with a new physique. So he was
Speaker 1: losing unnecessary muscle, so he just like so Lena's Lena,
Speaker 1: and he could Yeah. Yeah. Armed with the new physique
Speaker 1: and new teammates, he was promoted to lead in his
Speaker 1: team in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 2: Wow, only two years after being.
Speaker 4: That's right, so quite incredible.
Speaker 1: If you look at this, you're going, oh my god,
Speaker 1: that's incredible. Yeah, without drugs on not really, I mean
Speaker 1: that's quite incredible to come back from that. In nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety nine, for the Tour de France, Lance won his sprint,
Speaker 1: coming in eight seconds over the last person. No one
Speaker 1: was expecting him to be that incredible.
Speaker 4: So like.
Speaker 1: Surely after his recovery, the press were excited to talk
Speaker 1: to Lance. Lance spoke quickly, going on the offensive, sorry,
Speaker 1: on the defensive and also offensive, and said that it
Speaker 1: was time for journalists to leave the past in the past.
Speaker 2: That's an opposite. Offensive and defensive is an opposite, like
Speaker 2: tobogganing and cyclist, Yes.
Speaker 1: Exact opposite. That they need to stop focusing on doping.
Speaker 1: But he was cancer free and was at the next
Speaker 1: stage of his life.
Speaker 2: He was saying this to journalist. Yes, so like red
Speaker 2: rag to a bull, stop focused. Don't worry about that.
Speaker 2: Don't worry about that guy, worry about that.
Speaker 1: WHI there's a moving my hand over here. That's what
Speaker 1: I always doing. Put my hand over here, waving at you.
Speaker 1: A few days into the race, the truth came out.
Speaker 1: Lance tested positive for cortzone. Like EPO, it is a
Speaker 1: naturally occurring hormone that helps combat stress and aids muscle recovery.
Speaker 1: It has been banned in cycling since nineteen sixty eight,
Speaker 1: but you can have exemptions for using this, and Lance
Speaker 1: had some kind of exemption for using quarter zone over
Speaker 1: his time.
Speaker 4: Over this time.
Speaker 1: Sorry, he got his doctor to back date so he
Speaker 1: could pass the test in that beat up state station
Speaker 1: wagon you know where in.
Speaker 2: Partisi he's got a good station wagon.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: Now the authorities believed him and let him go. Of course,
Speaker 1: Lance had a new team doctor, so he brought the doctor.
Speaker 1: M Lance's wife went around distributing cortizone drugs to his teammates.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 4: In nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 2: Sorry, do you know what cortzone does to enhance performance? No?
Speaker 1: I think I think it just helps you recover, like
Speaker 1: your muscle recovery is, so we can get back to
Speaker 1: going quicker. Yeah. In nineteen ninety nine, he and his
Speaker 1: team won the Tour de France. People pointed out how
Speaker 1: unbelievable it was. Fans waved American and Texan flags. He
Speaker 1: was making a historic comeback. It was the front page everywhere,
Speaker 1: and America was extremely proud, and now he was a superstar.
Speaker 1: He was all over everything. People were hailing it as
Speaker 1: a miracle. How would it be possible after just recovering
Speaker 1: from cancer with a fifty percent chance of surviving. His
Speaker 1: new approach to doping worked, but it was very risky.
Speaker 1: It was becoming more noticeable and people were getting found
Speaker 1: out and banned. His teammates had to cover up their
Speaker 1: syringe bruises. The press was still very suspicious of him.
Speaker 1: He was asked if he was doping, and of course
Speaker 1: he denied it every time. Lance was furious with another
Speaker 1: racer who started speaking out about doping and saying how
Speaker 1: bad it was in the industry. It was getting out
Speaker 1: of control. Lance decided to put him in his place
Speaker 1: on the cycle. Lance ordered his team to pursue the cyclist,
Speaker 1: caught up to him and surrounded him. Lance put a
Speaker 1: hand on his shoulder and told him if he was
Speaker 1: speaking out it would not be tolerated. Lance suggested he
Speaker 1: find a new profession.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: After the first Tour de France he won, Lance won
Speaker 1: the next.
