‘Haters gonna hate.’ Now we know why dope cheat Lance Armstrong’s enemies detest him with such a passion. If you’ve followed his downfall – from cancer-surviving superman and seven-times Tour de France winner to that Oprah confession – you’ll be on top of this doc factwise. EPO, testosterone, blood transfusions, dodgy doctors… it’s all here, put together with forensic skill by Alex Gibney (see Close-Up, below). Gibney combines footage from a never seen fly-on-the-wall doc of Armstrong’s cycling comeback, which he shot in 2009, with two interviews that took place in 2013.
Armstrong could sell bicycles to fish. And you might find yourself suckered into believing his keep-up-with-the-Joneses defence: everyone cheated, he wasn’t trying to beat the system, just work in it. It was dope or go home. (And to be fair, there is truth to that). But what will take your breath away is how viciously Armstrong crushed and humiliated anyone who dared to make allegations against him, and that includes former teammates he’d doped with. No wonder they are so bitter. Arrogance, ambition, a killer mentality, daddy issues: Shakespeare couldn’t have invented a more fascinating character.