Not sure Lance is doing himself any favours in a BBC interview
Lance Armstrong, a cycling outcast since the full extent of his doping effort, and the bullying tactics used to keep it quiet, were revealed, has given his first television interview since the famous sitdown with Oprah Winfrey in which he finally admitted he was a serial cheat.
It’s the American’s first attempt at rehabilitating his image, and he is clearly trying to emphasise a newfound honesty by admitting that, if he were given the chance to do it all again, he would be just as likely to take performance-enhancing drugs to help his career.
‘If I was racing in 2015, no, I wouldn’t do it again because I don’t think you have to,’ the Texan said. ‘If you take me back to 1995, when doping was completely pervasive, I would probably do it again.
‘When I made the decision, when my team made that decision, when the whole peloton made that decision, it was a bad decision and an imperfect time.’
However, Armstrong does believe he would have acted differently in the face of questions and accusations from the likes of Irish journalists Paul Kimmage and David Walsh and soigneur Emma O’Reilly, admitting he had acted like an ‘arsehole’.
‘I would want to change the man that did those things, maybe not the decision, but the way he acted,’ he said. ‘The way he treated people, the way he couldn’t stop fighting. It was unacceptable, inexcusable.’
Armstrong has attempted to mend fences with those he hurt but his continued claim that he raced clean during his comeback in 2009 and 2010 is likely to infuriate those who believe his results in those years were also tainted by doping and draw skepticism around the sincerity of the entire interview.
Armstrong, though, is determined to win back his former fans and believes his ostracisation form public life should come to an end.
‘Selfishly, I would say “yeah, we’re getting close to that time”. But that’s me, my word doesn’t matter any more. What matters is what people collectively think, whether that’s the cycling community, the cancer community.
‘Listen, of course I want to be out of timeout, what kid doesn’t?’
Tonight Paul Kimmage has responded to the latest iterview from Armstrong with a typically caustic tweet.
The Dubliner,who has spent most of his life trying to root out drug cheats from cycling is fr from impressed by what the shamed Texan had to say to the BBC and feels Floyd Landis is more convincing than Armstrong,
A lot of people asking if I've listened to Lance…would rather listen to Floyd.http://t.co/dU70PshAKo
— Paul Kimmage (@PaulKimmage) January 26, 2015
