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Cycling´s Greatest Fraud Lance Armstrong

[Music] champion acceleration of Armstrong is absolutely frightening here or sheet they say it's impossible so he must be doing something legend people look to him as a hero for life you think that I'm gonna come back into sport and risk my life losses performance-enhancing drugs is crazy miracle mind the thing would have thought me for a master of deceit this is the story you don't know your weapon or every consistent the drugs the US Postal Service's pro cycling team including Lance Armstrong ran the most sophisticated and successful drug program that we've ever seen the deception Lance Armstrong is the greatest cheater in all of cycling history and the damage done [Music] Lance Armstrong an American success story but a few hours with Oprah Winfrey changes that story forever did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance yes after years of denials Armstrong finally admits that none of his seven Tour de France victories was raced cleanly Lance Armstrong used possessed and distributed these dangerous drugs all so that they could win Tour de France's 1999 the US postal pro cycling team goes to Europe with one unlikely goal to win the biggest race in cycling the Tour de France Lance Armstrong as the team's rising star and its leader I was following him before I even started cycling Tyler Hamilton is one of Armstrong's wingmen in the peloton the fast moving pack of races I was right in the middle of it for years it was almost like we were one big family or one big fraternity I was honored to be his teammate the Tour de France is an epic three-week battle where riders from more than 20 teams raced more than 2,000 miles through vineyards up mountains and all the way to the show's Elysee in Paris professional cycling is almost like a cross between NASCAR and horse racing I mean it is almost a full-contact sport at times incredible human drama and suffering on the road but in 1999 Armstrong thinks his team is far from looking like world champions expectations were quite low no one expected them to win for sure just three years earlier Armstrong had been diagnosed with aggressive cancer I was in denial I thought this can't be because I'm 25 years old why would I have cancer and involved you know chemotherapy treatments drugs that really could have destroyed his athletic career whose incredibly lucky to get through that when Armstrong enters the 1999 Tour de France his best finish in the race is 36th place his demeanor back then he was a lot more he was a lot more unsure of himself he wasn't sure would he be like post-cancer Armstrong in 1999 was a very much an outside threat but in the races early prologue stage Armstrong stuns the crowd by blowing away the previous year's winner by 16 of full seconds that is astonishing from Lance as a goal you know don't get between him and that goal the moment starts Armstrong's comeback one marked by extraordinary physical training and something else performance-enhancing drugs Armstrong's doping started back in the mid-1990s when he was on the Motorola team in 2012 Stephen Swart a retired motor roller teammate admits to doping while riding with Armstrong in the 90s I first started diving to be here and you know and not let the team down according to swat he Lance Armstrong and other team mates disgust and Hughes banned substances the conversations I had with Lance about doping was basically on the bike out training you know he was serious talk about King on the EPO program riders have been secretly using drugs to push past their physical limits for as long as cycling has been a sport but in 1998 the extent of doping in professional cycling is exposed to the world at the start of that year's Tour de France border police find a large amount of banned substances in a car belonging to a French cycling team the following year race organisers try to move past the scandal and dubbed the 1999 race the Tour of renewal [Applause] [Music] but according to some of his teammates in a report released by the United States anti-doping agency Armstrong urges them to start doping convinced he knows what it takes to win the 1999 Tour de France Armstrong surrounds himself with the best team possible and according to the anti-doping agency report a critical player in that dream is Michele Ferrari an Italian sports doctor that Armstrong has been quietly consulting for years dr. Ferrari in cycling was known as the guy who doped cyclists he's known for taking a very intellectual approach to the sport of cycling a real numbers based approach he loves spreadsheets he likes to plug in numbers but he's also accused by others of using questionable methods despite his reputation Ferrari insists that his program is legit according to the USANA report some US Postal team members say Ferrari guides them in the use of banned substances Tyler Hamilton is one of those riders started with a simple red testosterone pill I didn't want to go against the grain the Tour de France was right around the corner and I knew if I wanted to make the team selection to get into the Tour de France