Love him or loathe him, Lance Armstrong is still one of the most divisive characters of professional cycling. He is a bit like Marmite – you either hate it or enjoy it.
On Friday 12th January 2013 Lance Armstrong confessed to Oprah Winfrey that he had used banned substances to win his seven Tour de France Yellow Jerseys.
For a large portion of his career, Armstrong had faced allegations of doping.
He denied all such allegations until the interview conducted by Oprah Winfrey, often claiming that he never had any positive test in the drug tests he has taken over his cycling career.
Armstrong’s early amateur sport was as a triathlete and at the age of 16 (1987), he actually turned professional, and in ‘89 & ‘90 became the nation’s sprint-course triathlon champion.
He turned a professional cyclist in 1992 with the Motorola Cycling Team and in 1993 rode his first Tour de France; retiring on Stage 12 while in 97th place.
In the years ’94 to ’96, he won many US Cycling Road Races, with mixed success in Europe and the TdeF. He signed to the Cofidis Cycling Team in Aug ’96.
In October ’96, Armstrong was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer. The cancer had already spread to his brain, lungs and abdomen. He had an operation to remove the cancerous testicle and had operations on his brain to remove the lesions there.
He was on a strong cocktail of chemotherapy drugs until the end of 1996.
However, by Feb ’97 he was declared cancer free.
Shortly after that, he was told that his contract with Cofidis had been cancelled.
He was offered a contract with the US Postal Service team, and started serious training in Jan 1998. And the rest is, as they say, history, winning 7 Tour de France titles by 2005.
Armstrong retired from competitive racing in 2005, returning in 2009, (Astana Team,3rd in the 2009 TdeF). Between 2010 and 2011 he rode for Team Radio Shack.
He finally retired in 2011.
For years, Armstrong has been the subject of doping allegations, all of which he has strenuously denied, claiming he has never had a positive test.
He was very scathing about his accusers and threatened and bullied anyone who dared cross him.
During the interview, Armstrong claimed that it would not have been possible to win the titles without cheating, and he only did it, because everyone else was cheating as well.
He denied that he had ever asked or told any of his Team Mates to take drugs.
The whole interview was justification of Armstrong’s position, and only a very partial confession on the extent of his doping.
Many areas were skirted over, such as his bribing of the UCI, to prevent a positive test coming to light, his attempted bribe of the USADA, (United States Drug Agency), his suing of the Sunday Times, who published articles on his doping.
The whole interview, opened up more questions, than were asked or answered.
I’m sure the whole saga will run and run.