Well, they always say the sequel is never as good as the original...

Anyway, that's parts I and II in the books ... anyone reckon we'll complete the trilogy before the year is out?

If it was tears you were looking for, you almost got it. If it was a sappy ending you wanted, the only thing missing was the orchestra playing.

Tonight it was all about family, friends, the sponsors and the charity, with Lance even creating sympathy from Oprah when he explained that the day his sponsors walked away it cost him seventy-five million dollars ... as though this was the moment we should swing from anger to pity. To heck with the money Lance cost the likes of Greg LeMond by shafting his bike companies deal with Trek ... poor Lance lost $75-million folks.

After last night it apparent that day two would focus on the personal side of things. This was Oprah's playground and try as Lance might at times to delve into the subjects we wanted to hear, Oprah was determined to steer him down the line of public sympathy. At one point Lance addressed the question as to whether he owed David Walsh an apology after mentioning a host of others that he felt he had to reach out to. He said he did and appeared to be continuing with his answer before Oprah cut him off with another question.

It's clear that these kind of interviews are not Oprah's speciality. She was sticking to a script and was terrified to let it run off course and into a dark area from which she had no idea about, nor how to get it back on track. It was actually Lance who seemed more like the one who wanted to delve deeper into the subjects he was being questioned on, but it was Oprah who kept dragging him away and onto the next topic.

Greg LeMond isn't happy; Pat McQuiaid sounds relieved; Jens Voigt believes Armstrong has had it "hard enough"; and Novak Djokovic sticks his head above the parapet to condemn the sport without considering his own

Reaction from the public trial of Lance Armstrong

There has been no time wasted in reaction pouring in from around the sporting world at the confession -- or part thereof -- by Lance Armstrong to his use of performance enhancing drugs. For the most part those in the cycling community remain unconvinced, believing that there is much more still to come and that Lance's words yesterday were carefully choose with an eye to potential upcoming legal trials.

"I am surprised that he didn't give any names. Is he is holding them back for prosecutors or will he go further in the second half of the interview?" asked Christophe Bassons -- the man who Lance helped drive out of the sport for daring to question the use of drugs by many at the 1999 Tour, and whom I hope Lance will address tonight -- in an interview with RMC in France.

"To carry out blood transfusions, to access EPO, you need advisers, suppliers and perhaps ever protectors," said Pierre Bordry, the former president of the French Anti-Doping Agency, also to RMC. "I think that we need to know all of that. The anti-doping agencies need to be clearly informed. He needs to go a little bit further."

EXCLUSIVE: Lance Armstrong admits to taking drugs; I admit to watching Oprah

STAGE ONE: LANCE v OPRAH: Advantage Lance ... he didn't cry once!!

Well, there you have it. Like a trained assassin -- It was my job, and I was good at it -- Lance Armstrong clinically and with little emotion admitted that he took performance enhancing drugs for each of his seven Tour de France victories to the shock of nobody. What was shocking was to sit there and see him utter the words, stepping away at long last from his lifetime of lies that he had never taken drugs.

It was a limited admission, some will say very disappointing, but after a lifetime of lying, to expect the man to become the bastion of truth overnight would be laughable. You could tell throughout that he was thinking about what how his lawyers had told him to approch it with an eye to implicating himself in serious lawsuits in the future. He looked nervous at times. My wife felt that the way he talked made him sound like a criminal or a psychopath. I felt it made him sound like a politician. With this weight now off his back, I suspect we haven't quite heard the end of his admissions.

But what of stage one tonight?

Well, Oprah handled it better than I feared she might and she wasted no time in getting to the part we all wanted to hear. Straight up she asked him if he took banned substances? I half expected the feed to cut to black right at that moment, but it didn't, and after a brief hesitation Armstrong said "Yes." He said yes to using EPO, blood doping, testosterone, cortisone, human growth hormone and some or all of those banned substances for all seven of his victories.

So who will win tonight's Lance v Oprah race? And will it become an annual two-day Tour?

Note that amidst early information on the Cycling News website about the 2013 Vuelta a Espana and Tour de France, and the opening race of the WorldTour -- the Santos Tour Down Under -- appeared the newest race on cycling's calendar: Lance Armtrong Oprah Interview. It's a two person race over two days with the first stage going tonight live on Oprah's website.

