Anatomy Of A Hoax: From Lance Armstrong To Russiagate

Between 1999 and 2005, Lance Armstrong’s cycling performance simply defied belief, with an unprecedented seven consecutive wins of the Tour de France. As writer Xander Lytle stated, “It is hard to exaggerate just how astounding Armstrong’s feats were.” He points out that in its 100+-year history, only four riders had ever achieved as many as five Tour de France victories and only one of them had won those consecutively. Prior to his historic accomplishments, Armstrong was a survivor of testicular cancer — and he touted that experience as giving him the renewed grit, focus, and strength to perform at a higher level. 

His skeptics were treated by most media outlets as nasty, unpatriotic, conspiracy nuts who were simply wrong at best and malevolent at worst. Armstrong personally chose the latter tact, labeling his detractors as desperate for attention and money, as being filled with hate, bitterness, and jealousy, by proclaiming investigations of him to be “witch-hunts,” and threatening and filing libel suits. He told some critics that he was sorry for them because they could not “believe in miracles.”