In 2009 filmmaker Alex Gibney was making a documentary about Lance Armstrong’s return to the Tour de France after a four-year absence.  That project transformed in the wake of the events of 2012 and 2013 with Armstrong being stripped of all of his seven titles and being banned for life from competitive cycling, and his confession on the Oprah Winfrey show that all his claims of competing clean were a massive fraud.

The subsequent documentary became Armstrong’s explanation, not excuse, for why he did what he did.  His great sin was not just his deception regarding doping, but the lengths he went to to perpetuate that deception, damaging the lives of former friends, colleagues,  teammates, and anyone who dared to speak out publicly against him.

Credit to Armstrong for finally being totally candid about what he did, but he’s a long way from redemption.  He didn’t live a lot of lies, but he lived one big one.