Given the impossibly high performance demands, young athletes face a stark choice: dope or abandon their career. Officials and sponsors preach about clean sport while simultaneously placing athletes under enormous pressure to succeed. Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France winner, knew exactly how to play the system: he calculated precisely what doping could offer him — and outpaced the others.

In the second episode of Blood and Circus we speak with: cyclists Jesús Manzano, Jörg Jaksche, and Lance Armstrong’s long-time teammate Frankie Andreu and his wife Betsy Andreu; UCI president Pat McQuaid; Milram team director Gianluigi Stanga; doping experts Sandro Donati and Werner Franke; EPO test pioneer Robin Parisotto; track and field athlete Kelli White; Le Monde journalist Stéphane Mandard; WADA EPO expert Bengt Saltin; and Lance Armstrong biographer David Walsh.”