Home > Other Fun Stuff > Advocacy & Industry News

AP Reports Lance Armstrong admits to doping during Oprah interview

40 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More
Photo Credit: LanceAmrstrong.com

Reports are beginning to surface from the AP that an anonymous source admitted that Lance Armstrong admitted to doping during a taped 2.5 hr interview with Oprah. No further details are available due to confidentiality agreements.

Most of you already know the particulars. Lance has spent years denying doping allegations and stands to lose millions in lawsuits to various sponsors (and a half million to the Sunday Times for a libel suit from 2005) if he admits to the allegations. He stands to gain a small measure of respect from some of his disillusioned fans by his confession, gain some credibility for his charity which supports cancer patients, and the possibility of returning to competition in elite running and triathlon events.

We will update as more info trickles in.

 

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

40 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
weekendwarriorwally
weekendwarriorwally
11 years ago

Level playing field; best man won.

topmounter
topmounter
11 years ago

I’m glad that’s now behind us. Maybe Lance can start a support group for x-dopers.

weekendwarriorwally
weekendwarriorwally
11 years ago

^ FIRST!

Just like Lance, and don’t be jelly. He did it for the Horde.

FOR THE HORDE!

jorge
jorge
11 years ago

Ok, people will thrash this comment, but, I feel sorry for him…even if Lance really admits everything, even if he did dope…Everyone, well, every top guy was probably doping as well….So it was Le Tour de Dope…I feel like he really worked harder than ANYONE who has thrashed this guy with bad comments, bad wishes, etc. He beat those doped up guys…and theres no way around it! Ok, it’s unfair what he did, but look at things right now? Does he have to lose EVERYTHING? I think this is like the middle age….everyone is just in to see him suffer! I hope everything works out for him, I really do. He is one of the greatest racers in history of cycling. My 2 cents.

mzungu
mzungu
11 years ago

Every comment thread on Lance have a guy that said he is innocent… So I figure I play that role once..

THEY MAD HIM DO IT, THEY MADE HIM CONFESSED……He’s been tested hundreds of time, and he had always been clean….

The Goats
11 years ago

For us personally the hardest part to get past is not that he denied cheating (all cheaters do for as long as they can) but how viciously he went after and slandered others who called foul.

As much as there can be sportsmanship in cheating (if you aspire to the ‘level playing field’) Lance was not a gentleman in this regard and I think this will be the hardest part for him to get past.

We wish him the best of luck.

Goats

bin judgin
bin judgin
11 years ago

GBYE LOSER!!!!

Le Piou
Le Piou
11 years ago

Com’on… He’s just sorry he got caught, Not that he cheated.
I’m just glad that at the end… at the end at least, he won’t stay unpunished.

Now, I do hope that the Livestrong foundation will survive this.
What a waste…

Joe
Joe
11 years ago

In that era everybody in top 20 in major 2 or 3 weeks races was doped, so it was even for all and nobody considered himself as a cheater.
I am/have been always less fan of Armstrong’s for his “pleasant” personality (me, me, me and then me some more)
Thumbs up for confessing, it took guts!!
Peace

Emily
Emily
11 years ago

Dopers suck, cheaters suck. Don’t make heros of mortal men.

Also,

Dear Professional Racing,
I don’t love you anymore. Call this my dear John letter to you. I’m keeping some of your things though. Your wind in my hair? Mine. Your flying about on super skinny wheels, mine. Your nasty cheat drugs? Keep it. It changed you. And not in a good way. In a “you like like you’ve been on a crack/meth/bath salts bender for the past ten or so years.” sort of way.

We’re done. Don’t call. I won’t answer.

ccolagio
ccolagio
11 years ago

@Joe

“Thumbs up for confessing, it took guts!!”

it seems like he didnt confess for the sake of clearing his conscience – he wants to race tris. level playing field, dope this, 7 wins that…whatever you want to say – to me, lance is no man. men with pride and respect dont do what he did. fooling ppl into thinking your super man and building an empire of clothing, books, bikes…yes, he deserves to fall and fall hard he will. enjoy your time at the court buildings lance

i cant wait for thurs

j.c
j.c
11 years ago

Lance Armstrong is innocent!

McClain M
McClain M
11 years ago

@WeekendWarrior

I totally agree. He may have been, and still is, a figurehead for that generation of the sport, but he is not more wrong just because he was more popular or influential. The good things he did can, in fact, be kept separate from the bad, I think.

