Oprah Winfrey says Lance Armstrong 'came clean' about drugs; anti-doping agency wants more

UPDATE: LANCE Armstrong reportedly offered to give the US government $5 million in compensation for alleged fraud.

UPDATE: LANCE Armstrong reportedly offered to give the US government $5 million in compensation for alleged fraud.

The day after the former Tour de France champion "came clean" to Oprah Winfrey in aTV interview about doping allegations, CBS News is reporting he also offered to be a "co-operating witness".

The US Department of Justice reportedly turned down both offers as inadequate.

Winfrey said her OWN cable network would telecast the two-and-a-half-hour interview unedited over two days from Friday (AEDT).

Originally, a shorter broadcast was planned for one night.

But, the World Anti-Doping Agency says the interview is not enough, and that Armstrong must confess under oath to seek a reduction in his lifetime ban from sports for doping during seven Tour de France victories.

WADA says it "read with interest media reports suggesting a television 'confession' made by Lance Armstrong" to talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Armstrong reportedly hopes to return to competition in recognised triathlon events.

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Join us for complete coverage of the Lance Armstrong interview on Friday from 1pm AEDT and on Saturday.

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Oprah's interview with Armstrong will be shown live in Australia on the Discovery Channel on Foxtel.

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However, WADA says "only when Mr Armstrong makes a full confession under oath - and tells the anti-doping authorities all he knows about doping activities - can any legal and proper process for him to seek any reopening or reconsideration of his lifetime ban commence".

The agency says athletes must pass on details of performance-enhancing drug use "to the relevant anti-doping authorities".

Former IOC member Dick Pound says the widespread doping allegations could see cycling dumped from the Olympics.

Cycling could face Olympics axe

Pound, a former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, has told Reuters that the IOC may have little choice if Armstrong demonstrates the International Cycling Union (UCI) acted improperly.

"We could say, 'look, you've clearly got a problem why don't we give you four years, eight years to sort it out," Pound said.

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Swiss tennis champ Roger Federer said he would make sure to watch the interview.

“I’d be intrigued just to hear the interview. There has been a lot of talk about it, and obviously, you know, a lot of focus on Lance and the cycling part,” said Federer. “It’s obviously been a difficult situation for the whole of the sport and for him and all the people involved.”

The 31 year-old Swiss, who is also president of the ATP Tour Player Council, voiced his thoughts on drug-testing in tennis during the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London two months ago.

“I feel I am being tested less now than six or seven years ago and I do not know the exact reasons why we are being tested less,” he told the press at the time, adding the frequency of such tests was insufficient.

British cycling star Bradley Wiggins says disgraced US rider Lance Armstrong's admission of doping will be both a "great" and "sad" day for the sport.

Wiggins, last year's Tour de France and Olympic time-trial gold medal winner, added the extent of doping in the 1990s meant it had now become cycling's "lost" decade as a consequence of so many results being corrupted by drugs cheats.

Winfrey said she was "satisfied" with the interview.

"I didn't get all the questions asked, but I think the most important questions and the answers that people around the world have been waiting to hear were answered," Winfrey said.

"I can only say I was satisfied by the answers."

Lance-Armstrong

The interview is Armstrong's first since he was stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles after the US Anti-Doping Agency, in a 1000-page report, put him at the heart of the greatest doping scandal in the annals of cycling.

For a decade he had vigorously denied using banned substances to win his way into the history books.

Before sitting down with Winfrey in a hotel suite in his hometown of Austin, Texas on Monday, Armstrong, 41, went to the offices of Livestrong, the cancer charity he founded in 1997, and apologised in person to its staff.

Speaking from Chicago, Winfrey - when asked if Armstrong had "come clean" to her - said she and Armstrong had agreed at the outset not to talk about the content of the interview prior to broadcast.

The New York Times and USA Today newspapers, however, both cited sources saying the 41-year-old Texan would admit to Winfrey using banned substances in his career.

"And then, by the time I left Austin and landed in Chicago, you (the news media) all had already confirmed it," she said.

"So I'm like, 'How did you all do that?' We all agreed that we weren't going to say anything."

Winfrey, 58, said she went into "the biggest interview I've ever done" with 112 questions, and grilled him so intensely that, during a break at the 100-minute mark, Armstrong asked if their conversation might lighten up.

With a world-class scoop on her hands, Winfrey flew home to Chicago with the video tape in her handbag "along with my dog food" for fear it might be pilfered if beamed back to the editing room via satellite.

"I would say he did not come clean in the manner that I expected," she added. "It was surprising to me. I would say that for myself, my team, all of us in the room, we were mesmerised and riveted by some of his answers."

"I felt that he was thoughtful. I thought that he was serious ... I would say that he met the moment."