Speaker 4: Five in a row.
Speaker 1: Whoa by the age of thirty two. In two thousand
Speaker 1: and four, he was even bigger star.
Speaker 2: He turned thirty two in two thousand and.
Speaker 1: Forty correct, I'm now fifty something. His memoir was on
Speaker 1: the New York Times bestseller list. At some point Lance's
Speaker 1: Lance left his wife and started dating a very famous
Speaker 1: person by the name of Julie Gillar Sheryl Crow. Just
Speaker 1: a little bit that new EPO tests were being formulated,
Speaker 1: so Lance and his team had to be smarter about it.
Speaker 1: They started doing it all nights so it wouldn't show
Speaker 1: up so sorry, late at night, so it wouldn't show
Speaker 1: up on the same day tests. They also started doing
Speaker 1: blood transfusions, which increased blood oxygen capacity. Lance was now
Speaker 1: pressuring the team all to do this. They did it
Speaker 1: in front of Cheryl, and Lance told her that every
Speaker 1: team was doing it.
Speaker 2: I suppose you wouldn't know if you were involved in
Speaker 2: I would just say, like Lance Armstrong and Cheryl Crow,
Speaker 2: two famous names, famous people we know. But if you
Speaker 2: just think of a couple named Lance and Cheryl.
Speaker 1: Yep, oh my god, yeah, exactly. A hot couple that
Speaker 1: you think of your mind doesn't cast hot right away.
Speaker 4: Do they?
Speaker 1: There is there a drag queen called Cheryl Hole.
Speaker 4: I feel like there is.
Speaker 2: It might be, well, is there a part of missing there?
Speaker 1: No, I don't think there is.
Speaker 4: I feel like it's Cheryl Hole cher whole Crow.
Speaker 2: Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 4: It's just at the end in two when you sing
Speaker 4: a song.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and four, a journal accused him of
Speaker 1: doping and had very credible sources, people very close to him.
Speaker 2: What this might be an I have questioned, but why
Speaker 2: weren't they just testing all the time that they were
Speaker 2: doping in a certain way, that he.
Speaker 1: Was doping at night and then they would test the
Speaker 1: next day, so it often wasn't traceable on that everything.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and five, Lance won his seventh to
Speaker 1: a defrance.
Speaker 2: Wow, do you know how to say seven in French?
Speaker 4: Seventh?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: He addressed his haters in his speech. He was really
Speaker 1: patronizing and said that he done hard work and he
Speaker 1: won all the championships himself, trying to draw attention away
Speaker 1: from doping when he was talking.
Speaker 2: And what look, what I will say is he has
Speaker 2: done hard work. Yeah, but I will also say, like
Speaker 2: just kind of be a little bit exactly two things
Speaker 2: can be true, and also just like just sit down
Speaker 2: a bit, you know it, don't be rasted loud and
Speaker 2: no I don't even mean that, but like, why get
Speaker 2: up there and be hateful and patronizing like threatening other people?
Speaker 4: He was invincible though he really is.
Speaker 1: Oh you've gone out with Sheryl Cole, the then Lance
Speaker 1: retired crow Crow.
Speaker 4: Sorry, I keep kidding, that's.
Speaker 2: Why, right, So there's a Sheryl coal Is someone as well.
Speaker 4: Maybe I don't know. I want to look it up.
Speaker 4: After then, Lance retired from cycling. He wanted to protect
Speaker 4: his legacy.
Speaker 1: Lance, of course intimidates and bullies anyone that opposes him.
Speaker 2: Still, I despise the fact that you said, of course, because.
Speaker 4: But look at him.
Speaker 1: Lance was on SNLS. I don't know live joking about
Speaker 1: testing his urine.
Speaker 4: Oh god, the.
Speaker 1: Urine comes from when he is disposed of. He paints
Speaker 1: the person. So, Betsy, who's the person that went against
Speaker 1: him in his claims? Who was actually the person in
Speaker 1: the in the hospital room who said, oh, he admitted,
Speaker 1: He admitted it. He admitted openly in the hospital about.
