- [Narrator] Lance Armstrong and Greg LeMond
are the only Americans to ever lift
the Tour de France cup in victory.
Greg in 1986, 1989, and 1990.
Lance, years later and for years longer,
from 1999 through 2005.
And while these cycling heroes could've gotten along
and enjoyed a passing the torch type relationship,
they did not.
Because like all things Lance Armstrong,
performance enhancing drugs dominated the narrative.
For you see, when one guy is clean
and one guy is pretending to be clean,
things can get a little complicated and litigious.
Families may or may not get threatened,
phone calls definitely do get recorded
and before you know it, you've got a big slab
of steroid infused, genetically modified, beef.
Let's start with our drug free hero, Greg LeMond.
He was the first American,
and because Armstrong was later stripped of his wins,
the only American to ever win the Tour de France.
It was not an easy trail to blaze,
and not just because the Tour de France
is the hardest endurance battle in all of sport.
A grueling three week long, 2,500 mile bike race,
over mountains that seem better suited to be skied down
than biked up.
LeMond went pro when he was 19,
which required moving to France
without really knowing French
and in the 86 tour, it also required trusting teammates
who didn't necessarily want to see the young American
take the title.
And if his teammates didn't want him to win,
you better believe his opponents
would do anything to keep the trophy from his hands.
I'm talking they'd potentially poison him,
like some sort of Disney witch.
- [LeMond] An organizer of the Tour de France came up to me,
he said, Greg, you have to be very careful,
it's very dangerous right now.
Watch your water bottles and watch your bike.
- [Narrator] Despite the odds and potential threats
to his life, in '86 at age 25,
Greg LeMond became the first American
to win the Tour de France.
Greg's future looked so bright, nothing could stop him now.
Nothing except shotgun pellets to his
intestines, liver, lung, diaphragm, kidney, heart lining,
hands, arms, and legs.
Greg was involved in a hunting accident in the spring of 87,
just months before he was expected
to make another run at the tour.
He very easily could've died
and it was nothing short of a miracle that he didn't.
Greg said the experience was more painful than cycling,
which actually doesn't make cycling sound that much fun.
During his recovery, he lost 30 pounds of muscle
and was left with approximately 40 pellets
still in his body,
it was less damaging to leave them in
than try to fish them out.
But again, able to do the impossible,
Greg got his strength back.
And not just enough to walk and live and laugh
and love again but enough to win the Tour de France again.
In 1989, just two years
after having tiny metal pellets puncture
basically all his organs, he won again.
It was one of the greatest comebacks
in the history of sport
and just for good measure he won in 1990 as well.
His admirers were many, including a teenage Lance Armstrong,
a member of the U.S. junior cycling team at the time,
who said he wanted to be the next Greg LeMond
but in the '92 tour, Greg struggled to keep up.
He thought that there must be something wrong with him
but it turned out, something was wrong with cycling.
Doping was always pretty prevalent in cycling
with stuff like testosterone, cortisone
and blood transfusions
but a new drug on the scene, EPO, was much more effective.
EPO helps create more red blood cells
so riders can work herder and recover faster.
It was so effective riders even used different gears,
not needing their small chain ring as often.
A doctor told Greg that if he wasn't doping,
he wasn't winning the Tour de France again.
Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong's career
was just getting going, huh, weird.
In 1993, Lance won the UCI World Championships
by a decisive margin
and it looked like the future of cycling had arrived.
A year later, both Greg and Lance competed
in the Tour de France and Lance looked good.
For Greg, the race was a brutal struggle
that ended with him dropping out.
Greg retired shortly afterwards.
He said it was due to a muscle disease
but many now believe it could have been extreme fatigue
from trying to keep up with the Peloton on EPO.
Lance, however, put up an impressive showing, huh, weird.
He was just 22, it was his second year as a pro
and he managed to maintain top 10 status for 10 stages.
But there were dark days ahead for Lance.
In 1996 when he was just 25,
he was diagnosed with stage three testicular cancer
that had spread to his abdomen, lungs and brain.
And all of a sudden there was another young cycling standout
fighting for his life.
