Image #: 11989070 Lance Armstrong, founder of the LIVESTRONG foundation, takes part in a special session regarding cancer in the developing world during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York September 22, 2010. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson /Landov

Tour De Pharmacy HBO Hilarious Mockumentary

I’m torn. And while you don’t particularly care what, or why, I am torn, in order to explain my complicated response to HBO’s hilarious mockumentary, it’s going to require me to walk you through it anyway. And if you’ve ever been out to THinc. ever before, then you know that nothing is simple. Nothing. Even the simple things don’t survive when held under my gaze.

So I start back in 1995 I took notice of a very young Lance Armstrong and his Stage 18 win of the Tour de France. I was only marginally aware of what the Tour de France even was back then. But after Lance’s cancer struggle and his successful return in 1998. My adoration for Lance literally changed my life. Like, I read everything I could about the various tours and races, but solely in pursuit of my love for the Tour de France. And when the race ran, I woke at 3 am, and went in to work around noon every day. I would even inform my boss, yeah, that’s just the way it was going to be. I’d work late, I did whatever I had to do in order to watch every minute of every Tour de France. (Those summary cycle cast things are for losers. You can quote me on that.)
Yes, my life changed. And throughout Europe the cries about doping got louder and louder. But I reveled in their unbelief that this American could possibly dash the entire field singlehandedly… and without drugs. Yeah. About that. But then came Floyd Landis, and Lance’s other team mates that began to tell stories of drugs. Wait, wah?

When Lance went on Oprah and admitted to his doping I quit. I stopped with the Tour, I stopped with Lance. I bailed on the entirety of it all.

But then came the HBO’s hilarious mockumentary Tour de Pharmacy. It’s short. Only 38 minutes. So it’s an easy watch. Let me just say this, I found myself laughing out loud at many of the inside jokes and the numerous different ways in which the show lambasted the entirety of the culture and this little world of cycling. But I wondered when Lance came on to the screen towards the end, if I might just throw my TV out the window or not. Ultimately I didn’t. PHEW. But wow. Talk about a catharsis. Man.

Still, if you are a fan of cycling. Or even if you have just watched a couple races. I highly recommend this mockumentary from HBO. Definitely made me laugh a lot. And heck, maybe, just maybe, it will begin my path back to sanity and out of my counselor’s office that I’ve been locked in since 2013.