Armstrong ‘ cannot meet’ deadline

An attorney for Lance Armstrong said the disgraced cyclist will not meet the deadline set by the US Anti- Doping Agency ( Usada) for him to answer questions under oath and suggested his client would rather participate in international efforts to “clear the air”.

In a letter to Usada dated on Friday, attorney Timothy Herman said that while the athlete is willing to cooperate with the agency, its request to interview him in the next two weeks “cannot be accommodated” because of pre- existing obligations.

Usada set a February 6 deadline for Armstrong to fully cooperate in its investigation in return for a possible lifting of his lifetime ban from cycling, the agency’s chief executive Travis Tygart said in an excerpt from an interview, which was to be aired on the CBS programme last night.

After years of denials, Armstrong confessed last week in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs. Usada stripped him of his titles and called him a “serial cheat”.

In the letter, Herman applauded the announcement by the International Cycling Union ( UCI) on Friday that it would work with the World Anti- Doping Agency in a broad probe into the use of drugs and rely on a “truth and reconciliation” process.

“As such, we would like to make sure we coordinate with the truth and reconciliation process to examine the culture of doping in cycling in the past and to clear the air so that cycling can move forward,” Herman wrote.