Profiling one of sports’ most high profile scandals that created a media frenzy, National Geographic Channel, along with Peacock Productions, dissects the story of the science and scheming behind the saga of what’s been called “the most sophisticated and successful doping scheme in all of sports.” Cycling’s Greatest Fraud documents Lance Armstrong’s epic fall from grace, using infographics, re-creations, archival footage and new interviews.
Premiering globally this June on National Geographic Channel, Cycling’s Greatest Fraud uses the investigative style of the popular series ‘Drugs, Inc’ and the critically acclaimed “Inside” franchise, and gives an explosive 360° view of what has become the most famous and damning doping scheme in sports history.
Guided by the comprehensive U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Report, this one-hour in-depth special pieces together the eyewitness testimonies and delves into the illicit science to reveal how the USADA says the doping plot began and then mushroomed in its complexity. Cycling’s Greatest Fraud includes expert analysis and perspective on this alleged conspiracy with original interviews from top authors, writers and experts.
In addition, viewers will go inside how the USADA reports that Armstrong and his co-conspirators outfoxed drug-testing officials, race after race. Cycling’s Greatest Fraud includes interviews from Travis Tygart, USADA chief executive officer, as well as from members of Armstrong’s inner circle—riders like Tyler Hamilton, team masseuse Emma O’Reilly, and Betsy Andreu. The documentary details Armstrong and his teammates’ elaborate system of avoiding detection: specially timing their drug use and warning one another, allowing them to ride under the radar. And there are less sophisticated measures, such as simply hiding from testers knocking on their doors.
“You were either with him [Lance] or you were against him,” said Hamilton. See how the USADA details the way Armstrong went to great lengths to protect his secret and his legacy, using all of the powers at his command to silence and to attack his critics, all the while assuring the public that his blood was as clean as his public image. But in the end, his empire collapsed, as the scheming unravelled and the science finally caught up to Armstrong.
