Usada chief Travis Tygart accuses Lance Armstrong of lying to Oprah
Tygart, American investigator, claims disgraced Texan failed to come clean on key doping claims
Lance Armstrong lied in his confessional interview with Oprah Winfrey and the shamed cyclist has two weeks to finally come clean, the US anti-doping official who pursued him for years has said.
Travis Tygart said in an excerpt of an interview with the CBS network that Armstrong failed to tell Winfrey the truth about several key points over doping - including a claim that he raced drug-free in his comebacks in 2009 and 2010.
Tygart, the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) chief, said he had written to Armstrong to say that if he wanted to lessen his lifetime sporting ban he must "co-operate fully and truthfully" by February 6, about drug-taking in the sport.
It is not clear if co-operation from Armstrong, who was stripped of all seven of his Tour de France wins last year, could take the form of testimony in front of a truth and reconciliation commission for the sport.
The International Cycling Union (UCI), which is under pressure from the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Usada, has agreed that such a platform would benefit the drug-damaged sport after a series of devastating doping cases.
Armstrong, a cancer survivor who during the Oprah interview admitted doping for the first time after years of vehement denials, said he would be willing to testify before such a commission if he were invited.
He also said that his record seven consecutive wins in the tour - 1999-2005 - were fuelled by performance-enhancing drugs, but insisted he was clean when he came out of retirement and raced in the Tour de France in 2009 and 2010.
