ENCORE: Lance Armstrong: Tour De Fraud
6/15/202646 min
We’ll be back next week with new episodes. In the meantime, in honor of next month’s Tour de France, we’re revisiting one of the most infamous sports scandals of the early 2000s:
Lance Armstrong’s determination to win helps him survive cancer and become cycling’s biggest star in the early 2000s. But his ruthless desire to be the best leads him to create a secret cheating scheme. It fuels him to a historic Tour de France winning streak—but requires an elaborate cover-up that includes bullying anyone who tries to expose him, even his teammate...
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSarah Hagi· Host0:00
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Scaachi Koul· Host0:08
We'll be back next week with an all-new episode of Scamfluencers. But with the Tour de France kicking off July 4th in Barcelona, we thought it was the perfect time to take another look at cycling's greatest fraud, Lance Armstrong.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:22
When we first covered Lance, we told the story of how he was part of what investigators called, quote, "The most sophisticated, professionalized, and successful doping program that sport has ever seen," and how Lance bullied anyone who tried to expose him. Now, Hollywood has come calling again.
Scaachi Koul· Host0:39
In February, Apple won a bidding war for a new Lance Armstrong biopic starring Austin Butler and directed by Edward Berger, who recently made Conclave. Multiple studios were fighting over the package, which shows just how compelling this story still is.
Sarah Hagi· Host0:54
This movie also marks the first time Lance has authorized anyone telling his story on screen. His former team director, Johan Bruyneel, said the film will finally give them a chance to, quote, "Tell our side of the story," which is a pretty bold claim from two guys who spent a decade lying to everyone.
Scaachi Koul· Host1:11
So with the Tour about to start and a major film on the way, we're revisiting the story of Lance Armstrong, the champion who doped his way to seven titles and still seems to think that he's the victim.
Unknown speaker1:24
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