The Armstrong Lie Page #4

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this huge bust

called Operation Puerto,

in which most of

his rivals got popped.

If it was

the NBA All-Star game,

it would have been every

player on both teams

essentially busted for doping

except that one

guy who just retired.

Throughout Lance's Tour wins,

all but one of the cyclists who

finished on the podium with Armstrong

were implicated

in doping scandals.

And finally,

the last thing I'll say for

the people that

don't believe in cycling,

the cynics and the skeptics,

I'm sorry for you.

I'm sorry you can't dream big, and I'm

sorry you don't believe in miracles.

After winning in 2005,

what better moment to walk away?

What better moment to stay away?

Why couldn't he have

just said thank you?

"I had a nice career and now it's over.

Thank you."

But that's not in him.

And that urge to crush,

that urge

to push back,

that urge to dominate,

not just to be content with

winning, but that urge to dominate,

is what ended up

bringing him down.

Lance tried to

dominate my film, too.

He had lied to me, straight to

my face, all throughout 2009.

When the truth

came out, I told him

he owed me

an explanation on camera.

Whether he wanted to try

to make things right

or whether he still wanted

to influence my story,

he agreed to sit

down one more time.

You vigorously

defended your reputation.

Do you feel,

in retrospect, that you were

protecting that too assiduously?

Had the lie become too big? Did

it get out of control for you?

Yeah, that's

the biggest regret of my life.

Um, I'm a fighter.

I grew up a fighter.

I was a fighter on the bike.

I was a fighter off the bike.

And if you were in the race, I was

competitive and I was fighting.

I forgot to turn that...

I'd get off the bike, and whether

it's in a press conference,

whether it's in a team setting,

whether it's in

a personal relationship,

I continued to fight.

And I wanted to defend myself,

and I wanted to defend the

sport, the team, my foundation.

I was defending

all of these things,

and I was

prepared to say anything.

The gift that he has that gets

overlooked is his gift as a storyteller,

his gift as a manager

of his own storyline.

A guy at death's door comes back

to win the toughest

event on the planet.

The story brought more money,

brought more attention,

brought more sponsorship,

brought more inspiration.

Lance became this

international cultural icon.

And he had to

keep the story going.

He could've ridden around the

world to raise money for cancer.

There were a lot of

things he could've done,

but the best story is

to go back to the Tour.

By racing the bicycle

all over the world,

beginning in Australia,

ending in France,

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