‘Tour de Pharmacy’ with Jonathan Ellsworth & Simon Stewart (Ep.16)

3 comments on “‘Tour de Pharmacy’ with Jonathan Ellsworth & Simon Stewart (Ep.16)”

1. I saw this film back in 2017 when it came out. I’d followed road racing for a while. I’d even gotten up super-early on my wedding day to watch the Lance-vs-Jan showdown at the final TT of the ’03 tour.

   I thought that this movie was amazing for what it is. I think that Samberg brought something new to the mockumentary format, which had sort of settled down into a groove of post-Spinal-Tap Christopher Guest films (of which “Best in Show” is a classic in its own right). Samberg legitimately brought a new sensibility. As you say, it’s an amazing cast and they all delivered, sometimes too much (junk). I would definitely watch it again.

   I recognized Lance right away as the “dark shadow” – something about his hand motions or speech cadence gave it away. A lof of cycling journalists gave it negative reviews and criticized Lance for “killing cycling and then dancing on its grave”, but I think they overlook the fact that it was rife with doping long before that.

   I think that Cena was a terrific choice for his character both as an actor and because his pro wrestling origins sort of tie into the “kayfabe” aspects of cycling. Doping was certainly part of that: Everybody used and all of the riders were part of it, but the kayfabe of the sport required strong denials. I think that Armstrong very much viewed policing kayfabe as part of the top riders’ roles in advancing the sport.

   Bacon’s UCI chief is amazing.

   JuJu Pepi seemed to include aspects of Pantani, Tom Simpson, and Gastone Nencini’s stories.

   • wrt motors on bikes, there were rumors/clams that Fabian Cancellara had motor assist as early as 2013, when he rode away from several other super-strong riders. When I watched the movie I didn’t see that as particularly forward-looking, though the The TdF was X-raying bike frames by 2016.

     My favorite Jeff Golfblum line was “the stakes were so… medium” (at least that’s what I think it was?)

   • Expanding on the kayfabe aspect of cycling, at least back in the day a lot of “low consequence” races like the post-tour crits were fixed. Using performance-enhancing drugs in those was viewed as part of “putting on a good show”. If that isn’t Pro Wrestling, then I don’t know what is. Paul Kimmage goes into this in considerable depth in “Breaking the Chain”, but it was an open secret long before that. I don’t think that Grand Tour or Monument outcomes were fixed (beyond turning a blind eye to doping) but a lot of others were.

     The determination of which break[s] are allowed to get away before the peloton settles down to a slower tempo has also had some less-than-truly-competitive aspects over the years.

     I think that Bacon’s UCI chief was substantially inspired by Hein Verbruggen, who definitely took something of a “Shane McMahon-esque approach” to policing the sport in general and to doping in particular. He was at the helm throughout most of the EPO era, and there are well-documented instances where large donations to the Verbruggen UCI (by Lance and others) correspond to “disappearing positive” test results. I’m not aware of evidence of individual corruption as in the movie, but I wouldn’t doubt it. The running joke in his era was that they’d pop a domestique or two every tour to make it look like they were doing something, but the top riders were never touched.