Armstrong lied on TV show: USADA chief

Tygart asserts disgraced cyclist failed to come clean in interview.

LOS ANGELES:

Lance Armstrong lied in his confessional interview with Oprah Winfrey and the shamed cyclist has two weeks to finally come clean, according to the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) chief Travis Tygart.

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.

Armstrong, a cancer survivor who during the Oprah interview admitted doping for the first time after years of vehement denials, said he would be willing to testify before such a commission if he were invited.

He also said that his record seven wins in the Tour De France – from 1999 to 2005 – were fueled by performance enhancing drugs but insisted he was clean when he came out of retirement and raced in the Tour de France in 2009 and 2010.

Tygart, however, in the CBS interview which will air in full on ‘60 Minutes’ today, said the latter claim is ‘just contrary to the evidence’.

According to Tygart, expert reports based on the variation of Armstrong’s blood values in 2009 and 2010 make it a ‘one to a million chances that it was due to something other than doping’.

He also took issue with Armstrong’s claim that the disgraced Texan’s favored drug cocktail of blood-boosting EPO, blood transfusions and testosterone included just a small amount of EPO.

“He used a lot of EPO,” said Tygart, alleging that Armstrong was less than truthful when he told Winfrey that he had not pushed his teammates toward cheating. “The evidence is clear he was one of the ringleaders of this conspiracy that pulled off this grand heist.”

Immediately after Armstrong’s first confession aired last week, Tygart responded by saying that the former cyclist must testify under oath to have any hope of reducing his sanction.

“His admission that he doped throughout his career is a small step in the right direction. But if he is sincere in his desire to correct his past mistakes, he will testify under oath about the full extent of his doping activities.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2013.