Armstrong Is Lying, Says Film Director

Alex Gibney, the director of the documentary The Armstrong Lie, has remarked Lance Armstrong, the cyclist who was banned for life from cycling and stripped of all his seven Tour de France wins, is lying about not doping in 2009 Tour de France.

Gibney remarked he believes it is very much likely that Lance doped during his comeback. He added that the language used by the cyclist in the interview given to him tells it all. Lance said he came back and intended to ride clean but he didn't said he rode clean, said Gibney. The director added he believed he was being used for selling the version of Armstrong that he was clean, when he originally decided to make a movie on the cyclist. However, the implication of Armstrong by his former teammate Floyd Landis, federal investigation, USADA decision, and Armstrong’s confession changed his thought process.

Gibney believes that an absent father figure was the drive, motivation to succeed, and attitude to life for Armstrong. He added there is a lot of anger in Lance and he is a fighter and the big problem for him was that it spilled over way beyond the sport as he became a bigger and bigger public figure, which had something to do with the sport, but also had a lot to do with the cancer.

In January this year, Armstrong told Oprah Winfrey in a talk show that he doped for most part of his career. He confessed to using banned performance enhancing drugs such as EPO, blood doping, blood transfusions, cortisone, testosterone, and human growth hormone. He however remarked that he honored an agreement with his ex-wife Kristin and did not use any banned substances after he returned to the sport in 2009. But this claim by Armstrong is disputed by many, including Dr Christopher Gore and anti-doping scientist Michael Ashenden. Gore remarked he believed that there was just a one in a million chance that the banned cyclist did not dope during his comeback. Both Gore and Ashenden use his published biological passport data to disclose that Lance Armstrong was almost certainly blood doping. The blood data of Armstrong rather than falling many percentage points showed his levels of red blood cells were actually slightly higher than at the start. Normally, a drop off in the count of RBCs is expected because of physiological wear and tear.

Lance Armstrong started as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in October 1996 and was declared cancer-free in February 1997. After his cancer treatment, the American professional road racing cyclist portrayed himself as getting back as a way of beating cancer. His image was used in Hope Rides Again campaign, which portrayed him as a great crusader and modern hero. Armstrong was banned for life from cycling and stripped of all his titles by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and this decision was later ratified by the UCI, cycling's world governing body.