that might be the deciding factor idealistic riders like Hamilton find themselves on a slippery slope basically you would be given vitamin shots in the beginning and taught how to shoot up b12 into your veins so you knew your way around the syringe pretty easily and the real creepy thing was they would always say everybody's doing it just like you'd hear in high school even for athletes in peak condition bicycle racing brutalizes the body banned substances like cortisone testosterone and human growth hormone aid in reducing pain and boosting muscle growth but in the long and grueling tours there's an even more sought-after drug one that targets the blood there's a very very long name for EPO it's erythropoietin and to hide it on the team they called it Edgar as an Edgar Allan Poe synthetic EPO is often used to treat patients whose bodies can't make enough red blood cells EPO increases the number of your red blood cells and the red blood cells are what carry oxygen around the body for cyclists the extra EPO created red blood cells feed oxygen starved muscles providing an unnatural and unfair boost in performance as racers hit the walls of their cardiovascular limits those doped on EPO are able to push past you just don't finish tired you know a lot fresher and your recovery is so much quicker according to the you sada report Armstrong and some of the other US Postal team riders perfect their use of EPO the real problem becomes securing a steady supply that during the 1999 tour according to Tyler Hamilton Armstrong devises a plan during the race an anonymous Frenchman waits for a call on his prepaid mobile phone he is Lance Armstrong's personal handyman and is known to members of the US Postal team as Motoman wait after he gets his instructions he races off with him according to Tyler Hamilton is a thermos filled with EPO heading for an area that will be crowded with cycling fans he is a shadow on the move the Frenchman's mission is to deliver IPO for Armstrong and key teammates whenever it's needed the sophistication came not just from something like moto man but the idea of how moto man fit into this grander plan that like okay here's what we need and here's who's going to provide it and then here's how it's going to get to us in a way that's undetectable slipping into the US Postal teams vehicle moto man opens the package and stashes the goods when riders returned to the camper they find EPO filled syringes tucked into their shoes according to Tyler Hamilton riders put their used syringes into empty drink cans dispose of the evidence and get ready for the next grueling stage of the Tour de France [Music] Michels a climber on July 13th an elite group of riders breaks from the peloton and races to the top of a 6,000 foot Mountain the 1999 Tour de France is on the line and cycling fans wonder if Armstrong the underdog and cancer survivor has what it takes wasn't there all rounder it wasn't a super climb of Anna's results and prior to it at Frances he couldn't match it with the top guys on the client but Armstrong it raises any does the acceleration of Armstrong is absolutely frightening here Armstrong passes two of the sports best climbers as if they're standing still he's now heading up to a likely victor here at Sestriere he wins the stage by 31 seconds propelling him even closer to the winner's podium in Paris Vlad's arms on blocks this guy I feel great and even more importantly my team feels great we think that we have a good chance of winning morale is high but among the cheers a whispers of foul play the Armstrong camp is always quick to shut those down when he does come back and he's successful and he leads the Tour de France and he possibly wins the Tour de France you know what they say they say it's impossible so he must be doing something we only have one thing to hide and that's our hard work behind the scenes at the tool though Armstrong has a big problem one of his drug tests comes back positive for cortisone a drug that without a doctor's prescription is banned in cycling according to sworn testimony by team masters Mr O'Reilly Armstrong and team officials come up with a simple solution backdate a prescription for cortisone so that the prescription technically started before the tour started so that he had already been taking cortisone and O'Reilly choose him to think of it she saw a lot of the things that were going on within the team racing authorities are satisfied with the explanation from Armstrong's captain to think that I'm gonna come back into support and risk my life was with performance-enhancing drugs is crazy accusations of doping are overshadowed by Armstrong's extraordinary comeback story there is no doubt that the cancer is coming back from cancer it had blinded everybody to what he was really doing on the 25th of July the world cheers him on to his first Tour de France victory but to the man who has won the Tour de France Lance Armstrong only the second American site ever on the shores ELISA in Paris cycling's new king is crap it's been crazy it's a obviously you're exhausted from the Tour de France itself and so your body wants to take a rest but there's