30 for 30 (TV Series) Lance Part 1 (2020) User Reviews

Lance Part 1

[bobcobb301 · 7/10 · 25 May 2020]

Maybe not quite The Last Dance, but overall another solid documentary from ESPN. This is an interesting story of several highs and lows, but Lance is just not the character MJ was.

Great story.

[Mohamad021 · 9/10 · 26 February 2021]

This is was great. To watch Lance himself speak up. It is inspiring in sense of him doing whatever it takes to be the best. Yes, it may be wrong to take PEDs but at the highest level in any sport almost everyone is guilty if testing athletes truly covers all kinds of PEDs. Highly recommend watching this and part 2 as well.

Really great episode for basically everyone

[JurijFedorov · 8/10 · 14 January 2022]

This is very, very good. I'm honestly shocked by the low ratings this episode gets from reviewers. I guess people are still angry at Lance Armstrong. But no matter, this is one of the best 30 for 30 episodes. It's also one of the least biased ones! The first question to the riders they interview is: "When did you start doing doping?". That's that. You know where this is going. It pulls no punches. We see Lance grow up and become a top competitor. We see his family members, friends, and co-riders. Many give interviews or we have past interviews. But it's not one of those apologetic episodes like the Vick Part 1 episode that is unwatchable as it is so biased and so much bootlicking is going on there, because of his skin color alone, that they totally ignore the personal and behavioral issues. Here it's all front and center. It reminds me of The Last Dance where Michael Jordan was fairly presented as an ass. A winning ass. Here it's the same thing with Lance presented as he is and was. An arrogant competitive jerk and that's exactly who he was. These personality rumors were a huge thing back then just like with the Jordan rumors later on. You knew about the doping and his personality, but largely it was stuff angry Frenchmen wrote about him based on rumors. So we didn't quite know who these superstars were. We knew they were winning and we knew half of France hated Lance and wanted him gone right away as they wanted European and French riders to win out.

Back then everyone was doing Epo as you needed it to compete in Tour de France. Now it's quite clear, but back then you didn't quite know who did what. And this episode also reveals all of that. The former riders are fully honest about what they took and why. They are not proud of it, but you had to do it to have any chance whatsoever. It's often the difference between not even racing to winning.

It does focus quite a bit on his personal life which may not be for all. It's not really race related. Personally I rather they spend the time on presenting the bike technology, doping technology, route planning, news segments, big tricks and plans in the race itself. But here there is basically zero racing shown. You just hear about who won or lost and only rarely. I would have loved for an episode to carefully go over the full 1999 season only for example. That would be amazing and fun. Here you get interviews and opinions. Still fun, but maybe lacking that sport stuff we saw in The Last Dance and other greater documentaries. I look forward to watching the next episode now! The Epo stuff really ties it all together and reveals the details we all want to know about.