I think you could question everything.

Doesn't matter what we prefer regarding the interviewer - this was all set up for him. Should maintain the life ban. Had he wanted to work against that, he could've taken his admission to the relevant authorities/commission.

This will be framed as a selfless act to salvage something for Livestrong/etc.

It's in discovery channel (608) for those that have fox and it is going to air a replay on discovery +2 starting at 2:30.

Agree that a harder interviewer would yield a more interesting interview instead of Oprah.

Got no sympathy at all for Lance. Terrible human

he's a cheating prick, imagine working your ass of and coming 30th in the Tour only to find out the wanker that won it (and the other 29 in front of you)was cheating?

Maintain the life ban and add a jail sentence for lying under oath. Make an example of him to every other athlete in the world, you want to lie and cheat to get ahead, here are the consequences.

Cheating is to gain an unfair advantage over your opponents, this he did not do. If drugs were never invented he still would have won.

So i call Lance a Dishonest lying lowlife, but a cheat he is not.

I could careless that he cheated because if he didn't cheat there is no way he would have won 7 Tour De France and as a result his organisation wouldn't have raised $500 million for cancer suffers. I think that is more important and so should everyone else!

If he wasn't involved in the organisation then I agree that he is a terrible human but since he is the sole reason for his charities huge success I think he is a great human.

When lance was riding most of his top competitors were cheats as well so for him to ride clean and beat those drug cheats would have been very unlikely.

Having said that he should be banned for as long as the cycling organisation sees fit just as other atheletes should.

A great human doesn't terrorise those who spoke out against the doping. He publicly and privately bullied and humiliated people - he's a total douche.

Mystro, a sentence for lying so blatantly at every turn is worth considering. Double penalty for trying this Oprah turn.

I just hope now the top dog has come out that all the rest do as well and that era in the sport can be viewed as the "assisted period"

At least now the cyclists take illegal substances within certain levels that are untraceable and the public can view them as clean.

Cycling should just make the following changes:

a) There are no teams. Only individual competitors.
b) All competitors stay in the same accomodation and are monitored by the same people.
c) Screenings before and after each race.

Lance Armstrong can be called a Cheater, but he's the 'best cheater'. By admitting this, he's proven to the world the following:

1) How bent the sport is.
2) How un-reliable the anti-doping agencies are.
3) How un-reliable the governing body of Cycling Worldwide actually is.

The fact of the matter is that every sport in the world will ignore doping so long as there is attention and funding pointed at it. The moment that runs out then the finger pointing usually starts.

Considering Armstrong has raised half a billion for cancer research, he can continue cheating all he wants. The only way you can eliminate it is to overhaul the sport and how it operates (which will never happen).

Melbourne Boy - can you explain your logic again? He didn't cheat because he didn't set out to get an unfair advantage over his opponents?

Is deliberating breaking the rules not cheating?

Anon, it would depend on how much money he's kept and what he's donated or has under other names.

If he for instance had his money under say his mother's name or his wife; then it's money that can't be touched because by law it isn't his anymore.

I also doubt if he's donated some of it to his cancer research fund that the IOC or whatnot would ask them to give it back; that would be just as bad as Armstrong cheating.

Cycling should be penalized also for allowing such a farce to occur right under their noses. Strip it from the Olympics and Commonwealth Games and allow a Sport that takes it's obligations seriously and doesn't allow lycra tights. They should make Lance watch them kill a puppy in his name and then run over his bicycle.

Apart from the last sentence, you're spot on Mystro. Punishment may be harsh on Lance, but it should also pass onto Cycling as a whole.

To say that you should ban or punish a sport is ridiculous and ignorant.

Why punish the people who have nothing to do with it???

You need to punish the people caught and change the processes. Its not Lance's fault that he never tested positive. Its the testing agencies and their processes. Something that today looks to be resolved with the catching of plenty of riders.

Accept the past and change the future.

And for token measure - Do the same with the sixers coaching.

He didn't cheat because he didn't set out to get an unfair advantage over his opponents, if by opponents you mean the other cheating scum, then no.

Armstrong had an unfair advantage against every Athlete in the world when it came to competing for endorsements and sponsorships as he had this pile of almost unachievable results in the Tour and other high profile events including the Olympics which were in fact fraud.
Imagine being one of the athletes way down the pack competing drug free wondering why you are so far off the pace despite a lifetime of hardwork and practice, you'd be f#*ked off as.

Big Marty, I couldn't think of anything more upsetting sorry.

To say that you should ban or punish a sport is ridiculous and ignorant.

Why punish the people who have nothing to do with it???



The Sport has shown that they have no control nor integrity when it comes to doping. It starts at the top, do you really think this conspiracy started and finished with little old 1nut Armstrong? It goes right through the whole organization.

If I had a spare week I'd google "doping bans in cycling"

This is an excellent article, the questions Oprah should ask Lance! well worth a read.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/questions-oprah-should-ask-lance-armstrong-230849439.html

People might change their opinion on what sort of person he is.