no rest for the weary and the need for speed reaches a whole new level [Music] against the odds and nearly everyone's expectations Lance Armstrong wins the 1999 Tour de France far from scaring him straight a close call with a positive cortisone test seems to prove one thing in the high stakes high-speed world of cycling it's not just about being the best rider but the best dopa those were a dark here is you know doping was just massive back and it was you know the majority of the peloton was doing it when it comes down to preparation or what you're doing which doctor you're working that's the difference between being number one and number two his top competitors if they were using a certain drug or even asked him what about a certain drug he certainly knew it and asked his doctors about it immediately he really knew how to figure out what other people are doing so he would up his game part of the game was staying ahead of the testers which is about to get a lot harder in early 2000 the cycling world hears rumors that a new test is being developed for EPO according to you sada and some of Armstrong's teammates dr. Michele Ferrari and Armstrong have the inside line on the test and devised a way around it a lot of people know how the tests work but they had the intelligence to be able to say okay well how do we use that information to make sure that I don't test positive according to Hamilton in the summer of 2000 at a discreet beachside Hotel in Valencia Spain Armstrong Hamilton and another postal rider prepare for step one of a blood transfusion they would take their own blood out and then during the tour they would put it back in so that gives you an extra red blood cells for endurance the process of banking one's own blood isn't new but it's used by athletes as a way to artificially enhance performance has been banned since 1986 receiving blood transfusions in hotel rooms that's a really dark place after about an hour bags of warm blood are put into coolers and go into storage according to Hamilton a few weeks later on the eleventh day of the 2002 diff'rence the same three cyclists enter another hotel room this one the amount of on to France they'll grab a hanger from the closet and basically hang the blood bags from a pitcher hook on the wall and sit there on the bed and transfuse the blood in less than 30 minutes the blood they drained in Spain is back in their bodies Tyler Hamilton has described it as having this feeling of this cold liquid entering your body the rider's bodies having naturally recreated the blood they lost in Spain weeks before are now rien fused with trillions more oxygen carrying red blood cells giving yourself more blood and you've currently got is the single best way of improving performance EPO takes a long time a blood transfusion bang wow you're there and unlike EPO doping with your own blood is virtually undetectable 13th of July two days after Armstrong and teammates are allegedly reinf used with their own blood they set out on a notorious Mountain stage of what Armstrong hopes will be his second Tour de France victory every mountain station you could finish was basically one step closer to Paris once again Armstrong makes his move nothing about it at all he saw the speed of the acceleration he's chasing just one man on the road the man who's in the pink jersey he catches up with one of the sport's greatest climbers Italian Marco Pantani who've been disqualified from an earlier race for irregular blood values he's taken a real good look at Marco almost to see the back wheel for you Marco jump on if you can the man Sprint's up the 6,000 foot mountain it's an extraordinary moment I think anyone would have done they're well on their Mountain without doping [Applause] ten days later Armstrong claims his second Tour de France victory but once again he faces accusations of doping he confronts his critics head-on and even uses his celebrity to publicly challenge them in a 2001 art for Nike everybody wants to know I'm on what am I on I'm on my bike busted my ass six hours a day you are Betsy Andreu wife of cyclist Frankie Andreu and a former member of Armstrong's inner circle witnesses his tactics firsthand Lance really relied on the media and politicians he cozied up to politicians and to people in power and so he built this Empire when an accusation comes up about doping in this career does accusations like are quickly shut down Armstrong is undeniably persuasive why would I take that risk I have everything I need I have money I have contracts I have a family I have my family's name do you think I want my son to go to high school in 2012 and somebody to say huh Luke Armstrong your dad got busted but behind Armstrong's confident denials teammates say they play a dangerous cat and mouse game with the testers right now on the record for all of America the world here have you ever used performance-enhancing drugs course not never no not once cycling has been criminalized and singled out Lance Armstrong continues to fight back aggressively against doping accusations while teammates say Armstrong and others are engaged in an elaborate and risky system one rider