One has to think Lance Armstrong will be heavy favourite given his experience of racing bikes by comparison to Oprah, but don't rule out the old day-time woman's-chat TV host. If Lance Armstrong is today admitting that he has used performance enhancing drugs throughout his career there is a chance that he'll actually compete clean tonight thus rendering him beatable.

It's sure to be captivating.

It's not about the drugs

Remember something when you sit down in front of your television tonight with your can of beer and hot dog, ready to count the number of tears running down the cheeks of Lance Armstrong when he tells noted cycling journalist, Oprah Winfrey, that he took drugs: This isn't about the drugs.

Sounds strange you might think, for the words most people are most giddy about hearing is Lance saying, "I used performance enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France," but let's face it, if all Armstrong did was take drugs, we wouldn't even be here.

All you have to do is look through the annals of cycling history to see that. Drugs in some form or another have always played a part. It's only in the last twenty years that things have gone to a new and dangerous level in which the advantage gained by the drug really did finish anyone who wasn't willing to join in. And there have been plenty who took part in those days and who have been found out who are walking around without the same scrutiny as Armstrong.

EXCLUSIVE: THE REAL REASON LANCE ARMSTRONG ADMITTED TO TAKING DRUGS: If Lance Armstrong is a pathological liar, then admitting he took drugs means that he actually rode clean!

It's a revelation that will shock the cycling world to its very core: Lance Armstrong was actually clean. By showing up on the set of Oprah to tell the world that after years of denying he did it, that he actually did do it, Lance Armstrong has done nothing more than to force everyone to shift their belief in him.

You see, nobody believes anything Armstrong says anymore. He could tell you that the world was round and you would suddenly tread carefully with the fear that you might stumble off the edge and into the abyss at any minute, such is the man's credibility right now.

To hear Armstrong utter the worlds, "I took performance enhancing drugs," during his interview tomorrow night will be confirmation than he actually has, in fact, NOT taken drugs.

Armstrong admits to taking drugs ... but how much has he told?

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.

Lance to tell the truth, most of the truth, and almost nothing but the truth

If you'd told me six months ago that I'd be sitting in January 2013 getting ready to hear Lance Armstrong admit that he took performance enhancing drugs I'd have thought you were on some form of recreational drugs, but the cycling world was very different back then and so much has changed from a drug related angle in the past half a year.

A USADA investigation found Lance Armstrong guilty of a slew of doping offences and their decision to strip him of his seven titles and ban him from the sport for life was ratified by the UCI. Tyler Hamilton wrote a tell-all book, a number of former team-mates of Armstrong came out and told their stories of doping, David Walsh -- the journalist who has been on the hunt for Lance for nigh on fifteen years -- wrote his own book 'Seven Deadly Sins', and Lance Armstrong became the dirty name of professional cycling.

Lance was really only left with two choices. Accept his fate but continue to stick to his guns and go quietly into the night, gradually slipping out of the public consciousness, or come roaring back with an admission that will keep him in the spotlight and perhaps open some avenue for him to still make a bit of money. He has this week choose the second option.

UCI confirm that I won't win the Tour de France

The offices of Pat McQuaid at the UCI headquarters

For weeks now, ever since USADA's report broke with their recommendation that Lance Armstrong be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles, I have been living in hope that perhaps the UCI will see fit to grant them to myself. I had two reasons to believe this might be possible and so you can see why perhaps I was a little saddened yesterday to learn that they were giving them to nobody. I had to assume too many people -- like numerous kids screaming for not enough chocolate -- led the UCI to say, "right, if that's how you're going to behave, nobody's getting them".

The first reason I thought I stood a chance was because I was a bike racer who has never doped. In the grand pyramid of the cycling system, with Mount Everest being the top where Lance once stood (he's currently swimming the with fishes), and the bottom being the depth of the deepest Ocean, I'm probably hovering in and around the Titanic. But there had to be this chance that they were all a bunch of dopers right the way through the system as far as me and that's why I was as low down the ladder as I was and thus the best option to reward those Tours to. Heck, for a while I even pronounced myself "7 time winner of the Tour de France ... by default," on my Twitter page.

