Lance lied, insists doping chief

Los Angeles, Jan. 26: 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 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 AntiDoping Agency 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.

Tygart said 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.

He also took issue with Armstrong’s claim that the Texan’s favoured drug cocktail of blood- boosting EPO, blood transfusions and testosterone included just a small amount of EPO. “He used a lot of EPO,” Tygart told “60 Minutes”, alleging that Armstrong was less than truthful when he said that he had not pushed his teammates toward doping.

“He was the boss,” Tygart said. “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.”