Speaker 4: All the drugs.
Speaker 2: He was sorry. Some random person in the hospital heard
Speaker 2: him talk.
Speaker 1: A friend of his, he was an ex friend now,
Speaker 1: but she was like in the hospital room when he
Speaker 1: was like listing off all.
Speaker 2: The drugs he was taking, and she went publicly, oh, Betsy.
Speaker 4: Betsy called her.
Speaker 1: He called her unstable publicly, and he was all over
Speaker 1: the place. He broke up with Sheryl Crow and started
Speaker 1: dating a slew of Hollywood stars. A year after his retirement.
Speaker 1: I can't Ginsey Gohan, I don't think that's no. A
Speaker 1: year after his retirement, a man by the name of
Speaker 1: Floyd won the Tour de France. After his crown champion,
Speaker 1: he was found out to be cheating. He denied it
Speaker 1: right away, and he fumbled over his words. He got
Speaker 1: to advise from Lance. Lance called him and told him
Speaker 1: that he needed to say absolutely not. They were all teammates,
Speaker 1: and Lance was clearly worried that maybe they would start
Speaker 1: digging into him. Floyd was forced into arbitration and sped
Speaker 1: mean two million dollars on his own defense. He was
Speaker 1: barred from pro cycling for two years and is the
Speaker 1: first Tour de France's winner in over a century to
Speaker 1: be stripped of his title.
Speaker 2: In over a century. Is interesting that somewhere before as.
Speaker 1: Well, he developed a bad binge drinking habit, and he
Speaker 1: fell off the ladder and broke a lot of bones.
Speaker 2: Fell off a ladder, yeap, fell off the ladders in.
Speaker 1: Like no, no, no, and he ended up getting hooked
Speaker 1: on painkillers.
Speaker 2: Oh that's awful.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden Lance announced that he
Speaker 1: was coming out of retirement. Floyd wanted to then join
Speaker 1: Lancer's team, but the manager of the team stated that
Speaker 1: Floyd was now too toxic. In April twenty ten, Floyd
Speaker 1: wrote an email to the head of US Cycling naming
Speaker 1: names of all the people that were doping.
Speaker 2: Oh so he's kind of gone if I'm not a
Speaker 2: ladder to come back.
Speaker 1: He then admitted publicly to doping. He wanted to clear
Speaker 1: his conscience.
Speaker 2: Lloyd did, yea.
Speaker 1: The FBI looked into it and looked into Lance a
Speaker 1: little bit too, I did.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Why didn't realize it was actually a criminal.
Speaker 1: Thing doing though, if you're winning money and everything, it
Speaker 1: must be Yeah.
Speaker 2: I suppose it could be fraud or if any of
Speaker 2: the drugs related.
Speaker 1: Yes, there was one man who wanted to bring him down.
Speaker 1: A man by the name of Travis, who interviewed Kelsey, Yes,
Speaker 1: who interviewed everyone who was willing to come forward.
Speaker 2: And he's speak going to tell me who Travis is.
Speaker 1: No, he's a journalist. Sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. A
Speaker 1: man by the name of Travis, and he spoke to
Speaker 1: the Guardian. The witness testimony painted a pretty damning picture
Speaker 1: of Lance. They found that Lance used a lot of
Speaker 1: performance enhancing drugs. He encouraged others to dope and violate
Speaker 1: the rules. Lance was given the chance to testify, but
Speaker 1: he refused. He maintained his innocence. He stated it was
Speaker 1: an unfair process, but he wasn't going to succumb to
Speaker 1: their bullying. Lance got dropped by eight sponsors in a
Speaker 1: single day.
Speaker 2: This is the thing, right, and it can be a
Speaker 2: double edged sword, because if you were innocent of it,
Speaker 2: you would des fy, you'd go yep, like you know,
Speaker 2: just everything this is a like find something wrong, you won't,
Speaker 2: so not doing so does make you seem guilty. And
Speaker 2: the reason I say to double edged sword is because
Speaker 2: that's that's probably the wrong term, but that's unfair as well.
