Lance Armstrong (AP)
Lance Armstrong cemented his place in the pantheon of history’s most notorious liars yesterday, when he finally admitted to doping his way to seven Tour de France titles.
The disgraced cycling superstar came clean about his years-long campaign of deception in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that was taped yesterday and will air Thursday night, sources said.
Armstrong’s long-overdue confession came three months after he was stripped of his treasured Tour titles and banned from cycling for life by anti-doping officials, who refused to cave in to his vicious demonization of anyone who suggested he took performance enhancers.
‘HE’S STILL A HERO,’ ARMSTRONG’S CANCER DOCTOR INSISTS
Surrounded by 10 friends and advisers, the 41-year-old cancer survivor copped to cheating during an emotional interview with the talk-show doyenne in an Austin, Texas, hotel.
The edited, 90-minute-long interview airs 9 p.m. Thursday on Winfrey’s network, OWN.
Before the sit-down, Armstrong traveled to the Austin offices of his Livestrong cancer charity to deliver a face-to-face mea culpa to about 100 staffers.
“I’m sorry,” a choked-up Armstrong told workers, some of whom wept.
Livestrong spokeswoman Katherine McLane said Armstrong’s talk “was a very sincere and heartfelt expression over any stress that they’ve suffered . . . as a result of the media attention.”
Yesterday’s interview with Winfrey capped a stunning fall from grace for Armstrong, whose dominance of the Tour de France after surviving testicular cancer captivated the world.
Armstrong’s halo was tarnished in October with the publishing of a damning report by the US Anti-Doping Agency. The report found that Armstrong was intimately involved in the “most sophisticated . . . doping program that sport has ever seen.”
The sanctions that followed vindicated those who had accused him of cheating.
In 2006, The Sunday Times of London, which like The Post, is owned by News Corp., paid Armstrong nearly $500,000 to settle a British suit over a story that suggested he might have cheated. The paper paid after getting an unfavorable ruling that would have made the case difficult to defend.
But now, with Armstrong’s lies exposed, the paper is suing to get the cash back plus interest.
In a full-page ad in Winfrey’s hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune, Sunday Times writer David Walsh, who probed Armstrong’s cheating, encouraging her to ask the cyclist 10 questions, including: “Do you accept your lying to the cancer community was the greatest deception of all?”
The cyclist is in talks to repay some of the millions in money he received though his former team’s sponsor, the US Postal Service, CBS News reported.
He is also facing a “whistleblower” suit by former USPS teammate Floyd Landis, seeking to recoup team sponsorship money. The feds have until Thursday to join that case.
According to The New York Times, Armstrong is planning to testify in that case, which singles out several team owners, including Silicon Valley businessman Thom Weisel.
Armstrong will also testify against the International Cycling Union about its role in the doping scandal, the paper said. He is reportedly hoping to get mercy from the USADA by cooperating with the organization now.
Armstrong has an estimated net worth of $125 million.
At one point, Armstrong had thought about confessing by writing a book — even reading Steve Jobs’ autobiography as a guide to baring his soul, The Wall Street Journal said.
Additional reporting by Chuck Bennett and AP