(2) The Doping Networks
The Spanish up-and-coming star Jesus Manzano dropped off his bicycle half dead during the Tour de France in 2003 – and then he told all. Raids and half confessions followed, but nothing changed much and the scene kept on being dominated by culprits without morale, doctors without morale, a cartel of fetishists of the performance and hypocrites.
Considering the exorbitantly overreaching performance rules, young athletes have no choice: they either dope or they can forget about their career. Officials and sponsors preach the clean sport and at the same time they put the athletes under enormous pressure for success. Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times, knew how to handle it: he calculated very precisely the chances that doping offered him and outpaced the other cyclists.
In the second episode of „Blood and Circus“ we talk to: cycle professionals Jesus Manzano, Jörg Jaksche and long time Lance Armstrong´s team colleague Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy Andreu, the president of the world cyclists union UCI, Pat McQuaid, the head Gianluigi Stanga of the cycling Team Milram, doping experts Sandro Donati and Werner Franke, the inventor of the first EPO test, Robin Parisotto, the track and field athlete Kelli White, the Le-Monde journalist Stephane Mandard and the EPO expert of the World Anti Doping Agency WADA, Bengt Saltin and Lance Armstrong´s expert and book author David Walsh.
Considering the exorbitantly overreaching performance rules, young athletes have no choice: they either dope or they can forget about their career. Officials and sponsors preach the clean sport and at the same time they put the athletes under enormous pressure for success. Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times, knew how to handle it: he calculated very precisely the chances that doping offered him and outpaced the other cyclists.
In the second episode of „Blood and Circus“ we talk to: cycle professionals Jesus Manzano, Jörg Jaksche and long time Lance Armstrong´s team colleague Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy Andreu, the president of the world cyclists union UCI, Pat McQuaid, the head Gianluigi Stanga of the cycling Team Milram, doping experts Sandro Donati and Werner Franke, the inventor of the first EPO test, Robin Parisotto, the track and field athlete Kelli White, the Le-Monde journalist Stephane Mandard and the EPO expert of the World Anti Doping Agency WADA, Bengt Saltin and Lance Armstrong´s expert and book author David Walsh.
Awarded German TV-Prize (Deutscher Fernsehpreis) Nominated Grimme Prize
First aired on 15.th August 2007, ARD
Shot in original locations in Germany, Switzerland, USA, Australia, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Spain, Italy, France
Written, directed and produced by: Petra Höfer, Freddie Röckenhaus and Francesca D’Amicis
Director of Photography: Samir Saad, Thomas Schäfer, Simone Pera
Video Editor: Jörg Wegner
Producer: Sandra Schmidt, Javier Cáceres, Thomas Kistner, Gisela Kaufmann
Line Producer: Svenja Mandel
Narration: Leon Boden
Commissioning Editors: Jürgen Thebrath (WDR), Ulrich Loke (WDR)
A colourFIELD production commissioned by WDR