Armstrong unfazed by Oprah interview

ON SUNDAY night, on the eve of the taping of his interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong made a series of phone calls to apologise directly to key people in the cycling community with whom he had not been truthful about his part in sports doping.

It was part of Armstrong’s effort to prepare himself and others for what’s anticipated to be a partial confession and to make amends with those to whom he lied and misled.

Earlier, out for a Sunday morning jog in bright sunshine near his home in Austin, Texas, Armstrong, pictured, hardly looked like a man about to finally confront the doping scandal that has shadowed his storied career like an angry storm cloud.

“I’m calm, I’m at ease and ready to speak candidly,” said Armstrong referring to his interview on Monday with Winfrey.

Wearing a red jersey and black shorts, sunglasses and a white baseball cap pulled down to his eyes, he was training by himself and about a mile from his home. Armstrong ran for about an hour as his team of lawyers and advisers began arriving one-byone at his house.

Leaning on to a reporter’s car, he also seemed unfazed by the international news crews gathering at the gates of his home. He cracked a few jokes about all the attention the interview with Winfrey had already drawn, then added, “But now I want to finish my run” and took off down the road.

Armstrong’s conversation with Winfrey will mark the first public comments he has made about the allegations in a 1 000-page document released last year by the US AntiDoping Agency.

That document, based in part on the testimony of 11 of Armstrong’s former teammates, led to his being stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles and being barred from competition in October by cycling’s international governing body. It concluded that Armstrong’s cycling heroics were the result of “the most sophisticated, professional and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen”.

In a text , Armstrong said: “I told her (Winfrey) to go wherever she wants and I’ll answer the questions directly, honestly and candidly. That’s all I can say.” – Washington Post, Sapa AP