says he helped Armstrong narrowly escape a positive drug test at a 2000 race in Spain George Hincapie Lance Armstrong's right-hand man actually texted to warn Lance that their drug testers at the hotel according to him Cappy Armstrong has testosterone in his system and drops out to the race to avoid being tested the team ran the program to ensure that they never tested positive by getting advanced notice of the test dropping out of races when when they knew that they were hot and would test positive Tyler tells the story develop the tester comes to the door and he knows that if he gives a sample it he's going to get to test positive so he and his wife both literally hit the deck and hide and pretend no one's home and the tester leaves but that's how simple it is to evade a test just pretend you're not all according to you sada the team also uses other more scientific ways to avoid positive tests US Postal team cyclists say dr. Ferrari develops new and nearly undetectable ways to administer EPO to the team his doctor decided it was better to inject it intravenously rather than just injecting it under the skin injecting smaller amounts of EPO directly into their veins reduces the number of hours EPO stays in the system which is key when testers are regularly making house calls maybe took it in the evening didn't answer the door the next morning you would be clear by past hundreds of tests when I probably shouldn't have time I was writing we had doctors that were one step ahead of the testers at the beginning of the 2004 season Armstrong and crew appear to be unstoppable Morgan guarded the Teflon Don every time to escape the conviction his influence and power group within the marquee because they all believed he would never ever be convicted Lance had sort of that aura that no one was gonna ever be able to catch him one went away from a record-setting six Tour de France wins Armstrong is living the life of an international icon complete with a rock star girlfriend Sheryl Crow pianist Brian just got bigger and bigger and bigger through his cancer awareness charity LIVESTRONG he has become one of the nation's most visible philanthropists my friend a true champ a great American Lance Armstrong but all that money and all that fame hangs on a great lie according to the asada report every single one of his Tour de France wins has been fueled by either testosterone EPO or blood transfusions it's a secret he's determined to protect Lance Armstrong as two people he's a person who was beloved and who was very charismatic and there's a dark side of Lance Armstrong and ruin many lives and intimidated people and ruin careers accusations leaks and threats are met with a swift counter-attack by the Lance Armstrong machine we're sick and tired of these allegations and we're going to do everything we can to fight them they're absolutely untrue we filed action in England we filed action in France against everybody involved and enough is enough you know there wasn't a lot in between with Lance you were either with him before him or you're against him at the 2004 Tour de France Italian cyclist Filippo Simeoni finds out what it's like to be up against Armstrong Simeone first lands on Armstrong's hit list in 2002 when he testifies against Armstrong's friend and consultant Michele Ferrari in a trial that convicts Ferrari on sports fraud Lance in turn went after him he went went out to crush him the conviction is later overturned but according to you sada as far as Armstrong is concerned Simeone has done the unthinkable he's broken cycling's unwritten law nobody speaks out nobody speaks out everybody you know takes the secrets you're expected to take this secrets to the grave at the 2004 Tour de France the war of words between Armstrong and Simeoni escalates during the 18th stage Simeone Sprint's away from the peloton to join a breakaway group Armstrong already well ahead in overall time risked his own standing in the tour by wasting precious energy to chase him down it's unprecedented that the yellow jersey the race leader would attack this later in the race and on such an inconsequential stage Armstrong precious Simeone to pull back from the breakaway group in a stunning nod to Armstrong's power and influence Simeone our Bey's then cameras catch Armstrong's final handmade message apparently referencing Simeone zip your lips that stands out to me as one of the probably the ugliest moments I've seen in sports he's a bully you know he had a lot of power within the peloton and it appears Armstrong will go to great lengths to protect that power and eliminate his competition even if it's an old friend [Music] Lance's former teammate Tyler Hamilton now racing for the Phonak team is one of Armstrong's biggest challenges at that same Tour de France that was a favorite I mean Tyler has experience he has the knowledge that he had a big year last year I wanted to stay on the right side of the Lance Armstrong camp because I knew once I got on the wrong side of that fence he was gonna make my life Tom Hamilton says that after a pre Tour race he's pulled in for questioning by the UCI the International Cycling Union