Framex
Framex
11 years ago

@jorge, I agree with you, in a sport that as always used drugs of some kind, from the first races to today, to me Mr. Armstrong remains a true cyclist and a great one.
I like cycling, I don’t like this kind of cycling, where everybody knows about doping but everyone pretend to not know about it, at all levels of organization and media.

cot
cot
11 years ago

Armstrong was the most perfidious and most brazen doper in the history of sports.

Cale
Cale
11 years ago

First I am not in denial that he doped etc. but here are my Qs to the folks who just love to tear LA down:
1) Why are you/Mr Walsh not going after other dopers with such determination? I mean there are many others that dope and that have won many events/championships in many other sports that are suspisious and or know to have done stuff?
2) Why are folks that are so PURE in their efforts to stamp out doping not asking for folks such as Riis to lose his TdF title? He admitted it…or is it if I only win 1 TdF then admit I doped (and dont get caught before hand) that I can keep the title? That jsut doesnt make sense….why not go hardcore….
3)What about the GDR/DDR we still have records on the books in many sports and the Gold medals have not been stripped???? We know they doped….where is Mr Walsh as a pure sports lover/journalist in cleaning the sport?
4) Is it mainly b/c LA was American and invaded a Euro Sport? And he was an ass? But look if there hadn’t been a LA the TdF would be smaller today, American sponsors and the American media etc made it bigger made ohter folks watch it, that never watched the TdF b4….b/c he beat cancer we watched….now that does not excuse his actions, but sometimes there is the bad that comes with the good….
5) Would the focus on doping be this big if there hadn’t been An American that beat the odds and beat not only cancer but the others, of whom many also doped? Does the regular CNN/American and or Euro that hates Americans care/know that Pantani doped and then committed suicide!?! B/C he couldn’t handle being beat by an ignorant ass American that had one nut!?!
My opinion is NO we would not be making this amount of fuss about ANY other CYCLIST, b/c they would not be American and the world would not care

LP
LP
11 years ago

@Cale

To your first question:

How many racer took journalist/writer and newspaper to court for them to stop telling the truth?

Mike
Mike
11 years ago

So, tell your kids it’s ok to do drugs as long as other kids are doing it. What a bunch of moorons. Sheesh!

Hexon Juan
Hexon Juan
11 years ago

To come clean (sic) about his doping now is just, well, silly. For all the venom spitted, false testimony given, and lawsuits won, all that will be a big pill to swallow. His legacy was ruined with the accusations and titles lost, and will be even more so if indeed this comes out in the interview. He will be found in contempt which could bring jail time in addition to fines, he will open up his coffers as those he’s libeled come for remittance, and the Lance faithful (of which I have many a friend) will find yet their ‘hero’ fallen. I don’t feel bad for any consequences he will have to suffer as they were fully self brought. I do wonder if an admittance now is for atonement or for the selfish need to be a competitor again. If it’s for the latter may he never step/roll into a starting line again.

David
David
11 years ago

Dope or no dope – he is still a dick for the way he treated people… I hope Oprah asked, how does it feel to be such a dick to people? But the guy could stomp pedals all day, and in a way he gave me the thing I love most…

Spode
Spode
11 years ago

Who cares about what he has to say about his doping or others doping (apparently he’s not gonna talk about other riders) … we already know most of the details. What I wanna hear is him throw Hein/Fat Pat under the bus. C’mon LA, you know you need a fall guy and it’s gonna be the UCI.

Pat
Pat
11 years ago

He did it for the WHORED!
I’d feel slightly better if he returns all of the money plus the time I spent cheering for him. Which wasn’t much. Watching cycling is boring. Anyone wanna buy a signed Lance poster?

satisFACTORYrider
satisFACTORYrider
11 years ago

i’m no f’n saint but i don’t have any stupid followers either…whew.

ajbosch
ajbosch
11 years ago

Cale.

I think you need to get the “because he’s American” chip off your shoulder.
So you’re saying they can only go after lance if they go after everyone else. So if they go after someone else you’ll say they have to go after yet someone else. They have to start somehwere. Lance is the highest profile and he was the biggest bully against anyone who dared try and speak out about it.

Did Riis bully anyone and ruin their careers after they spoke out about him?
Did Riis pay off the UCI to make a test result disappear?
Did Riis sue people for slander who exposed his doping.

