Initial Thoughts on Lance Armstrong's Admission Interview with Oprah

So the first interview show with Oprah Winfrey is over. Here's my thoughts on Lance Armstrong. I probably like Lance less now than ever before. I don't feel he was honest in the interview and there were many times he dodges questions he needed to answer like the story from the Indiana Hospital with Frankie and Betsy Andreu.

I also felt Lance Armstrong didn't go a good job in explaining why Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton shared the same stories about Lance, and Armstrong still denied their accounts.

I do think the worst thing that ever happened to Lance Armstrong was Floyd Landis winning the tour and popping positive four days later. Lance Armstrong should have stayed in retirement but for some reason he felt like he had something to prove. Lance claims he rode drug free those final two comeback years, but it only increased what the critics were saying beginning with that famous interview with Greg LeMond on VO2 max.

Armstrong disputes Tyler Hamilton's contention that he failed a test during the Tour de Suisse in 2001. "I'm gonna tell you what's true and not true," he said. "That story is not true. No positive test, no paying off the lab, no secret meeting with the lab director." He further added that not only did he not pay UCI to make the issue go away, UCI approached him for a donation.

I admire Lance Armstrong, however, for saying he would not have won seven tours in a row had it not been for doping. Lance seemed to doubt that anyone could. What does that mean about Miguel Indurain, who won the Tour five years in a row? Indurain at one time defended Armstrong.

Lance said if he had not come out of retirement, he didn't think he would be interviewing with Oprah today. However, Lance would have been proven a doper regardless of what took place. Frozen urine samples taken at the 1999 Tour de France and tested with modern testing methods did show Lance Armstrong used EPO to win his first Tour de France. This isn't something that wasn't going to come back to haunt Lance Armstrong.

I was sad to see that Lance Armstrong didn't apologize to Greg LeMond. LeMond was hit hard for questioning Armstrong's relationship with Michelle Ferrari. Trek bicycles terminated their relationship with LeMond three years early because LeMond dared to ask the tough questions of Armstrong. Armstrong did apologize to others, but there will always be doubts, considering Armstrong took the road he did to to destroy these people, and the sincerity of his apology.

Armstrong showed how far his reign of terror went against anyone who spoke up. He says he sued so many people trying to out him that he can't even remember all the people he sued. Talk about pathetic when he knew they weren't lying.

Armstrong says he is majorly flawed. He blames it on his desire to win. I don't think a desire to win and be the best is a flaw. I think having to cheat to be the best is. Lance also went into victim mode saying it was tough living in a single parent home. While I have no doubt this isn't the best situation for any kid, it still doesn't justify the deceit of what has taken place in Armstrong's adult life.

In one part of the interview Armstrong says he had to look in a dictionary to find the definition of cheating. Then he says he didn't feel like he was cheating.

"Did you feel in any way that you were cheating?" "No."

Armstrong tried to make his doping program look like a walk in the park explaining he had nothing on the East Germans. Once again, Armstrong still doesn't seem to understand the impact of his actions.

I think tonight is a sad night for the sport of cycling. The interview without a doubt proves Lance Armstrong nearly pulled off one of the greatest deceits in sporting history and wishes he would have gotten away with it rather than having to confess to Oprah. This is the real message of tonight's interview, and it is why I think the apologies are insincere.