about a suspect drug test he'd been are kind of put on notice by the UCI that he'd had some unusual results he's shocked to hear from another cyclist Armstrong confidant Floyd Landis that it was Armstrong himself who informed on Hamilton to the UCI Lance has this kind of warped sense of honour he wasn't above turning in you know X teammates and rivals when it suited his purposes it's a scare but Hamilton is told not to worry and to keep racing it's not just the competition Armstrong's own teammates who don't get with the program also feel at risk including his good friend Frankie Andreu before the 99th or LAN strides Frankie for having a bad attitude not being a team player being arrogant which was all code for you're not doing what it takes Lance brought it up again in 2000 it's time for you to get serious those were the words he used to seek Ferrari while he is using all these drugs intimidating people people still saw Lance Armstrong as their hero millions and millions of people wore his yellow bracelets because he was their inspiration they just could not see the other side but Armstrong's public image is on a collision course with his secret life you have never taken any performance-enhancing drug in connection with your cycling career correct and that would include any substance that's ever been banned was that fair to say correct in 2004 an insurance company SCA refuses to pay Armstrong millions in bonus money amid reports of him doping Armstrong sued them and soon his former teammates and injectable friends I would prefer not to be here at the deposition yes and Armstrong himself are testifying under oath before lawyers informatively did not take tho how could it have taken place when I've never taken performance-enhancing drugs look how could that have happened that was my point you're not it's not 'simply you don't recall just how many times that I said I just try to make sure your testimony is clear the case threatens to expose Armstrong's doping program and he goes to great lengths to try to keep his secrets from being revealed when Betsy Andreu arrives for her deposition conducted by SCA attorney Jeffrey Tillotson she's shocked to see Armstrong in the room let's he immediately jumps up and goes outside we follow her I do and she is freaked out I was like oh my god he's here he's here why is he here Armstrong sits across from Andreu during her entire testimony what was it that your email to mr. Armstrong said aundrea refuses to be intimidated by his presence I said you are very disrespectful to people you treat people like franki is a friend of yours he's not an employee we don't have to put up with it Andre who drops a bombshell in her testimony when she recounts the conversation she says she heard Armstrong have in 1996 with the doctor who treated his cancer and then came the question have you ever taken any performance-enhancing drugs and Lance said yes the doctor said what were they and he said EPO growth hormone cortisone steroids and testosterone he sit at the edge of the table staring at her you know if he had mind control he probably would have stopped her heart despite the damning testimony Armstrong is later awarded seven and a half million dollars just wanted the truth out and this is a huge fraud in the history of sport shouldn't it be revealed soon the truth be told shouldn't the truth matter once again Armstrong's challenges are left in the dust [Music] and the world watches in awe as Armstrong pushes himself even further at the 2005 Tour de France an unprecedented seven straight Tour de France victory the doping accusations continue to form the sports legend and in his latest moment of triumph Armstrong thumbs his nose at the detractors 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 he knew that people knew he was doping he knew that people were basically on to him and couldn't prove it and he basically just threw it back in everybody's face then at the top of his game Lance Armstrong retires it's time for me to just stop and go home and be a full-time dad the following year his friend and former Protege Floyd Landis picks up the torch if anyone was gonna fill his shoes and become the next great American cyclist it was going to be Floyd Landis since joining the US Postal team land is trained closely with Armstrong and helped him win three Tour de France titles according to Landis his time with Armstrong is also spent in the dark world of doping he first was sort of indoctrinated into the doping program during the sort of warm-up race before the Tour de France when he joined Lance Armstrong he became something else he was really inside all of the the drug use and in 2006 Landis continues the American winning streak and captures the yellow jersey American Floyd Landis is celebrating his big victory today now it's Landis's turn on top and like Armstrong before him he's convinced they'll never catch his doping but he's wrong after his breathtaking win in the Tour de France American Floyd Landis has tested positive for unusually high levels of testosterone Landis desperately fights back against the charge I would like to leave absolutely clear that I'm not