McQuaid: "Armstrong has no place in cycling" ... won't resign himself

What a waste of time that turned out to be. Photograph: AFP/Getty

Lance Armstrong is on more than just drugs now ... he's on a banned for life list courtesy of the UCI. As I sit here writing this, I have now won as many Tours de France as him and that's quite the achievement for someone who has won but two mountain bike races (all this year) in the past decade.

Yes, pull up Wikipedia and search 'Tour de France winners' and already you'll see the word 'Vacated' in place of where it used to say Lance Armstrong seven times between 1999 and 2005. Greg LeMond is once again the only American to have won cycling's biggest prize.

Speaking before a collection of cycling hacks, UCI head-suit, Pat McQuaid confirmed what we knew and did what we expected he would do when left with no more rugs with which to sweep allegations against Lance Armstrong under. He confirmed his old pal, Lance Armstrong had been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from cycling for life.

UCI set to announce Monday that Armstrong was "a very naughty boy"

Pat McQuaid set to condem Lance Armstrong and auction off his titles. Photograph: AFP

Lance Armstrong is set to hear exactly what his old pals at the UCI really think about him on Monday when cycling's top federation have said they will give their judgement on the USADA case. It's expected that chief blazer, Pat McQuaid, President of the UCI will take to a podium surrounded by microphones and flashbulbs and reveal that, yes, Armstrong was,  "A very naughty boy".

As part of this they will reaffirm their own commitment to anti-doping, and confirm that not even bribes in the form of an anti-doping machine will save you. They will then announce that the winner of the seven Tours de France that Armstrong has been stripped of will be put up for auction on ebay to the highest bidder. Early reports that Armstrong himself might bid to buy his titles back are as yet unconfirmed as are those that suggest McQuaid might even take a run at the years 1999 and 2002.

Sadly amid the joy and elation of seeing another dagger -- to follow those by the USADA, his old tell-tail-team-mates, the fans, the media, Phil Liggett, Nike and Nike -- being sunk into Armstrong, as well as the titles auction, the UCI will announce that Don, Hein Verbruggen, will keep his position as company commander.

The back of him would be too much to ask for, of course, so we'll settle with Armstrong, for now.

The model pro knows when and how to say sorry

A simple tear and a the word 'sorry' might yet save Armstrong. Photograph: Reuters

It would seem the way to do it in modern cycling is to begin your professional career by cheating like hell. Drug up and drug often, and win races until you are caught. Then in a teary press conference in front of the cycling world break down in apology.

Say sorry to your team, your fellow pros, your friends and don't forget your family, then after serving your ban (don't forget to keep your prize money!) come back as a staunch anti-doping advocate. You'll be welcomed back with open arms and remembered more as a once lost sheep now back in the fold as opposed to a one time cheat. If worst comes to the worst and you don't get caught, then you'll finish up your career as a very good rider as opposed to a decent rider.

It's tried and tested and you don't need examples here of cyclists who have used it. Saying that, it would appear cycling and its fans hold their contempt of cheating to a higher standard. Even British football fans dismay at the corruption of good English boys by foreign divers is vastly outweighed by cycling fans hate of a doper.

What is my stance on the whole Armstrong issue and cycling's fight against drugs in general?

Now that we know it wasn't real, we can begin to move on. Photograph: Getty Images

October 10, 2012. Fourteen years and three months after we got stung in the face about the reality of doping within cycling at a systematic level as the Tour de France opened in Dublin, Ireland in July 1998, we finally hear the chilling truth about how the supposed 'new era' as it was presented to us after 1998 was as dirty as any before it.

That isn't to say we didn't have a fair idea for some time now, but yesterday was the confirmation ... the evidence we've been waiting for. And not just against Lance Armstrong who dominated the seven years after the '98 Festina Affair, but the testimonies of those who fessed up publicly about about what went on. It only took those fourteen years, but maybe now the illusions we had so many times that the sport was turning a corner can now become a reality and with the lid coming off hard on the past, we can allow the present day of cycling which has itself moved on a lot, to truly start pointing towards the future.