Lance underwent an orchiectomy, brain surgery,
and 12 weeks of chemotherapy.
He said the process was worse than the mountain stages
of the Tour de France, which again,
does not make cycling sound like much fun.
With just a 50% chance of survival, Lance pulled through.
It was an incredible triumph.
Greg, being one of the few people who had been
in a very similar situation, sent Armstrong a letter,
saying he's available if Lance wanted to talk.
As Lance put in the work to get back to cycling,
he also launched the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
His body was cancer free,
but he would keep fighting for others.
At this point, Greg and Lance's relationship
seemed just fine
but the sport of cycling was having some trouble.
In 1998, the Tour de France was almost canceled.
No, not because they realized the race was too hard
and people kept comparing it to almost dying,
but rather, because of doping.
Seven teams either got kicked out
or dropped out before they could be caught with EPO.
It was a bod look for cycling, but hey,
it didn't involve our guys at all.
And in 1999, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France
in a comeback story titled,
hey cancer, go (beep) yourself.
Not only did cancer fail to take out Lance Armstrong,
it failed to stop him from riding a bike
2,500 miles faster than anyone else.
The Tour itself was very happy to have the wholesome,
uplifting, inspirational Lance Armstrong story center stage
and block out memories of the '98 drug scandal.
Yeah sure, there was some controversy,
Lance tested positive for a banned substance
but he later revealed that was just because of a skin cream.
And yeah, he didn't declare it before
like he was supposed to but why are we questioning
the greatest inspirational story ever?
Why are we questioning the guy who gives everyone
who's been touched by cancer,
including small children a sense of hope?
We're not, we're not, we're not.
We might later but for now we're not.
Lance saw fame Greg LeMond never saw.
He racked up huge endorsement deals.
He was on the Wheaties box
and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
declared July 29th Lance Armstrong day.
Lance won the Tour again in 2000
and saw more fame and fortune roll in.
It was a far cry from the amount of fame Greg LeMond got,
where it seemed like a coup just to get on TV.
It's hard to imagine Greg LeMond wasn't jealous.
His comeback from the brink of death was totally eclipsed
and I guess that's not even the right word
because you can't eclipse something
people have never even heard of.
If Greg LeMond was jealous, he didn't show it publicly
but don't worry, the beef was about to hit the fan.
Greg's suspicions about Lance doping
had been building for awhile.
Greg claims that mechanic Julien Devriese
told him Lance doped
but Greg didn't want to make a huge accusation
against everyone's favorite cyclist
based off one guy's story.
And it's a good thing he didn't
because Devriese later denied the whole thing.
Greg attended a conference where one of Lance's doctors
gave a talk about Lance's post cancer athletic dominance.
During the talk,
the doctor accidentally revealed Lance's vo2 max.
Your vo2 max is how much oxygen you can suck in,
send to your blood stream
and then send to your muscles while you exercise.
It's pretty important to have a high vo2 max
if you're an endurance athlete.
Greg's was 93.
The doctor revealed Lance's was just 78.
To Greg, that meant it was impossible
for Lance to ever win the Tour de France.
Then, in the summer of 2001,
Greg and everyone else got some more evidence.
British Journalist, David Walsh, broke the story
that Lance was working with Italian doctor Michele Ferrari.
It was well known that Ferrari thought EPO was a-okay.
He compared the dangers of too much EPO
to the dangers of too much orange juice,
which makes him seem like a bad doctor.
If you have too much EPO, you die.
But if you have too much orange juice,
what, you get diarrhea?
And, I guess , depending on how public that diarrhea is,
maybe it's worse than death but come on.
So why is Lance Armstrong working with this guy?
To Greg, this was the last shred of evidence he needed,
Lance was on EPO.
Greg wrote a note to Walsh praising his article,
saying great work, you're on the right track.
Being a responsible journalist,
Walsh asked Greg for a quote.
Greg said if Lance is clean,
than it is the greatest comeback in the history of sports.
If he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud.
It's not the most aggressive quote,
it's not an outright accusation
but guess who didn't like it.
Armstrong wasn't about to let Greg get away with that.