Speaker 2: If someone isn't guilty, yeah, it just doesn't want to
Speaker 2: go through that. But I mean, we know he was
Speaker 2: so exactly well he could have just cleared yourself.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: So yeah, he lost all of his sponsors in an
Speaker 1: entire day. Forbes estimated they'd lost around one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty million dollars in future earnings. In January twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: Lance Armstrong was in Austin, Texas. He was being interviewed,
Speaker 1: but for a very different reason than usual. This time,
Speaker 1: it's not about his record breaking seven wins on the
Speaker 1: Tour de France. He was being interviewed this time by
Speaker 1: Oprah Winfrey.
Speaker 2: Oh I've heard of her.
Speaker 1: Oprah said yes or no? Did you ever take banned
Speaker 1: substances to enhance your cycling performance? Right away? Lance said yes.
Speaker 1: He admitted to using a large amount of banned substances
Speaker 1: and doping methods in all seven of his Tour Defront's victories.
Speaker 2: Well, it took him almost two years to actually like
Speaker 2: from when he was so was this journalist Travis essentially
Speaker 2: was like, I'm going to out him for this. Did
Speaker 2: so he still maintained his inno sense, but it kind
Speaker 2: of went nowhere because obviously he couldn't prove.
Speaker 1: But even if you look back at like when he
Speaker 1: was on Saturday Night Live and stuff, he was joking
Speaker 1: about it for a long time. So they were always whispers.
Speaker 2: That were always big, like the big kind.
Speaker 1: Of baking breaking point was travers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Lance said that whole time, No way didn't
Speaker 2: but then didn't try to prove that he didn't improve
Speaker 2: it just kind of went quite went to ground for
Speaker 2: two years and then went on Oprah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and to say something about this.
Speaker 1: People have been suspecting this for a long time. But
Speaker 1: it was the first time he actually admitted it out loud.
Speaker 1: Oprah also talked about his bullying behavior into silencing people
Speaker 1: who attempted to blow the whistle, calling the person a
Speaker 1: whore and then suing her for liabilities, as Betsy calls
Speaker 1: her a whore and then suit her liability.
Speaker 2: I hate this guy.
Speaker 1: He then said in the interview, laughing it off, that
Speaker 1: he sued lots of people during that time, so he's
Speaker 1: unsure if that person.
Speaker 4: Was sued in particular.
Speaker 2: Get fuck.
Speaker 1: He was also lying in the interview he did not
Speaker 1: stop doping in two thousand and five. He also said
Speaker 1: he never insisted his teammate should cheat, but twelve of
Speaker 1: them came forward and said that he did.
Speaker 4: Oh yes.
Speaker 1: He continually lied in the interview and laughed things off.
Speaker 1: Lance has since appeared in few documentaries and made several appearances.
Speaker 1: He has a popular cycling podcast Now he started Looking,
Speaker 1: he started a medical marijuana clinic, and oh American athlete
Speaker 1: has won the Tour de France since two thousand and six.
Speaker 1: That She Love is a brief story about Lance Strong.
Speaker 2: I really hate him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I don't think he's a good guard.
Speaker 2: I feel like what I knew about it, Like I
Speaker 2: was quite young when it was all happened.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And what I.
Speaker 2: Remember of it was that he, Yeah, it was found
Speaker 2: out that he was doping. It was a really un
Speaker 2: like everyone kind of felt a bit sad about that,
Speaker 2: but because he'd done such great things for the cancer
Speaker 2: charity and like, yes, he was doping, but he was
Speaker 2: still amazing, and it's been hard to know how to
Speaker 2: react to it. That is my memory of it. I
Speaker 2: don't know why. Maybe that's how I was kind of
Speaker 2: told the story. I don't know, but hearing that I'm going.
Speaker 4: To fuck this guy exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and good on him for doing great things for
Speaker 2: a cancer charity, not away at all, But.
Speaker 4: Don't take the money back, guys, No, it doesn't, can't.
Speaker 2: But this I fucking hate this Guy's like there like
Speaker 2: appit to me of toxic horror.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, would you please sing me the Terry song?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: As I quickly quickly look up.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this is a song I'm gonna say straight
Speaker 2: off the bat. I didn't make it up, Chris Lily did.
