DISGRACED CYCLIST LANCE Armstrong should reveal everything about his doping to Oprah Winfrey, says British Cycling president Brian Cookson.
The 41-year-old will appear on Winfrey’s talk program on television in the United States on Monday in his first interview since being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for alleged drug cheating.
The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) took the titles away from Armstrong after they claimed in a 1000-page report that he was the main figure in the ‘most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme’ in the sport’s history.
Armstrong – who has never admitted to doping – is expected to confess on the talk show and Cookson says he should tell all about his cheating and end his years of lies and deceit.
“Let’s have facts, names, places and times,” Cookson told the BBC.“If the allegations are true in Tyler Hamilton’s book (a former team-mate of Armstrong’s) and the USADA report then there are substantial numbers of people involved.
“The real thing that has to come out is who were these other people involved? Who were the people supplying and helping him, the doctors that helped him, the companies that supplied him? Let’s have that information.
“The sort of thing Armstrong was doing, according to the USADA report, was not just popping a few pills behind the changing rooms, it was sophisticated conspiracies, cheating over a long period of time on a large scale.”
Reports emanating from the United States have indicated that Armstrong may try and admit to doping in a bid to return to racing in triathlons and marathons.
But Cookson hopes to have seen the last of the American in the sport, a man he claims has ruined the reputation of cycling.
“If (being allowed to compete in triathlons is) part of his motivation I kind of understand that but frankly we don’t want him back in cycling,” he said.“(He has) undermined the credibility of our sport to such an extent that people, who I am now confident are competing clean, are still getting smeared and slurred.
“We have had massive investment in anti-doping procedures and a real change in culture over the last five years and I’m pretty confident that the sport is much cleaner than it was but we’ve still got the reputational damage that was done by Armstrong, so I don’t want him back in our sport.
“I hope he doesn’t get a reduction in his sentence from USADA that would allow him to take part in any other sport.”
Armstrong – who was given a lifetime ban from cycling after the USADA published their report – also resigned as chairman of the Livestrong foundation.
Livestrong is the cancer charity created by Armstrong, which lost several major sponsors after the news.
