Lance Armstrong's tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey may hijack cycling's new year

LANCE Armstrong's tell-all interview on cycling's doping storm may hijack the sport's fresh start in Adelaide's Santos Tour Down Under.

LANCE Armstrong's tell-all interview on cycling's doping storm threatens to hijack the sport's fresh start in Adelaide's Santos Tour Down Under.

As the peloton led by superstars Andy Schleck and Andre Greipel begin arriving in Adelaide from this morning, the cycling world sweats on Armstrong breaking his silence next week.

Armstrong has booked a "no-holds-barred" interview with US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey from his Texas home on January 17 - just days before the 2013 WorldTour season starts in Adelaide.

It will be Armstrong's first interview since he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles in October for allegedly doping throughout his career.

But it is not known whether he will confess to any involvement in what the US Anti-Doping Agency dubbed the "most professionalised, sophisticated doping program the sport will ever see".

Tour Down Under race director Mike Turtur is confident that regardless of what Armstrong says next week, it will not overshadow the January 20-27 event.

"No one knows what will be revealed," Turtur said. "We will just deliver the race as best we can and get on with the job.

"We've got all these exciting young athletes and in respect to them, we need to show we appreciate what they're doing.

"It's the start of a new season and there are fresh stages and riders (competing) over six days of racing which I'm really looking forward to. With the way the course has been designed, I'm really excited about what it could present," Turtur said.

The State Government paid Armstrong to race at the Tour Down Under for three consecutive years, from 2009-2011.

In his time at the race, Armstrong ensured that for at least a week, South Australia was the centre of world sport.

Event-specific visitor numbers climbed from 15,000 to 36,000 when he arrived in 2009, while media accreditation doubled and total attendance increased by 212,000.

It has been reported that Armstrong was paid as much as $9 million over the three years - claims Turtur has labelled as ridiculous - while the Government says that the exact figure will never be revealed.

The Armstrong interview is expected to be the next chapter in cycling's lengthy clean-up from its dark past which also affects the sport in Australia.

The Federal Government's Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority is continuing its widespread investigation into cycling, while Cycling Australia's operations are also under review.

However, for now, Turtur hopes that cycling fans will continue flocking to the race which next week features a climb up Corkscrew Road in Adelaide's east for the first time.

"It's the 15th year but I'm as excited as if it was the first," he said.

It was also claimed yesterday that Armstrong tried to donate some $250,000 to the US Anti-Doping Agency.

USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said in a 60 Minutes program which aired on US television, he was bowled over by the "totally inappropriate" offer from one of Armstrong's representatives in 2004 which he had immediately turned down.

"I was stunned," Tygart said.

"It was a clear conflict of interest for USADA. We had no hesitation in rejecting that offer."

Asked if the offer was in the range of $250,000, Tygart tells the interviewer, "It was in that ballpark".

The television program publicised Tygart's comments ahead of the actual broadcast.

Tygart, who described Armstrong's heavy-handed tactics as being mafia-like, denounced a $100,000 donation Armstrong made previously to the International Cycling Union (UCI).

Armstrong's lawyer Tim Herman told USA Today on Tuesday that there was never a donation attempt from the cyclist.

"No truth to that story," Herman told the newspaper.

"First Lance heard of it was today. He never made any such contribution or suggestion."

USADA stripped Armstrong of seven Tour de France titles and imposed a lifetime ban in October after releasing a damning report that concluded he had helped orchestrate the most sophisticated doping program in the history of the sport.