As with most cycling fans in the U.K I'd been waiting to watch this film for a while. Having been totally drawn in with 7 Deadly sins and The Secret Race, I couldn't wait to hear Lance's side of the story!
I had been really disappointed with his Oprah show, so much so I didn't even bother watching the second part. I wanted him to come completely clean tell us everything he did and how he did it. Unfortunately I think he held a LOT back.
So with this film I expected to learn a lot more of the dirty goings on that had occurred in the "wild west" days of pro cycling.
However again I was disappointed! There was nothing new regarding his cheating that I hadn't already seen/read. In the interviews with Lance you can still see he's trying to salvage something of his "legacy" and that deep down he still doesn't really think he did that much wrong!
One thing that really gets on my wick and comes from the man himself as well as the people who are still trying to defend him, is this whole nonsense of "it was a level playing field". No Armstrong wasn't the first (or last) cyclist to dope and yes plenty of other cyclists in that era were on all sorts too. But it was never a level playing field. Only the richest teams/cyclists could afford the "best" doctors and therefore the best drugs. Plus some riders responded better than others to the drugs, EPO in particular.
The film only touches briefly on this subject. I really wanted the film maker to give Lance a bit of a grilling in regards to that, especially when at the end of the film he has the front to say "people will look back and say yeah he won those tours"! If that doesn't show someone who was sorry they got caught and not actually sorry for what they did then I don't know what will.
My main problem with Armstrong and why I can never forgive him and what sets him apart from other doped cyclists, for example, David Millar, is the Godfather like control he had over the sport at that time. This film picks this up quite well, you really get the sense of how the Armstrong machine just crushed anyone who stood in their way. It's a shame most of the footage is from the 2009 version of Lance not the '99 - '05 version where I think you would get a lot more of an insight into his control and bullying.
Maybe one day the extent of his control and the extent of the corruption within the UCI will come to light but I cant imagine it will happen any time soon.
To sum this film up I'm going to quote my what girlfriend said about it. "Good but I thought it would be jucier"!
