Travis Tygart, the chief of the US Anti-Doping Agency said Lance Armstrong lied about doping during his recent interview with Oprah Winfrey. According to reports that surfaced on Jan. 25, 2013, he has given the former bicycler until Feb. 6 to come clean about his performance enhancement drug use if he wants his lifetime ban on sports participation to possibly be lessened.
In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” airing Jan. 27, Tygart said Armstrong lied when he told Winfrey he was not doping as he came out of retirement to race in the 2009 and 2010 Tour de France, according to News.com.au.
View slideshow: Lance Armstrong Through the Years
Tygart said the “evidence” regarding Armstrong’s use of performance enhancing drugs during that time is “contrary” to the former athlete’s story.
The variation in Armstrong’s blood tests during that time make it “one to a million chance that it was due to something other than doping,” said Tygart.
According to Tygart, Armstrong likely lied about the 2009 and 2010 drug use because the statute of limitations has not yet run for prosecuting him for criminal fraud for the action.
Tygart also stated that contrary to what he told Oprah, Armstrong “used a lot of EPO [erythropoietin].”
According to the New York Times, EPO multiplies blood cells and increases stamina, however, it can also increase the risk of blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes, as well as “multiply cancer cells.”
After a USADA report released in 2012 detailed claims that Armstrong, 41, and his teammates used performance enhancing drugs, he was stripped of each of his Tour de France titles.
He has also been banned for life from cycling and is unable to compete in any athletic competitions sanctioned by the USADA and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Armstrong now has less than two weeks to “cooperate fully and truthfully” to possibly lessen his lifetime ban from certain sports, according to Tygart.
Tygart’s interview with “60 Minutes” airs Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET.
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