After thinking about, reading about and talking about the Armstrong saga for the past twenty-four hours, I took a break from focusing solely on the cycling angle for just a moment while sitting in a Starbucks over lunch and passing the half hour I had before returning to the office. I posted the following comment on Facebook in relation to other sports and the Lance Armstrong investigation: I asked, 'Will Fifa, Uefa and/or national FA's go after teams employing doctors named in the Lance Armstrong investigation with investigations of their own or continue to bury their collective heads in the sand?'

Yates buries head in the sand while Armstrong takes his cheating to Strava

I SAW NUFFIN', HOENSTLY

Team Sky directeur sportif and former team-mate and DS of Armstrong, Sean Yates.

Upon cashing a check made out to him by someone by the name of L. Armstrong, Team Sky directeur sportif, Sean Yates, addressed BBC Radio 5 Live to confirm that he "never saw an indication of anything dodgy going on" during his time as Lance Armstrong's team-mate (1992-1996) or directeur sportif of the Discovery Channel team (2005-2007).

Yates who would have seen plenty that was dodgy going on given everyone else associated with the team from George Hincapie down to the coffee boy appear to have seen something, claims that all he did during his years managing the team was ride his bike in the morning and then drive the car in the afternoon.

The USADA case against Lance Armstrong in full

USADA Reasoned Decision

Someone has just opened the cupboard door in that big witch hunt of Lance Armstrong and have uncovered a stack of witches.

Armstrong contemplates the harsh reality. Photograph: Mark Gunter | AFP

USADA have at last publicly pulled off the lid on their can of worms that is their case against Lance Armstrong ... and the worms are everywhere. The evidence against Lance has finally been exposed proving that it either wasn't a witch hunt at all, or that the witches have shown up at last. Suspensions have been dished out like goody-bags at a child's birthday party to the current riders who testified, two former pros who conveniently retired a few weeks ago released almost identical statements admitting it all and some other guff about wanting to make it better, while there is a deafening silence coming from camp Armstrong.

Well, the later isn't entirely true. The morning began with one of Armstrong's lawyers trying to discredit the USADA investigation once more calling it a waste of tax player dollars in what I can only presume was a last ditch attempt to encourage some to keep their heads in the sand after the days revelations broke. It will have no doubt worked though USADA did hit back by confirming the US Postal Team received tens of millions of American taxpayer dollars in funding.

When the days revelations did break, it came hard and fast with USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart, saying that "The evidence shows beyond any doubt that the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen," beating the East German program from the old Cold War days into second place, I would assume. That's the kind of cycling domination that Lance should be proud of. He may have lost his record of having won the Tour de France the most times but he gained the privilege of being involved in the most professionalized and successful doping program in an era when it was all about systematic doping.

What now? Leave the record book empty, that's what

Armstrong congratulates Ullrich on a solid second place, or as of today, potentially, the Tour de France victory. Photograph: Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Safe to say that when I whittle your way through the entire cycling pyramid and discount anyone who doped or who I suspect of doping, I have just become the Tour de France champion ... SEVEN times.

You've all heard the news by now that rather than facing the evidence, or having it presented to the wider public, Lance Armstrong has ran away and accepted whatever the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) decide to throw at him. The evidence we all hope will still come out allowing those few with their heads still buried in the sand to come up for a gasp of reality, but until it does this is Armstrong saying, 'You can take my titles, but my PR machine will ensure you don't take my good name'.

Do I think Armstrong doped? Absolutely. I'd love to see what evidence they have once and for all, but from what I've heard the evidence they do have is pretty serious and they have more than enough sworn witness testimony that was made before a Grand Jury of the United States government that suggests to me he's hardly the innocent boy in all of this. Not to mention the fact everyone he pummeled into the ground for seven straight years were doped to the eyeballs themselves. That of course should lead me to point out that despite being stripped of his titles today, he still won those Tours given who he beat along the way. Going after Lance is correct so long as the same standard applies to others from which evidence exists. Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich have admitted to doping yet remain the 1996 and 1997 champions, while there's a stack of evidence against the now deceased Marco Pantani who won in 1998. And what of Alberto Contador who still retains his victories from 2007 and 2008?

