New Look at Armstrong's Doping Scandal
LEMON: We're going to talk about Lance Armstrong, as a matter of fact. Lance Armstrong was once a seven-time Tour de France winner and one of the most inspiring athletes in the world. But his dramatic fall from grace has tarnished his legacy. Because a new book called "Wheelmen" claims to give insight into how Armstrong got away with doping for so long and who helped him. CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke to the authors. Both are reporters for the "Wall Street Journal".</s>VANESSA O'CONNELL, AUTHOR, "WHEELMEN": We've always viewed this as sort of a business story. It's more than just doping and cycling or doping and sport. We view this as a story about a business -- enterprise, essentially. And cheating was at the heart of it.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Did the fact that he also had this charity -- did he use that to kind of blunt criticism of him or suspicion of him?</s>REED ALBERGOTTI, AUTHOR, "WHEELMEN": Absolutely. I mean the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which is now known as the Live Strong Foundation after this scandal, really was his shield. I mean he was fighting cancer. He was -- he wasn't just an athlete. He was above all that. And that really, in the minds of so many of his fans and followers, protected him over those 14 years.</s>O'CONNELL: He would even say sometimes, you know, "I survived cancer, why would I take drugs." And people believed it. It gave him special status in the eyes of the public.</s>COOPER: What happens to him now? I mean he is still facing at least one lawsuit, correct?</s>ALBERGOTTI: Yes. And it's a big lawsuit --</s>COOPER: The Floyd Landis lawsuit.</s>ALBERGOTTI: Yes, Floyd Landis filed a lawsuit under the Federal False Claims Act as a whistle blower, as essentially blowing the whistle on the U.S. Postal Services violation of the contract. Lance Armstrong's team violated the contract by doping. And the U.S. Department of Justice has joined that lawsuit to the tune of potentially $120 million.</s>O'CONNELL: The lawsuit really points to some of the business themes that I think we bring up in the book. For instance, Armstrong argues that the U.S. Postal Service should have known. It got this marketing benefit by sponsoring the team because he won so many times. The Postal Service had the benefit of all media exposure of his victories. And he is basically arguing in the lawsuit that the Postal Service should have known he was doping.</s>COOPER: It is obviously incredibly important to him to be able to compete in triathlons. That's one of the things he cannot do now, correct?</s>ALBERGOTTI: Correct.</s>COOPER: Was he doping in triathlons after his cycling career? Is that --</s>ALBERGOTTI: I think there have been allegations that he was. And he was still working with Michele Ferrari. But his side of the story, Lance's side of the story, is that he wasn't doping, he was just sort of helping with the training regimen.</s>LEMON: Tonight, CNN will have a lot more on Lance Armstrong. Watch "</s>THE WORLD ACCORDING TO LANCE ARMSTRONG" 10: 00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. Make sure you tune in. You know this week is the CNN premiere -- the CNN premiere of "BLACKFISH". I've seen this documentary. It is really powerful. The documentary takes aim at the controversial issue of killer whales in captivity. I'm going to talk to its director, next.