In fact, he allegedly said he was going to fuck over
Greg Lemond.
About two weeks after Greg's quote, Lance called him.
Each man recounts the phone call very differently.
In Greg's version, Lance was pissed about the quote
and threatened to tell everyone
Greg was actually the one on EPO.
LeMond would later allege Armstrong even tried
to pay someone $300,000 to say he used EPO.
In Lance's version of the phone call, he was respectful,
did not vow vengeance or threaten anyone.
He claimed he said Greg was one of his heroes.
Oh yeah, Lance also said that Greg was drunk
and screaming during the phone call.
So, different.
Days later, Greg got some more phone calls.
Thom Weisel a fancy pants investor who backed Lance's team,
Terry Lee, the CEO of Bell Helmets,
John Bucksbaum, the CEO of a real estate company
who wasn't super involved in cycling
except as a wealthy fan, all called
and told Greg to quit badmouthing Lance.
Worse yet, the CEO of Trek, John Burke got in touch.
Trek worked with Greg, selling his bicycle brand,
LeMond Cycles but they also sponsored Lance.
So, Trek was stuck in the middle,
forced to pick who they wanted to support
based on truth, principles
and who would earn them more money.
According to Greg,
Lance was pressuring these bigwigs to help keep Greg quiet.
In fact, Greg even tape recorded a call
with John Burke in which Burke admitted
Lance was pressuring him to do something
about Greg's comment.
With the cycling community organized against him,
Greg LeMond did what people with lawyers do
and passed the problem on to his lawyer.
About a month later,
an apology from Greg appeared in USA Today.
Though the apology is attributed to Greg,
he hadn't even seen it until he picked up the paper.
The quote was actually ghost written by Lance's agent.
Worse yet, the apology didn't even help him that much.
Lance kept the pressure on
and Greg LeMond was basically ostracized
from the world of cycling.
Lance spread rumors,
saying Greg had drug and alcohol problems.
Greg claimed Trek started tanking sales
of his LeMond brand bikes.
He'd later sue Trek for breach of contract
and they'd counter-sue him
because his Lance accusations were bad for the brand.
As a three time winner, he got to attend
the Tour de France 100th anniversary celebration
but he had little to no fun due to Lance's influence.
Meanwhile, Lance was experiencing little to no fallout
from Greg's quote, implying he doped.
He won the Tour de France in 2001.
Then he did a Nike commercial,
that was basically taunting LeMond.
- [Armstrong] Everybody wants to know what I'm on.
What am I on?
I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day.
- [Narrator] His cancer foundation
was funding government programs left and right.
He was a goddamn hero.
He won the Tour again and again.
He wore leather jackets and dated Sheryl Crow.
Livestrong bracelets adorned the wrists of everyone
from Usher to John Kerry to Michael Scott.
Greg remained fairly quiet about Lance through all this
but in '04, he struck again.
In June 2004, Greg was a source for a French book entitled
"L.A. Confidentiel Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong".
Translated, that title means bad news for Lance.
But the book didn't end up having much effect in America.
It was written in French for one thing
and for another, Lance was doing stuff like
bringing hope to kids with cancer.
LeMond didn't back down
and gave an interview to a French newspaper, trashing Lance.
This is a bad look.
We know now he has truth on his side
but at the time, it was not well received.
Lance's reputation was so good,
the press was fighting his Greg LeMond battle for him.
Which was convenient,
'cause Lance was busy winning his sixth Tour de France.
After the '04 Tour,
there was finally some fallout for Lance.
A sponsor went to court with him
claiming they shouldn't have to pay him if he doped.
They set out to prove a story from the LA confidential book
which claimed, in 1996 while in a hospital room
full of guests, Lance told a cancer doctor, he used EPO.
Greg was called to testify.
No, Greg wasn't one of the guests in the hospital room
but he talked to someone who was
and he tape recorded the conversation.
Stepanie McIlvain, Lance's rep from his sponsor, Oakley,
testified that she was in the room
but didn't remember if Lance told doctors
if he used EPO or not.
But Greg had a tape of Stephanie saying things like
I'm not going to lie, I was in the room, I heard it.
