Lance Armstrong does not like the Greg LeMond section of his ESPN documentary

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Lance Armstrong does not like the Greg LeMond section of his ESPN documentary
Lance Armstrong.Elizabeth Kreutz
  • "Lance" director Marina Zenovich told Insider the part of the documentary that Lance Armstrong told her he didn't like.
  • The disgraced cyclist said he didn't like Greg LeMond's section of part 2 (which aired Sunday on ESPN).
  • In part 2, a quote from LeMond is shown saying that, "If Lance is clean, it is the greatest comeback in the history of sport. If he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud."
  • The doc then implies that Armstrong tried to sabotage LeMond's relationship with Trek bicycles.
  • "He doesn't think I represented the Greg LeMond section as truthfully as I could have," Zenovich told Insider of what Armstrong thought.
  • LeMond declined to be interviewed for "Lance."
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Unlike ESPN's "The Last Dance" docuseries in which director Jason Hehir had to navigate the notes and approvals of the NBA, Chicago Bulls, and Michael Jordan to bring to life an inside look on the 1990s Bulls dynasty, Marina Zenovich did not have such added challenges when making her ESPN doc on Lance Armstrong.

For the two-part "Lance" documentary, Armstrong did not have any editorial control. But Zenovich did show him the finished product before it aired. And Armstrong voiced his disappointment with one part of it.

"He doesn't think I represented the Greg LeMond section as truthfully as I could have," Zenovich told Insider.

Zenovich said she went to Austin in December and showed Armstrong and a small group of others the two-part documentary (the second part aired on Sunday night). Like any documentary subject, he enjoyed some things and didn't like others. But the standout was LeMond in part 2.

Lance Armstrong does not like the Greg LeMond section of his ESPN documentary
Three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond.Dave Kotinsky/Getty

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Before Armstrong won seven-straight Tour de France titles LeMond was considered the greatest American cyclist ever thanks to winning the Tour de France three times (after Armstrong admitted to doping, LeMond is back on that pedestal for many). In part 2 of "Lance," the doc touches on how LeMond criticized Armstrong in 2001 for training with Michele Ferrari, an Italian sports trainer who was known in the cycling work for practicing blood doping.

"When Lance won the prologue to the 1999 Tour, I was close to tears," a quote from LeMond is shown in part 2. "When I heard he was working with Michele Ferrari, I was devastated. If Lance is clean, it is the greatest comeback in the history of sport. If he isn't, it would be the greatest fraud."

The documentary then implies that Armstrong in retaliation tried to sabotage LeMond's relationship with Trek bicycles.

Zenovich said Armstrong took issue with that part.

"There are still very specific things that I think still upset him," Zenovich said of Armstrong.

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Zenovich said LeMond declined to be interviewed for "Lance" so she had to use archival footage for that section of the story, but she said she sourced everything that's in the doc and is confident that everything presented is accurate.

"For some of these people they just want to move on, and for others, they don't," Zenovich said. "But I had to tell the whole story."

Read the original article on Insider
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