in any doping process but when it comes to convincing denials Floyd Landis is no Lance Armstrong the levels I have had during the tour and all my career are absolutely natural and produced by my own organism the cycling community is not convinced and the UCI stripped him of his title he's banned from cycling for two years world of cycling when you test positive they throw you out like garbage you were nothing the alienated cyclist is haunted by his failed drug test world finds out that your positive drug test those disaster Floyd Landis fought his case for many years took his two-year suspension came back in the sport and couldn't get a job on the highest levels of cycling not even with his old friend Lance Armstrong who three years into his self-imposed retirement makes a startling announcement on the LIVESTRONG website Armstrong says Landis threatens to go public with doping accusations unless he gets a job with Armstrong's new team something Landis denies regardless Armstrong turns his back on his old friend Lance's shunning Oh Floyd was one of the worst mistakes he could have made I think that was the moment where Floyd basically said okay the heck with it four years after his brief shining moment on top floyd landis enters a Beverly Hills restaurant to meet with a cycling official Landis sets an audio recorder on the table presses record and shatters the sports code of silence Landis unburdened himself of what he says are years of lies about doping on the US Postal team big props to Floyd Landis for finally coming out and telling the truth Landis doesn't name Lance Armstrong not yet but the story he reveals lights the match for the firestorm that was soon envelop Armstrong for it said well if you really want to know what's going on I can tell you word of Landis's claims reaches federal Food and Drug Administration agents who meet with the disgraced cyclist Landis tells them about doping and cycling and this time he talks specifically about Lance Armstrong Floyd Landis know where all the bodies were buried the FDA launches a full investigation into Landis's allegations an issue is whether or not the US Postal team under Armstrong is guilty of fraud by engaging in doping and possibly trafficking banned substances all while under contract with a federal sponsor the US Postal Service a grand jury had convened in Los Angeles and Lance was in the crosshairs [Music] Armstrong his box we have and he hits back especially hard at Landis February 2012 two years after the federal investigation into Armstrong begins it suddenly dropped without explanation in a statement Armstrong calls it the right decision when the federal investigation closed I think Armstrong justifiably felt like he dodged a bullet but as soon as one investigation ends another investigation begins under Travis Tygart head of the United States anti-doping agency or you Saada know athletes should be put in the situation where to achieve their dreams they have to resort to dangerous cheating though you solder is without authority in legal or criminal matters Tygart can ban athletes from sanctioned sports for doping for years or even life he approaches Armstrong's former teammates including Tyler Hamilton and they start talking the people that were bound to this code of silence they basically came forward in the whole thing blew over 11 of Armstrong's teammates testify against him including six active riders who are given six months suspensions for their own doping the powerful Armstrong machine is in hi defense mode after he passed every single test that was administered and didn't fail a one and they couldn't prove him guilty they've now asked him to prove himself innocent all I can say is that Lance Armstrong is defiant and he will always be defiant but the tide is turning the opportunity to come clean is just too appealing for some who were once in Armstrong's inner circle it was just a massive massive weight off my shoulders and it felt so good that you know immediately I just I knew my life had changed I knew the the right direction I was going to go and I wanted to scream it from the top of my lungs at that time in October of 2012 you solder publicly issues a full report and it reveals what they say is Armstrong secret world this was the game changer this is what took it from being you could believe one side or the other still 1,000 pages layout incident after incident of doping on the US postal cycling team names dates and locations all in great detail it's a scathing assessment of the man you saw dat paints as the ringleader Lance Armstrong I think it proves beyond any doubt unfortunately the US Postal Service's pro cycling team including Lance Armstrong ran the most sophisticated professionalized and successful drug program that we've ever seen Lance Armstrong is the greatest cheater in all of cycling's history obviously by not only by the number of Tours he had won and by his success but by the number of people he was able to co-opt into this cycle of deceit I always thought the truth would come out because it's just too big but I never imagined it would be what it is because we were so surprised by so much of