Speaker 2: But it goes like this, Terry, Terry, you make me
Speaker 2: very merry, even though you're very very hairy, I'll Always
Speaker 2: Love My Terry And Joel Creese's father's named Terry, and
Speaker 2: I sang that song to Joel Creese's father after about
Speaker 2: eighty five champagnes out his birthday and that's when we
Speaker 2: fell in love.
Speaker 4: There is a singer called Cheryl Cole.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, so Cheryl Hole is a clever drag queen name,
Speaker 2: but it's not a play on Cheryl Crow. And according
Speaker 2: to a quick Google surge, Lance Armstrong actually dated Kate Hudson.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, wow, yeah, and he's also been thinked to
Speaker 2: fashion designer Tory Birch and Ashley Olsen.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, yeah, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Kate Hudson he briefly dated in two thousand and eight.
Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah. It's an interesting story though, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Or it is it's just like, yeah, I oh, he's
Speaker 2: just everything about like he's the or could be one
Speaker 2: of the poster children for the type of toxic male.
Speaker 4: That I just despise.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, it's just yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: whole the whole story.
Speaker 2: You like, have he ever charge with anything? You said
Speaker 2: the FBI got involved.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he's ever charge with anything. I
Speaker 4: don't think he was.
Speaker 1: Right, and if you know the answer to that also,
Speaker 1: I do want to say as well, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be starting a drag queen character based on Cheryl Crowe
Speaker 1: called Cheryl Hole.
Speaker 2: I think we should work on it, Souse. I think,
Speaker 2: first of all, you've actually already said that that name's taken.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's but it's that's it based on Cheryl Cole.
Speaker 4: I'll do the same name, but it's based on shell Crow.
Speaker 2: Because I love you, I'm going to tell you I
Speaker 2: don't think that's very good.
Speaker 4: Okay, Yes, we're a liar.
Speaker 2: What about Cheryl blow Job?
Speaker 4: It's not that good.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: Anyway, that's an interesting story about the case of Lance Armstrong.
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions if you
Speaker 1: want to comment on this episode on the Spotify episode.
Speaker 1: If you want to do that, you can write in
Speaker 1: samit just another company, dot com dot au.
Speaker 2: You can leave us a voice note via the website
Speaker 2: called speak Pipe. The link to that is in our
Speaker 2: show notes and on our Instagram bio. Oh wait, what
Speaker 2: was that Instagram?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've got it.
Speaker 2: I'd not another crime podcast. It's the same thing on
Speaker 2: TikTok and you can watch us on YouTube and follow.
Speaker 4: Us you Chune is so funny. It's such a funny
Speaker 4: place to be.
Speaker 2: You know what's funny because it's like, uh, you like
Speaker 2: it could be like ur l but it's you, so
Speaker 2: it's like you like yourself on the tube in London.
Speaker 2: Do you think that's funny? No, I'm gonna my.
Speaker 4: Lube. What is that?
Speaker 2: You lube or lou glube tube?
Speaker 1: Well mine's always been Bonella Lawson, which is a bit
Speaker 1: like lube, A bit like lube. Anyway, everybody, I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the episode that we just did about I'm Strong,
Speaker 1: very strange, but Lance, I'm strong anyway. We'd love to
Speaker 1: hear thoughts about it. Thank you everyone for listening. Shared
Speaker 1: this podcast with a friend as well. Leave a five
Speaker 1: star rating, leave a fine star review.
Speaker 2: I think if I was a school bully who had
Speaker 2: gone to school with Lance Armstrong, and I'm only now
Speaker 2: knowing in hindsight that he turned out to be a
Speaker 2: horrible person, I wouldn't have bullied him in school, but
Speaker 2: now I know that I would call him lancearm Week.
Speaker 1: Why isn't there a band called Dance arm Strong.
Speaker 2: TM trademark Hey we've got to go, We've got I've
Speaker 2: got to get.
Speaker 4: Some plans that pen real quick. Bye, everybody,