Seven potential new tour champs that could possibly include two time winner, Jimmy Casper

 

Meet Jimmy Casper. Potential two time winner of past Tours de France and the first French winner since Bernard Hinault. Photograph: www.ispaphoto.com

With news that Lance Armstrong is set to be tried, convicted and hung by a jury of his critics from USADA for crimes against humanity, I mean, for alleged doping practices throughout his career, it seems that there is a strong chance Mr. Armstrong could lose his seven Tour de France titles earned between 1999 and 2005, though to whom he might lose them to is still up for debate.

There's a chance that they will leave the records empty for those seven years, but knowing how these things work they might well promote the seven second place men up into first which, given their names and their own history of doping, it would prove absolutely ridiculous. On that note, expect it to happen.

Yes, that would make the new champions as follows: Alex Zülle (1999), Jan Ullrich (2000, 2001, 2003), Joseba Beloki (2002), Andréas Klöden (2004) and Ivan Basso (2005). Indeed, that would be Mr. Jan 'four times winner' Ullrich, to you. The same Jan Ullrich who himself has 'admitted it all'. You see where this is going?

To me, if you want the cleanest man to win it then you'll have to go a lot further down the pile than second. Actually there's no way of knowing who was the cleanest in that era -- an era now widely accepted to be littered from top to bottom with performance enhancing drugs -- so, I propose they crown the seven Lanterne Rouge winners as champions ... not because they were clean necessarily, but because they were the worst of those that doped!

So without further ado, the 1999 to 2005 winners of the Tour de France with their teams at the time and their original time gap to Armstrong:

The web is closing in on Lance Armstrong who is charged with doping but for cycling fans, the timing is poor

Armstrong must contemplate what his next move is. Photograph: Mark Gunter | AFP

Just when Lance Armstrong thought it was safe to go outside and play again what with the US feds having dropped their case against him back in February and the Tour de France set to make all the cycling based headlines over the next month or so, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) have served the seven time winner of the Tour de France with formal doping charges spanning a period of 13-years, thus threatening to expose the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the long term, while taking away from the build-up to the Tour de France in the short term.

You all know the background to this already even though it only broke yesterday evening. The allegations against Armstrong are nothing new and he's been trying to swat them off for years now, but finally it looks as though USADA are going to present evidence along with witness testimony that could see the Texan held to account for his shady practices.

The accusations against Armstrong were sent to him in a 15-page letter that was leaked to The Washington Post. According to the newspaper, the letter alleges that Armstrong and five other former cycling team associates, including three doctors and the team manager, Johan Bruyneel, engaged in a doping conspiracy from 1998-2011. Among the witnesses are said to be more than ten cyclists.

-- Owen Slot, The Times, June 13, 2012

The letter itself can be viewed in its entirety, here and alleges the use of almost every performance enhancing drug under the sun by Armstrong. The man himself called the charges "baseless, motivated by spite and advanced through testimony bought and paid for by promises of anonymity and immunity", while maintaining his innocence to doping by stating, as ever, that he has "passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one".

But really, what's the point?

Lance doesn't care anymore. Photograph: EPA

After the prospect of time in the slammer was lifted from the shoulders of Lance Armstrong last February 3rd when the US federal case against him was withdrawn, the idea that he might lose a tour title courtesy of the US anti-doping agency (USADA) hardly seemed worth worrying about and that is exactly the case with Armstrong today as he revealed that "it doesn't matter any more" whether he is stripped of one or more of his tour titles.

The man who would once fight tooth and nail for his good reputation appears not interested, clearly worn down by the accusations against him. "In my mind, I’m truly done. You can interpret that however you want," he said in a Men’s Journal interview, being released this week as people everywhere jumped to the guilty interpretation. "But no matter what happens, I’m finished. I’m done fighting. I've moved on. If there are other things that arise, I’m not contesting anything. Case closed.

"It doesn’t matter anymore," he continued on whether he would be concerned about losing one of his tour titles. "I don’t run around bragging, feeling like I have to be a seven-time Tour de France champion," he continued before posing for a photo with a nearby fan with seven fingers up. "I worked hard for those, I won seven times and it’s great. But it’s over."

So there you go. Nothing to see here, right? ... Not a chance. Comments like that are like tossing the entire cow in front of a wake of circling vultures.