A Netflix viewing on August 18th. Writer/director Bryan Fogel is a bicycling enthusiast who competed in the Haute Route, the biggest amateur biking competition in the world. He manage to placed in the top 20 without taking any PEDs. He was going to compete in the next race while on a regimen of PEDs just to show how lax the anti-doping system is and to see if he could improve on his finish. He was steered toward Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the anti-doping lab in Russia. Rodchenkov would help Fogel with getting him through any drug tests.
What happens is that Fogel's drug regimen and racing take a backseat to the the international doping scandal of Russia against the backdrop of the Rio Olympics in 2016. Fogel ends up doing worse in the Haute Route, still in the top 50, due to unforeseen circumstances but Rodchenkov becomes the centerpiece of Russian state sponsored doping of athletes.
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 93% rating and with good reason. Fogel begins with one story and follows the story down another road when it makes that turn. Fogel becomes to emotionally attached to Rodchenkov even helping him obtain legal counsel as well as putting him in touch with the media to tell his side of story. Suffice to say it does not put Vladomir Putin in a nice light and because of that, Rodchenkov eventually goes into protective custody. The film is a stark tale of the win at all costs mentality in international sports as well as how easy it is to avoid the anti-doping agencies. Very interesting film that is worth watching.
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