When Lance cries on Oprah later this week and she passes him the tissue, spare a thought for all those genuine people who walked away with no rewards - just shattered dreams. Each one of them is worth a thousand Lances.-- Nicole Cooke
According to reports the interview with Oprah has already taken place and all those reports suggest that Lance Armstrong has admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs. I knew one day I would write those words, but I never thought it would be so soon. Armstrong's world has turned upside down these past six months in the most dramatic of fashions. The book deal, even a Hollywood movie, and perhaps a stint in prison must surely be all that remains to follow.
To what depths Armstrong has confessed is the real question here. Has he bared his sole or has he told the obvious stuff and then tried to hide away from the rest? Apparently the interview went for several hours so it has to have gone deep into his career of drug use. The big question will be whether he has gone as far as to implicate the UCI in any of it by way of covering up the fact he did use drugs throughout his career. You get the feeling that Pat McQuaid and Hein Verbruggen won't be sleeping so easily over the next couple of nights.
Indeed, Armstrong has the opportunity to help the sport in a big way by telling the absolute truth. What he knows may be damning but it needs to be heard if the sport is to truly move forward. Armstrong could do a lot for improving the sport and for acting as a deterant for young cyclists in the future.
The only problem here, of course, is whether that is Armstrong's end game, and that would seem highly unlikely. Armstrong does little without reason, and many feel that this whole show is nothing more than an attempt to win back some public sympathy as well as get his life-time ban reduced so he can once again compete in Iron Man triathlons.
That would require Armstrong coming forward, beyond this interview with Oprah, to testify about certain things he seen throughout his career. Whether that is seen as too little too late by the likes of USADA remains to be seen.
What bothers me most about the whole thing is it's timing. Why did Armstrong wait this long and it's more than apparent that he has only done it now that he has been backed into a corner that not even he, nor his team of lawyers, can help him weasel out of. This is a last ditch effort to save something of his reputation and not just a decision to tell the truth. Let's make something clear, Armstrong -- like many of the others who have come clean -- would not have done so had they not been caught. And that means something.
Still, the timing and the reasoning aside, it's better to hear it -- even like this -- than never to hear it at all. I just hope that Armstrong as part of this interview, not only apologises for cheating the fans -- he was one of many who did that -- but reaches out to those whose career he helped destroy for daring to stand in his way. Will he offer to repay the money he acquired by attacking those who cast doubt via law suits? I doubt it, but that would be his biggest shot at gaining forgiveness from cycling fans.