I was one of the last to come to terms with what lance did and still a few weeks ago hoped he would come out fighting rather than owning up, I was hoping he was biding his time.

After reading all the details, how he had job offers taken away, how he branded them as crazy, how he treated Simeoni & Bassons, How he targeted those who spoke out. He thought he was invincible. Turns out he was nothing but a thug leading a cycling team.

Answer me this please? Does it make him innocent because someone had a goal/obsession of proving he doped? Nope is doesn’t. He’s just admitted that Walsh was right, right from the start.

Lance is guilty whether he is American, or French or any other nationality.

Mrt
Mrt
11 years ago

Lance Armstrong is innocent!

Chainsaw
Chainsaw
11 years ago

I feel bad for all the junior road cyclists and their families. Confusing times!
Every sport is filled with liars and cheats, so its a bummer to hear the cycling outsiders say how bad cycling is. Glad he was never my hero! Hopefully John Elway is never revealed to be a doper.

McGoo
McGoo
11 years ago

@The Goats: Well put.

I met Lance at an interbike function about 10 years back, and his attitude was dreadful. He obviously didn’t want to be there and wasn’t even trying to mask his contempt for the people that wanted to say hi to him. Just being an entitled little ass…

I’m glad he’s finally coming clean, but I don’t think that should allow him a second chance at professional competition considering the way he has treated being a professional and the others that questioned him.

Ryan
Ryan
11 years ago

I’ve never been a fan of his, ever.

Charlie Best
Charlie Best
11 years ago

@Emily, drugs changed cycling? You and anyone else who thinks that doping hasn’t always been a part of professional cycling are being extremely naive.

Cocaine , Strychnine, good old alcohol, it’s just that once upon a time no-one cared so long as the racing was good. I’ve read anecdotes of roadside fans dropping flakes of coke onto the tongues of cyclist in extremis in the early years of Le Tour.

Remember Lance jumping across a 2 minute gap solo a couple years ago, remember how that made you feel. That won’t be happening so much anymore.

Funtooley
Funtooley
11 years ago

@Charlie Best – Not sure the coke anecdote holds up, but I agree. They’re professionals. They assume the risk for the payday and to provide us with exciting racing. Give them every physical advantage possible. The Olympics were SUPPOSED to be for amateur athletes once upon a time, but once state put pressure to allow professionals to compete to tilt the playing field back in their favor.

Seriously, let the professionals all dope all they want, and don’t weep for them when they fail. And keep amateur sports clean. That’s the only reasonable solution that provides excitement for the masses and protects the up and coming athletes in the sport who want to compete on a level field.

Funtooley
Funtooley
11 years ago

meh. *but once state sponsored programs got out of control (China and USSR, I’m looking at you!), other nations put pressure…

RUSTYDOGG
RUSTYDOGG
11 years ago

It must suck only having that one puny steroid ball.

Steve M
Steve M
11 years ago

………a suitable punishment? having to drink a couple of those crappy Michelob Ultra beers every day.

Dag
Dag
11 years ago

I just got back from a great ride!!

…and Lance had to talk to Oprah?

bin judgin
bin judgin
11 years ago

who gives a f* (edited) what has been the norm for 100 years.

i dont want 18 year old neo pros to have to decide to pack it in and go home or dope to win. f* (edited) that. anyone who says otherwise is a fat weiner on a fuji with sora.

bum
bum
11 years ago

who seriously cares? test 2nd an 3rd place and i be they doped too. Lance sucks, all pro sports suck… and cheat

Dabe
Dabe
11 years ago

Thank you Mr One Trick Pony for confessing to what we all knew was true. You are no hardman, you are a cheater and a bully. Now go away to never be heard from again.

John
John
11 years ago

There must be a change in the structure and organization of Pro Cycling for any difference to be made. Americans look at the pro tour and cycling it’s self and see an absolutely foreign animal. Why do the names of the teams change every year? How do the points work? What are the rest of the riders doing if only a few have any chance of winning? What other sports do you know of where the primary job of the commentary is to explain how the game is played? Phil Liggett must be bored to tears. LA cheated, just like everyone else, but the problem is systemic.The UCI needs to clean house. Reliable sponsorship must be secured resulting in Franchise Teams. Ordinary Europeans already own and support many of their favorite football teams, why can this not happen in cycling? I believe only at this point when the riders are truly accountable only to their fans can the sport emerge from the shadow that has been cast on it since Garin.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.