CYCLING
The Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah Winfrey will be telecast on the Discovery channels on Foxtel from 1pm today.
Lance Armstrong says viewers can judge for themselves how candid he was in his interview with Oprah Winfrey.
"I left it all on the table with her and when it airs, the people can decide," he said.
Armstrong was responding to a report in the New York Daily News, citing an unidentified source, that he was not contrite when he acknowledged during Monday's taping with Winfrey that he had used performance-enhancing drugs.
He has also held conversations with US anti-doping officials, raising speculation that the team leader who demanded loyalty from others may soon face a very tough choice himself - whether to co-operate and name those who aided, knew about or helped cover up a sophisticated doping ring that Armstrong ran on his tour-winning US Postal Service squads.
"I have no idea what the future holds, other than me holding my kids," he said.
Armstrong's interview with Winfrey won't air in Australia until today. Yet already some people want to hear more - under oath - before he is allowed to compete again in elite triathlons, a sport he returned to after retiring from cycling in 2011.
In addition to stripping him of all seven of his Tour de France titles last year, anti-doping officials banned Armstrong for life from sanctioned sports.
"He's got to follow a certain course - that is not talking to a talk-show host," said David Howman, director-general of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Former teammate Frankie Andreu, one of several riders Armstrong cast aside on his ride to the top of cycling, said no one was better suited to providing anti-doping authorities with a blueprint for cleaning up the sport.
"Lance knows everything that happened," Andreu said.
"He's the one who knows who did what, because he was the ringleader. It's up to him how much he wants to expose."
WADA officials said nothing short of "a full confession under oath" would even cause them to reconsider the ban. Despite Armstrong's admission to Winfrey, that was "hardly the same as giving evidence to a relevant authority", Howman said.
The International Cycling Union also urged Armstrong to tell his story to an independent commission it has set up. AP
A decade of shameless doping denials
2001: ‘‘This is my body and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it, and study it, tweak it, listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?’’ – Lance Armstrong in advertisement for Nike.
2005: ‘‘I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles.’’ – After his seventh and final Tour de France victory.
2007: ‘‘I was on my death bed. You think I’m going to come back into a sport and say ‘OK, OK doctor give me everything you got. I just want to go fast’? No way. I would never do that.’’ – In an interview for TV.
2012: ‘‘I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one.’’ – After US Anti-Doping Agency charges. AFP