it ourselves just the magnitude is staggering staggering just one week after the USANA report is released Armstrong speaks at his LIVESTRONG Foundation's 15th anniversary it's been a difficult couple of weeks for me for my family for my friends for this foundation on that day Tyler Hamilton saw a changed man and I'm all enough I can see he was he's broken he's he's a broken man and I can just tell by his voice as the scandal grows day by day Armstrong's legend continues to crumble on the 22nd of October 2012 Lance Armstrong's disgrace his official he is stripped of his seven Tour de France titles he's also banned not only from cycling but from all officially sanctioned sports in the spring of 2012 it was possible for forearms trying to come in to you sada and come clean like his teammates did and get a much shorter ban with 20/20 hindsight it's easy to second-guess legal strategies they wanted me to try to win the tournament one by one sponsors like Nike Oakley Trek and others and their association with Armstrong he's been told from you know 15 years old you're special you're different you can do anything and now he's being told for the first time his life like you might be a jerk not only did he live for so many years he destroyed people that dared to tell the truth with his back against the wall Armstrong makes his move the history the glory and the legend of Lance Armstrong crumble under the searing allegations of the you sorrow report by the autumn of 2012 the once untouchable Armstrong is in a tailspin Lance was you know such a powerful guy back in the day I never thought the walls would be crashing down like they have done and yet right after being stripped of his Tour de France wins Armstrong posts a Twitter photo of himself lounging beneath his seven framed yellow jerseys with the caption back in Austin and just laying around I don't think Armstrong ever took it fully seriously right up until the end I don't think he saw it for the threat that it was but as the scandal deepens this time Armstrong can't just dismiss or deny the pressure on the 17th of October 2012 Armstrong resigns as chairman of LIVESTRONG the organization some have called his greatest legacy finally in January 2013 he makes his move I think everybody could see what was coming that there was going to be some kind of admission Lance Armstrong spent three hours with Oprah Winfrey today and what was described as an emotional interview some of his advisors were really against him going on Oprah and some of them thought you know it was it was good maybe for his public image that January night millions watch around the world as Oprah gets right to the point did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance yes but in the aftermath some criticized Armstrong for not coming completely clean I think the Oprah interview did in some damage because there were things he wasn't willing to address you you know he denied opening in 2009-2010 even though there's some fairly strong evidence that he did in fact you saw it or analyzed Armstrong's blood samples from those later tours and the results indicate with near certainty that Armstrong reinf used his own blood there was a 1 million chance of that meaning he was not doping so why was Armstrong so adamant about not doping during those later years skeptics questioned whether his admissions are related to the expiration of statutes of limitations for some of the acts he committed during earlier tours they wonder whether Armstrong is being cautious because he could be vulnerable for what occurred during later tours I think his problems are just starting or seeking the repayment of over 12 million dollars that we paid him in prize money for winning races that he now has admitted he cheated in and he's been stripped of those titles the most daunting threat may come from the US Department of Justice in February 2013 they announced they've joined floyd landis in a civil case against armstrong for defrauding the US government he's facing it what's called a kita more whistleblower lawsuit from floyd landis the federal government contends Armstrong violated the contract with the US Postal Service by doping their lawsuit seeks to recoup millions of dollars paid out to the team Armstrong's attorneys are contesting the lawsuit arguing that the US Postal Service actually benefited from its sponsorship of Armstrong and his team to the tune of 100 million dollars so what happens to him now it's very hard to say but it doesn't look good there will be fallout from this story for quite some time I worry about him I hope he I think the truth will do him a lot of good I really do people will forgive him still a champion and a lot of people's eyes I like to win but I fear losing and I that might be what gets me up in the morning more people for the man who said being afraid is a priceless education the outcome of his fall from grace is still unfolding [Music] next in highway through hell Jamie goes head to head with another tow guy lone wolf al quiring their dad stood battle a generation ago now it's time to find out who's top dog

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