KDB, I'm going to have to agree in full with Mystro.

Cycling's Governing Body are responsible for organizing the Anti-Doping groups to patrol their sport.

I could easily assume that when a guy like Armstrong is winning repeated Tours and raking in sponsorship money for it; as well as increasing the viewership, that the corporate bigwigs will have ignored the possibility of doping for the chance at 'free money'.

The Sport has clearly failed at all levels, from the racers to the governing body. The only innocent parties are those who threw money at the sport for their own gains; and even then they don't have the right to ask for their money back just because they've found out years on that the sport is bent as a 3 pound note.

HO, yes he broke the rules but he didn't gain an unfair advantage over his opponents because they were all using and abusing illegal methods, so he wasn't cheating (said in a sarcastic way)

when Cycling can showcase consistently "Clean" events only then should Cycling be rewarded with inclusion in an even such as the Olympics.
It may be that every single athlete is independently and randomly tested every month at the Governing Bodies cost to ensure it.

Lance's legal team has sued a LOT of people based on his lies. The repercussions will be interesting.

HO, yes he broke the rules but he didn't gain an unfair advantage over his opponents because they were all using and abusing illegal methods, so he wasn't cheating (said in a sarcastic way)

you don't honestly believe that every Cyclist is a drug cheat?

So how many people are not commenting who would've been saying he never cheated or would a few months ago?

From bits I saw in the middle when I got home, Oprah was shit for the interview. She is well invested in him/livestrong and won't even get a real answer from him. He also pussy foots around everything and acts like he was oblivious to what would happen if busted, and acts like he's still innocent basically.

I'd rather Tracy Grimahaw do the interview. At least she would make him look sexist if anything so he looked guilty for something

Oh and in regards to stripping cycling from Olympics. Awesome. Put skateboarding in instead, at least we all know the only drugs being used are weed and maybe some coke/ecstasy at parties...

There are also families now bankrupt due to his bullshit lies. He should lose every dollar he has.

SA better sue his ass too and not sit back like the government apparently plans to. If they do, they may as well go tell all school kids cheating is ok, because that's the message they are giving

Oh because quite a few cyclists were caught out its suddenly ok because everyone was cheating?? seriously? are you for real?

You would find the majority of cyclists were clean.. because they didnt want to cheat or because they didnt have the means too.. the majority who did get caught funnily enough are the one's who generally did well and won the events or placed highly in them. What about the other couple hundred or more riders in the tours huh?

And blaming cycling for not catching cheaters is bs.. cycling is at the fore front in the fight against drug cheats, because it also lead the offenders who found new drugs and masking agents to fool tests.

Livestrong is dodgy as hell too. They stopped giving money to "cancer research" in 2005. From 1998-2005 they only contributed $20 million to research. Most of the money raised was for "awareness campaigns", and since 2005, pretty much all money raised was for these "awareness campaigns".

Remember another "awareness campaign" type charity??

Kony 2012!

I am a huge cycling fan, and was a staunch defender of Lance, but for the last couple of years, since all this has been unraveling, I have been reading a lot about him. He is an absolute piece of excrement, and nothing he can do or say will ever redeem his name in my eyes. As for his "charity", I have read many bad things about that too. I winder where his $11 million private jet came from?

Anon #399520 - Livestrong donated a significant amount of money tocnacer research in its first 8 years. From 2005 they reduced their contributions to cancer research and from 2010 they stopped it altogether. The Livestrong web site carried a statement to the effect that they no longer were contributing to cancer research from 2010. I don't know if that is still the case. Basically, the Foundation adopted a strategy of contributing toraising cancer awareness, changing the view of cancer as a disease and funding support and information/counselling services for people with cancer, their families and carers. They were up front about this.

What is less well known is that their proportion of payments on travel, marketing and legal costs are close to 300 times those of other large cancer charities (such as the Cancer Coalition in the USA). This is based on the audited financial statements of the various organisations for 2008.

Livestrong spends most of its legal costs in legal actions to protect its trademarks. Interestingly, they have sold the livestrong.com domain name to a group called Demand Media, who are a commercial enterprise that provide, among other things, lifestyle type advice. There have been some questions asked about ethics pf this sort of arrangement, not surprisingly.

Livestrong.com is a load of crap. Thought it was damaging the brand until Lance himself trumped that.

Good posts, both of you.

I used to think Armstrong was just a vile human being, I'm now starting to think he's actually a sociopath. The interview was a joke, i was waiting for Oprah to reach over and give him a hug.

I just finished watching part 2 of the interview. Yes, Armstrong is a deadset sociopath.

I hope that all those that he sued or ruined their careers by exerting his money or power have their day in court and take every last cent that he has. FFS I can cop the lying and cheating. That is pretty par for the course these days, but the fact he ruined people telling the truth just so he could continue to make a fortune and ride his fame is abhorrent.

That's an interesting point fstos, I kind of take the view he was just one (the best) of many cheats, but his pursuit of people certainly adds another layer to it.