USADA chief says Lance Armstrong lied about drug-free comeback during Oprah interview

LANCE Armstrong lied in his Oprah interview and has two weeks to finally come clean, the head of USADA says.

Travis Tygart

LANCE Armstrong lied in his confessional interview with Oprah Winfrey and the shamed cyclist has two weeks to finally come clean, the US anti-doping official who pursued him for years has said.

Travis Tygart said in an excerpt of an interview with the CBS network that Armstrong failed to tell Winfrey the truth about several key points over doping - including a claim that he raced drug-free in his comeback in 2009 and 2010.

Tygart, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief, said he has written to Armstrong to say that if he wants to lessen his lifetime sporting ban he must "cooperate fully and truthfully'' by February 6, about drug-taking in the sport.

It is not clear if cooperation from Armstrong, who was stripped of all seven of his Tour De France wins last year, could take the form of testimony before a truth and reconciliation commission.

The International Cycling Union (UCI), which is under pressure from the World Anti-Doping Agency and USADA, yesterday agreed that such a platform would benefit the the drug-damaged sport after a series of devastating doping cases.

Armstrong, a cancer survivor who during the Oprah interview admitted doping for the first time after years of vehement denials, said he would be willing to testify before such a commission if he were invited.

He also said that his record seven wins in the tour - between 1999-2005 - were fuelled by performance-enhancing drugs but insisted he was clean when he came out of retirement and raced in the Tour de France in 2009 and 2010.

Tygart, however, in the CBS interview which will air in full on 60 Minutes tomorrow, said the latter claim is "just contrary to the evidence''.

According to Tygart, expert reports based on the variation of Armstrong's blood values in 2009 and 2010 make it a "one to a million chance that it was due to something other than doping''.

The USADA chief reiterated the assertions in the report issued last year by the agency on which it based its lifetime ban of Armstrong and the forfeiture of all of his cycling results from August 1998.

The report led to Armstrong's demise after more than a decade of denials that he was a drug cheat during which he pursued a series of vitriolic attacks against several individuals who had accused him of doping.

Tygart told CBS that Armstrong may have lied about doping after his comeback because under the statute of limitations for criminal fraud, he would still be open to prosecution.

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He also took issue with Armstrong's claim that the disgraced Texan's favored drug cocktail of blood-boosting EPO, blood transfusions and testosterone included just a small amount of EPO.

"He used a lot of EPO,'' Tygart said, alleging that Armstrong was less than truthful when he told Winfrey that he had not pushed his teammates toward doping.

"He was the boss,'' Tygart said in the excerpt.

"The evidence is clear he was one of the ringleaders of this conspiracy that pulled off this grand heist that... using tens of millions of taxpayer dollars defrauded millions of sports fans and his fellow competitors.''

In the second segment of his interview with Winfrey, which aired over two nights earlier this month, the 41-year-old Armstrong said he wants to compete again in sport - perhaps marathons.

Immediately after Armstrong's first confession aired last week Tygart responded by saying that the former cyclist must testify under oath to have any hope of reducing his sanction.

"His admission that he doped throughout his career is a small step in the right direction,'' Tygart said.

"But if he is sincere in his desire to correct his past mistakes, he will testify under oath about the full extent of his doping activities.''

Wiggins 'smug' after Armstrong interview

Meanwhile, current Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins is convinced Armstrong doped in 2009.

Wiggins, the current Tour champion, finished a spot behind third-placed Armstrong in '09 but has his suspicions after racing alongside the American in key mountain stages.

"I can still remember going toe to toe with him, watching the man I saw on the top of Verbier in 2009 to the man I saw on the top of Ventoux a week later when we were in doping control together," said Wiggins, speaking at a Team Sky training camp in Mallorca.

"It wasn't the same bike rider. You only have to watch the videos of how the guy was riding. I don't believe anything that comes out of his mouth anymore."

Sitting with his seven-year-old son, Wiggins watched Armstrong end years of denials by confessing to Oprah last week.

Wiggins said he experienced a range of emotions - from sadness to anger and finally to smugness.

"I had to explain it to my son because he (Armstrong) had won the same race his dad had won," Wiggins said. "But by the end of the hour and a half, I had the best feeling in the world.

"When he started welling up about his 13-year-old son, and him asking what's all this about. I never have to have that conversation with my own son. His father's won the Tour clean and there's this element of being quite smug about the whole thing."