(
)
Armstrong listens to a question from Oprah Winfrey. (AP)
(
)
An “emotional” Lance Armstrong confessed to doping his way to cycling glory during an intense 2 1/2-hour interview with Oprah Winfrey, the talk-show queen said this morning.
“There were a couple times where he was emotional, but emotional doesn’t begin to describe the intensity or the difficulty, I think, he experienced in talking about some of these things,” Winfrey told “CBS This Morning.”
VOTE – WHO IS THE WORST LIAR IN HISTORY?
I’M A DOPE FIEND: LANCE ‘FESSES IN OPRAH SIT-DOWN
‘HE’S STILL A HERO,’ ARMSTRONG’S CANCER DOCTOR INSISTS
Oprah said she crammed for the Armstrong interview like she was studying for a college exam, ready to challenge the cycling cheat for every detail.
But as it turned out, Armstrong was ready to unload virtually all his cycling sins without a prosecutorial cross-examination, Winfrey said.
“Because he was so forthcoming, I went in prepared having to dig and pull and to reference,” she said. “I didn’t have to do that because he was pretty forthcoming.
“He didn’t come clean in the manner I expected.”
With 2 1/2 of tape in hand, Oprah announced that she’s going to turn her chat with Armstrong into a two-night program. It’s set to air at 9 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday.
“We felt to leave over half of this on the cutting room floor … would not be the right thing to do,” Oprah said.
The only big question left unanswered, Winfrey said, was the timing of Armstrong’s confession.
The seven-time Tour de France champ has spent more than a decade denying that he took performance-enhancing drugs.
Winfrey said she’s still doesn’t know why Armstrong chose now to be his moment of truth.
“I asked that question and I’m still not sure I have the answer to that question, why he wanted do that now,” Oprah said.
“He was just ready. The velocity of everything that’s come at him in the past several months and, in particular, in the past several weeks. He was just ready.”
Winfrey said she sent Armstrong an e-mail last year asking for an interview, with no real expectation for a response.
The cyclist surprised her with a request for lunch in Hawaii — where they both own vacation properties — during the Christmas holidays.
Winfrey said she extended her Hawaiian vacation by two days to meet Armstrong. She cleared out her Maui house of all staff and guests so they could dine and dish in private.
That quiet lunch eventually led to yesterday’s sit-down in Austin.
When the tell-all airs later this week, Winfrey said it’ll amount to “the biggest interview I’ve ever done.”
Armstrong’s confession capped a breathtaking public fall for the one-time role model and cycling icon.
The US Anti-Doping Agency in October chronicled how Armstrong and his US Postal Service teammates enforced a “code of silence” that helped them run “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”
The agency banned Armstrong from the sport for life and stripped him of his Tour de France victories.
Armstrong finally came clean yesterday, spilling his guts to Winfrey during their chat in Austin, Texas
“We were mesmerized and riveted by some of his answers,” Winfrey said. “But I feel he answered questions in a way that he was ready. I didn’t get all the questions asked. But I think the most important questions and the answers that people around the world have been waiting to hear were answered.”
She added: “I was satisfied by the answers.”
The International Cycling Union, or UCI, issued a statement on Tuesday saying it was aware of the reports that Armstrong had confessed to Winfrey. The governing body for the sport urged Armstrong to tell his story to an independent commission it has set up to examine claims it covered up suspicious samples from the cyclist, accepted financial donations from him and helped him avoid detection in doping tests.