Lance Armstrong, who vehemently denied for over a decade that he doped or took drugs during cycling, apologized to the cancer foundation he started, LIVESTRONG, before meeting Oprah Winfrey in a hotel suite for an interview to admit that he doped during his cycling career.

The interview will air Thursday night on Oprah’s OWN channel.  The sky has been falling on Armstrong for weeks and he continued to deny doping but everyone was leaving his corner, especially in the wake of the USADA stripping him of his 7 Tour de France titles and banning him from competing for life.

Word leaked quickly out of the Oprah interview that Lance had confessed to his cycling sins and deceiving the American public. Oprah quickly came out (no, not for that) to confirm that Lance did in fact confess.

Speaking on “CBS This Morning,” Winfrey said Tuesday she had not planned to address Armstrong’s confession before the interview aired on her OWN network but, “by the time I left Austin and landed in Chicago, you all had already confirmed it.”

Armstrong had been relentless  in his attacks against the USADA for coming after him and eventually stripping his titles.

USADA chief executive Travis Tygart, a longtime critic of Armstrong’s, called the drug regimen practiced while Armstrong led the U.S. Postal Service team “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

Lance not only denied doping for years but attacked and went after anyone that was anti-doping or for cleaning up cycling.

Decade of Denials from Lance Armstrong via Velo News

2001
“This is my body and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it, and study it, tweak it, listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I’m on. What am I on? I’m on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?”
—Advertisement for Nike

July 2005
“I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the skeptics. I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles. But this is one hell of a race. This is a great sporting event and you should stand around and believe it. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I’ll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets – this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it. Vive Le Tour.”
—After Armstrong’s seventh and final Tour de France victory

August 2005
“I have never doped, I can say it again, but I have said it for seven years — it doesn’t help.”
—On CNN’s “Larry King Live” after French newspaper L’Equipe reported tests on urine samples taken from Armstrong during the 1999 Tour and frozen were positive for blood-boosting erythropoietin (EPO)

2005
“… the faith of all the cancer survivors and almost everything I do off of the bike would go away too. Don’t think for a second I don’t understand that.”
—In testimony under oath during legal proceedings involving SCA Promotions over a bonus payment for a Tour de France victory

2007
“I was on my deathbed. You think I’m going to come back into a sport and say, ‘OK, OK doctor give me everything you got, I just want to go fast?’ No way. I would never do that.”
—Speaking of his life in an interview in Aspen with Bob Schieffer, a respected journalist with CBS and a cancer survivor

July 2009
“The critics say I’m arrogant. A doper. Washed up. A fraud. That I couldn’t let it go. They can say whatever they want. I’m not back on my bike for them.”
—Nike “Driven” commercial in the build-up to Armstrong’s first Tour de France since his comeback from retirement, showing Armstrong training in a Livestrong jersey juxtaposed with images of cancer patients

May 2010
“It’s our word against his word. I like our word. We like our credibility. Floyd lost his credibility a long time ago.”
—Response to Floyd Landis’ accusations of systematic doping in the U.S. Postal cycling team

June 13, 2012
“I have never doped, and, unlike many of my accusers, I have competed as an endurance athlete for 25 years with no spike in performance, passed more than 500 drug tests and never failed one.”
—Responding in a statement when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced its charges against him

August 23, 2012
“There comes a point in every man’s life when he has to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999.”
—Announcing he would not fight USADA’s charges and pursue a hearing to prove his innocence

Source for Lance Denials: Velo News