The Backpedal #3 - Cycle of Lies
Okie Dokie, what we got this week?
The dark lord. Cycling’s Sauron. The worst person who ever cycled. The biggest cheaty cheaterson who every cheatycheatycheated.
Oh right, him. I’m suddenly in a bad mood just thinking about him. Which book is this then? There are loads of them.
So this one is called Cycle of Lies by Juliet Macur. It was published in 2014 which would have been about a year after Armstrong admitted doping to Oprah Winfrey. It wasn’t the first one of its kind to hit the bookshelves, David Walsh got there first in time for the 2012 Christmas sales, and that was followed up by Wheelmen by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell. But in my opinion, Macur’s Cycle of Lies is the best of the three. The first half of Walsh’s was riveting, compelling stuff. But the latter half was clearly rushed and got very dry and it lost its narrative. It’s been several years since I read Cycle of Lies, but it’s good.
Should we not all just forget Armstrong ever existed? He’s a bollocks.
No, absolutely not. Well he was a bollocks of course. But absolutely not, we should not just forget he ever existed. Not just because of the obvious point that if we forget the sins of the past we’re doomed to repeat them again in the future. Also because it’s a fascinating story. Yes, with a horrible character in the middle of it. But isn’t that true of so many good stories? Every time I pick up one of these books I learn something new or am reminded of a juicy detail I had forgotten. The whole story, the narrative, the arc - I find it fascinating from start to finish.
Go on then, what page have you got for us?
The random pageinator has given us page 373 and it’s actually a rather compelling one. It tells us of the moment that Armstrong learned that USADA were publishing everything they had and the moment that Armstrong clicked on it.
What do you mean USADA were publishing everything?
They published everything. Every single shred of evidence they had gathered for the case against Armstrong - testimonies of riders, interview transcripts, depositions, emails, letters, doping reports… everything, hundreds of documents. They stuck it up on usada.org and it’s actually all still there if you’re interested: https://www.usada.org/athletes/results/u-s-postal-service-pro-cycling-team-investigation/
“Armstrong clicked.
The report portrayed Armstrong as an infamous cheat, a defiant liar and a bully who pushed others to cheat with him - join him or be gone. USADA called the doping on Armstrong’s United States Postal Service team ‘the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen’ ”
In hindsight, I think USADA made a mistake labelling Armstrong’s behaviour in such absolute terms. They should never have called it the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport had ever seen. They should have just said ‘one of' the most’. Using that phrase as part of their original press release when they released this material meant that this specific line was picked up by most media outlets and it became the headline. Because it was stated with certainty, it allowed Armstrong to poo poo USADA somewhat. ‘What about East Germany?’ Armstrong would say with some justification. He was able to legitimately claim that this was nonsense, it wasn’t the most sophisticated anything. And he did claim that immediately when he did that interview with Oprah.
Anything else interesting on the page?
Yes, Macur also gives us this…
“Some friends and others close to Armstrong said that once he clicked on the report, he read it all and even memorized parts of it.
Yet he insisted to me that, in fact, he had not read a single word.”
Do you believe him? He didn’t read any of it?
Armstrong was renowned during his career for being meticulous about keeping tabs on all of his rivals and enemies. There were always rumours of a little black book that you’d be in if you crossed him and that was it, if your name was blackened he’d never so much as look at you again, never mind grant you an interview. The idea that there would be a cache of documents all about Armstrong, a large part of which was provided by his ex-teammates and Armstrong decided not to read any of it? That he didn’t care to read what Jonathan Vaughters or Dave Zabriskie or George Hincapie had said to USADA about him?
I don’t think Armstrong has changed at all regarding keeping tabs on things. I’ll give you an anecdote about a brush I had had with him recently. Before GCN+ got put in the bin, I had started work on a film about Armstrong, from an angle that (I still believe) has not adequately been tackled before. For the film, I was trying to find a very specific photo of Armstrong from the day he led a ride-along event in Phoenix Park in Dublin in August 2009. I knew Armstrong had a personal photographer back then named Liz Kreutz and that she was there that day. So I contacted her on instagram to see if she had the photo I was looking for.
Liz Kreutz never wrote back to me.
Instead, the next day I received a screenshot of my own Instagram message which Kreutz had sent to Armstrong, who had then sent on to a mutual acquaintance who sent it back to me. Armstrong himself was wondering what I was up to.
So yeah, the idea that Armstrong decided to ignore the entire USADA report despite the fact the entire thing was about him and designed to bring him down?
Nonsense. He read every single word.
