Lance Armstrong cheated to win all 7 Tour de France titles

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Lance Armstrong finally confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career on Thursday, admitting he cheated to win all seven of his Tour de France titles.



Describing himself as a "bully" and a "deeply flawed character", Armstrong ended years of denials by revealing his darkest secrets in an interview with talkshow host Oprah Winfrey at his hometown of Austin, Texas.

In the opening question of the televised interview recorded three days earlier, one word was all it took to dismiss any remaining doubt his success on the bike was fuelled by doping.

"Yes," he replied when asked directly whether he used performance-enhancing drugs.

True to her word, Winfrey rapidly fired probing questions at Armstrong, offering him little respite and grilling him about every aspect of his tainted career.

Without any hesitation, and showing no signs of emotion, Armstrong replied "yes" to a series of questions about whether he used specific drugs, including erythropoietin, human growth hormone and blood doping.

Asked why he had repeatedly lied about using banned substances until Thursday's startling admission, he told Winfrey: "I don't know I have a great answer. This is too late, probably for most people, and that's my fault. I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times. It's not as if I said no and moved off it. While I've lived through this process, I know the truth. The truth isn't what I said and now it’s gone."

‘DID NOT FEEL WRONG’

He says he did not feel bad about using performance-enhancing drugs during his career, but that he would spend the rest of his life trying to win back people's trust.

He said doping "did not feel wrong" and that at the time, he did not view himself as a cheat.

"The important thing is that I am beginning to understand. I see the anger in people... betrayal it is all there," he said.

"These are people who supported me, believed in me and they have every right to feel betrayed. Some have gone forever but I will work forever to win back their trust."

A cancer survivor who inspired millions with what had seemed like a fairytale career, Armstrong said he did not believe he could have achieved what he did without breaking the rules due to the culture of drugs in cycling.

"Not in that generation. I didn't invent the culture, but I didn't try to stop the culture," he said.

Armstrong's admission came just months after the US Anti-Doping Agency released a detailed report describing him as the ringmaster of the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

He has already been banned for life, stripped of his all race wins and dumped by his sponsors but his problems are far from over.

On Thursday, hours before the interview went to air, the International Olympic Committee stripped him of the bronze medal he won at the 2000 Games.

And as a result of his confession, the 41-year-old Texan now faces the prospect of various legal challenges and orders to repay some of the million of dollars he earned from his success.