Which, okay, isn't gonna send her to jail for perjury
but it looked pretty bad for Lance.
Oh right, you can't get Lance Armstrong down.
He was largely unaffected,
other than winning seven and a half million in the case.
He went on to win his seventh Tour de France
and earn more money and fame and love and respect.
He retired shortly after the '05 Tour
but beef doesn't retire.
In 2006, Greg took to the press
to say that Lance's response to his accusations
was worse than previously thought.
To his credit, Lance countered with his words,
not physical violence towards anyone's family.
And again, Lance didn't take much of a hit.
In 2008, he had a new celebrity girlfriend
and perhaps more notably,
he decided to come out of retirement.
Greg didn't love that.
LeMond attended a press conference
that was part of Lance's comeback
and tried to talk about how vo2 max
should be part of drug testing.
In response, Lance cut him off and played the cancer card.
- We're here to talk about a few things.
The global cancer campaign, my comeback to cycling.
It's time for us and everyone in this room to move on.
- [Narrator] The scene was a metaphor for their beef.
Lance center stage with a microphone
controlling the conversation,
Greg, a largely unknown face in the crowd,
alone, struggling to be heard.
But once again, unforeseen dark days
were on the horizon for Lance Armstrong.
This time in the form of an old teammate.
After being caught doping himself,
Floyd Landis came clean about the systematic doping program
on the Postal Service team, implicating Lace Armstrong.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency launched an investigation.
Armstrong sued to stop it
but seems like his charm was wearing off.
So he tried a new strategy,
instead of fighting the drug charges,
he said the USADA is rigged against him.
He didn't dope but these crooked investigations
might prove otherwise.
But Lance's magic spell
slash period of successfully covering his secrets
with lies and intimidation had run its course.
The USADA stripped Lance of his seven Tour de France titles
and banned him for life.
Disgraced, Lance stepped down from his foundation.
He lost sponsors,
partly because some testimony from Kathy LeMond,
Greg's wife, came to light.
She had said, under oath, that Nike helped pay
to cover up Lance's 1999 positive drug test.
Nike denied it and also dropped Lance.
His other sponsors followed suit.
At this point, Lance still hadn't admitted to doping
and with his back against the wall,
he found a way to step into the spotlight.
During his televised confession,
Armstrong said he owed Greg, among others, an apology.
Wow, what a good guy.
But that didn't do much to mend the relationship.
Months later, Greg had a TV interview of his own
to let everyone know he's still pissed.
- You think he should go to jail.
- I do, yeah.
- [Narrator] In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice
sued Armstrong for 100 million
on behalf of the Postal Service.
Armstrong tried to keep Greg from testifying
but apparently he hates me because I was mean to him
doesn't hold up in court.
The government ended up settling for five million
which is significantly less than 100 million
but is still an amount of money I wouldn't wanna lose.
Today, Greg LeMond stands alone
as the only American Tour de France winner.
He's accepted in the cycling community again,
he's a broadcaster for EuroSport
and he's celebrated as a hero in the fight against doping.
Lance Armstrong has a podcast.
Okay, okay, during the time Lance was fooling everyone
except Greg, the Livestrong Foundation raised an incredible
amount of money.
But like, if you go to the Livestrong Foundation website
today, you don't see much evidence of Lance Armstrong,
even if you click on the Our History tab.
So is Greg LeMond the winner of this beef?
He was eventually proved right, justice prevailed.
But does that make up for the long period
when he was hated by the very sport
that he dedicated his life to?
A period he calls 12 years of hell.
Sometimes, you can be right and still lose.
Maybe Lance Armstrong is the winner of the beef?
Pushing around Greg allowed him to put off getting caught
and in that time he lived the high life,
which of course, means he had farther to fall.
Seems like there's no winner in this beef
but maybe it's just because this beef isn't really resolved.
Greg hasn't forgiven Lance
and he speaks up when others lean towards forgiveness.
And Lance's defenders,
like Johan Bruyneel from the Postal Service team,
still exist.
For this is a beef that will always be simmering
on a low fire, just waiting for someone to turn up the heat.